Taking the Train

So you've gotten up the gumption to go beyond the boundaries of Rotterdam and try out the nearby towns. Utrecht is beautiful, as is Den Haag as well as relatively near by. But Maastricht is a popular favourite that is not to be missed. Admittedly its about 3 hours away but worth the trip with a couple of your friends. But the question is how to get there.

FIRST I suggest going to http://www.ns.nl/ to plan your trip. There you can determine the time the train departs Rotterdam Central or arrives at your destination. If its a non-direct trip, meaning you have to change trains mid-trip. And you can determine the cost. The page can be viewed in English by an option top right of the first page.

Confession is good for the soul so I can boldly tell you that I was a tad bit intimidated by the idea of using the ticket machine (seen in photo above) simply because I thought it was all in Dutch and I simply couldn't be bothered to try to understand it so I would always go to the ticket office upstairs Central Station to buy my tickets. That costs a bit more, can't recall how much but its about one euro..I thought it was worth it. But truth is I wasted quite a few euros and not to mention time (lines upstairs are almost always long with tourists buying tickets) before I realised the process was mighty simple. Here's how it goes and we will do this 'pictorally'.

TO SEE BETTER YOU CAN CLICK THE PHOTOS TO EXPAND.

STEP 1. You're not gonna think me very smart when you realise that there was always an option to get "ENGLISH". In the bottom left corner. Not gonna tell you how long it took before some student shared this.

STEP 2.
Choose Day Return or Single depending on plans and type in name of City or select if it comes up automatically.

STEP 3. Follow the prompts and choose the Class Ticket, Full Fare or Discount, Date of use and how many tickets you need. Now is a good time to remind you that you can pay about 75 euros and apply for a one year discount card that give you 40% discount on trips taken outside peak hours.

STEP 4. The next option should be payment but if you are asked to choose between FYRA AND NS bear this in mind. NS is the normal train and Fyra is a extra fast train that you pay extra for. Payment is usually by coins or using your ATM card from Rabobank. Most of us assume the option is debit card but no, its Maestro. (See photo). You are then prompted to stick your card in, then to take it out, to put in your PIN and choose a receipt or not. THAT'S THAT!!