Pros and Cons of Dutch Public Transport (from an American)

What is public transport like in the Netherlands? How much does it cost? Reliable? And how does it compare to other countries?

Join me as I travel 12 hours on public transport in the Netherlands. I will share my thoughts on public transport (as an American) including an analysis of costs, "efficiency", reliability, tips, and more!

(⛴ I missed the ferry—it's free—and I take it all the time in Amsterdam!)

⏰ CHAPTERS:
00:00 🏁 Intro
01:58 🚊 12 hours on Dutch public transport
06:54 🚦 Pros & cons
13:57 💡 Public transport tips
15:09 🎬 End

📽 OTHER VIDEOS:

🙏 IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT ME:

😁 WHO AM I?
I'm David, a Californian living in Amsterdam. I make videos about life in the Netherlands, hiking/traveling, and the Camino de Santiago.

🔸 If you live in the Netherlands and have a story to share:

[hidavidwen]

🚊What are your thoughts on Dutch public transport? Tips?

ℹ SOURCES:

(⛴ I missed the ferry...but I was exhausted that day—it’s FREE and I take it all the time in Amsterdam!)

🙏 If there’s anything I missed, please call me out. I’d appreciate it. Thanks

[JTNB]

As a Dutchie the price of public transport is one of my main concerns and will heavily weigh in on my vote on November 22nd.

[bigf]

As a dutchman: driving a car is also very expensive here (compared to other EU countries), it looks like public transportation must be equally expensive to prevent too many car drivers from switching to public transport, simply because they can’t handle capacity.
Supply and demand I guess (and to keep the cash-cow alive)
Despite the perception of a well oiled system, there is a lot of deferred maintenance, especially in rural areas where public transportation is scarce, unreliable (often outsourced to subcontractors like local taxi companies) or virtually absent.

[OprechtLetterlijkBizar]

As a Dutch person living in Switzerland (earning a Swiss salary) I can attest to how expensive the Dutch trains really are. It’s insane really. There’s one other aspect you didn’t cover in your video about the Dutch trains though, and that’s how dirty and smelly they can be, especially compared to the Swiss trains that are basically always clean (and quiet as people behave much better here). Swiss trains are also more comfortable and luxurious than Dutch trains. Swiss trains usually have catering inside/a restaurant carriage and some are even equipped with a Starbucks. In Netherlands there’s even some trains without a toilet. Lastly, Dutch trains are often overcrowded and people cannot even find seating. That never happened to me in Swiss trains, here we never have to stand or sit on a staircase… Taking all of that into consideration, it does not make sense that Dutch trains are so enormously expensive and WILL only get even more expensive in the next few months. But it’s not in the nature of Dutch people to organize themselves and protest against it.

[osieoscar]

I'm Dutch myself and never knew our country was THAT expensive compared to other EU countries.
But getting a subscription from NS is very helpful and saves money!
I personally see friends and family on the weekends and have a subscription for 35€ which lets me travel unlimited in the weekends.
If I would go from the north of the Netherlands to Amsterdam and back, it could cost me almost 60€ for a retour ticket. So if I would travel only once a month, I would already save money with the subscription.
And to add. You can get a specific subscription for your commute if you need to travel between Utrecht and Amsterdam, for example. A fixed rate per month lets you travel unlimited on that commute.

[wentelstef]

Also good to know is that most students can travel way cheaper. They can choose whether they want free travel during weekdays or weekends and get the non-chosen option as 40% off. I've been using public transport for about 3 years now and have barely spent anything. It is considered a loan but if you finish Uni or anything of the sort within 10 years (which is pretty lenient), 100% of the loan gets waived and converted into a gift.
Edit: It is called studenten-reisproduct for anyone interested.

[myrrhsense]

I love how refreshingly accurate this analysis is. Just a few additions you didn't mention:
- The older (train) models of trains that still ride as well are usually way dirtier.
- The environment systems (airconditioning, warming) are often broken in metro's and trains. (Busses are fine in my experience)
- Mind that apart from minor delays busses can also sometimes leave a few minutes earlier! (This is because they only stop at stops when people need to get out/in at that certain stop. So when they drive fast, they might be there earlier)
+ You can also rent cars and scooters as you can with OV bikes.
+ Whenever trains don't drive for a while due to (unforseen) circumstances like track reparations, pendelbusses are usually put in place, so people can still go to their destinations.
+ Dutch students get an OV subscription provided for free (when they get their diploma within 10 years), where they can choose to travel for free during either the week or the weekends (and have 40% off on the remaining days)

[Sver]

It's too bad the reliability percentages don't take into account how often the trains run. If your train gets cancelled in the UK you will most likely be stuck waiting for atleast another hour or 2. Because trains run every 15-30 minutes in the Netherlands, (every hour in very rare occasions) it's not that big of a deal if a train gets cancelled. You can just take the next train only a few minutes later.

[ollu]

As someone from the UK (not in a major city) you're lucky to get any public transport at all. When i visited the Netherlands I was shocked at how cheap it was. I used to take a bus between towns, (20 mins each way) and it cost like £8 or £9 each day. To get a train halfway across the country to an actual city its anywhere from £150 to £200 for a return ticket. a comparable journey would be around 35-45 euros in the Netherlands

edit: not to mention the higher wages in the Netherlands

[sanderdeboer]

Great video, and we need the government to subsidize the OV more, not allow it to become even more expensive. I do like the fact you don’t have to reserve a seat, with the often very expensive price.

Because in Germany if you need a ticket last minute you can easily spend 100 euros or more. Which I had to do from München to Nürnberg once.

[jbird]

Ever since NS was privatized, prices have gone up considerably. NS meanwhile has been venturing out internationally, under the name Abellio, with bus and train services in the UK and Germany. So we're also funding the corporate adventures of a bunch of bobo's.

[MijnAfspeellijst]

Netherlands is perfect example how privatisation of certain industries does not work in long term. Tickets prices are increasing, which results in people using the trains less, which results in less frequent trains, which results in less people using the train. Its a spiral down and only government intervention can improve it.

[FilipSkobic]

Yesss, I really miss the discounted day tickets for the train. Most of my travels to explore other parts of the country were because of those cheap dagkaarts, where you could travel unlimited for like 15 euros (once even including Belgium for a total of 19 euros a ticket). I really hope NS brings those back!

[vlegeltje]

What I have learned as a geographer in a few classes about transportation and connectivity, is that people in each culture have a limit to how long they are willing to commute.
I expect it is the same for how much they are willing to spend on transportation costs, and how much transportation inconvenience they are willing to bear.
Spatially this leads to different choices in where people live and work and which mode of transport they choose.
For example: if a part of a country has many traffic jams, often there is an argument for building more car lanes or alternative routes to a destination. However, what we see is with the improved motorway, more people will decide that taking this route to their job will work for their lifestyle, perhaps opting to live further from centres of work where prices for houses are higher. This increases the amount of people who live further from work - use the road - and within a few years the traffic jam reappears.
This makes me imagine, that the expensive public transport might also be an incentive for people to live closer to work (and therefore form more cohesive communities), spend less time on their commute and to bike to work whenever possible (with all its benefits).
This does mean that a country with expensive transportation, needs to facilitate mixed living and working AND mixed-income neighbourhoods so that all professions needed to run a city or village have their work on an acceptable distance/mode of transport/travel inconvenience.
So although we have expensive public transport, in the past there have been political choices made for a.o. subsidized housing, prevention of urban sprawl and detailed zoning plans to top down design liveable neighbourhoods mixed with commercial activity.

[BrazenNL]

I'm one of those lucky ones that never had to pay for work travel. With regards to PT, I never had a bad experience. I do admit that it would be nice if it was subsidized. Lots of things have been privatized because it would provide a better experience, but I've never seen that to be true for essential services.

[uullaass]

About the punctuality of the trains. I think it's also good to note that when a train gets cancelled. You usually take another train within 15 minutes.
I've had very bad experiences with cancellations in Germany as a lot of times i had to wait 1 hour or more.

[AnymMusic]

It's thanks to the privatization of the NS. Idk how the government thought this would ever be beneficial for its citizens, but privatizing public transport whilst they still manage it was bound to fail. Basically the expenses of a private company, with the slower regulatory stuff of a nationalized service (they are very punctual though for sure)

[RFGfotografie]

They want us to use the car and/or airplane less, yet, they let us pay SO much.

[sanderappel]

Yesterday I was proud of my country when I drove through a small town and saw a bus stop with a large, covered bike rack right next to it. So people are encouraged to bike to the bus stop, park their bike safely and free to take the bus to the nearest city

[RFGfotografie]

Most of the time, safety is so crazy, if you forget something in the Public transport, people will actually stalk you till the moment they gave you your stuff back xD