The Netherlands - Almere: Some bus services temporarily interupted after struck by stones from vandals - by RM

Mr. Franc Weerwind, Mayor of Almere: "we don't tolerate vandalism"

Almere Police have arrested two people who were apparently involved in acts of vandalism on some of Almere/s public transport bus routes.

At a recent press conference the Mayor of Almere, Mr. Weerwind, noted that these groups of vandals, mainly teenagers and young adults, appear to be from North-African (Moroccan) descent, and are known to the police

The Mayor also stated there will  additional security controls on the Almere buses and camera surveillance at bus stops. "We don't tolerate this kind of behavior in Almere and we will make sure to remove all anonymity from these vandals by exposing them", said Mr. Weerwind

He also appealed to the parents, relatives and friends of the vandals to challenge them in changing their unacceptable behavior.

The Almere City Council will debate the issue today, June 16, 2016,  at the request of the VVD political fraction in the Council.


Almere-Digest

The Netherlands: Dutch Railways NS new ticketing system considered complicated and unfriendly by NS customers

A random poll by EU-Digest throughout the Netherlands shows that 68% of NS customers are unhappy with the new obligatory electronic OV Chipcard ticketing system. The new system went into effect two months ago throughout the Netherlands.

The new system did away with a paper ticketing system and replaced it with an electronic "refill" Chipcard called OV Chipcard tied into the customers bank account or credit card. The OV Chipcard can also be used on all other Public Transport in the Netherlands

Travelers find the new system complicated, riddled with technical problems and especially unfriendly to many older customers who are not tech savvy

Tourists visiting the Netherlands also complained that the ticketing system does not accept many International credit cards.

Almere-Digest

The Netherlands: Electronic "OV-Chipkaart" for public transportation ticketing not 'user firendly' and an anti-dote for tourists

Almere Muziekwijk station (photo EU-Digest)

The recently launched "OV-Chipkaard "in the Netherlands for people who want to use the Dutch Public Transportation system is turning out to be not  very user friendly and certainly costly for visiting tourists.

The problems become even more complicated when one wants to make use of the special 40% discount on train travel outside of morning rush hours.

This card has to be activated to be used as an OV-chipkaart. To do so you must make an account at the OV-chipkaart website. The website considers the sentence 'activating the card' as 'buying a product in the webshop'. 

But then the card is still not active. You have to 'collect your product' at a ticketing machine or service desk.

The result is that many elderly people no longer travel on buses, trains or trams, as they find, buying and charging an anonymous card too complicated.

We're talking about a user group of travelers who are not very computer literate, and we're asking them to virtually transfer money from their account to a card, where some are not even used to making a withdrawal at an ATM machine with a  debit card.

One can expect that very few of this group which is continuously growing larger will be activating their personalized "OV-chipkaart,  if the system and the activating process remains as complicated and unfriendly as it is today.

What one can describe in politically correct terms is to make it possible that 'technology averse' people or tourists should be able to simply go to a 24 hr. service desk and get help to activate their card.

Especially also for those people for whom public transport is their only way of getting around.

As it stands now, the Dutch OV-Chipkaart is not user friendly and certainly too costly and complicated for local users and tourists

It is high-time something gets done by the Netherlands Ministry of  Transportation about this "OV-Chipkaart" disaster. 

EU-Digest