Hi all -

Went to Amsterdam at the weekend; thought I'd share some of my public
transport experiences.

1) First Capital Connect London Bridge - LGW, afternoon
shoulder-of-peak. Full-ish, on time, fast. While the ex-TL route in
full-on peak time is horrible, it's one of my favourite services the
rest of the time.

2) BA to Schiphol. An hour late arriving. Surly service, no apology for
delays. I wish through tickets on the E* and Thalys didn't cost
£300...

3) Nedrail to Centraal. Ticket machines still rubbish; we tried six
different cards on the machine at the airport that claimed to take
international credit cards before finding one that it would deign to
accept. Train fast, double-deck, clean.

4) Trams are good. Having ticket machines onboard is a brilliant idea
and I wish TfL would add them to the bendybuses. Overall (and
uncontroversially), Amsterdam's public transport system is one of the
best I've ever used. Haven't tried the underground, though.

5) Nedrail back to Schiphol. More "pick a card, any card" fun at the
machines. Grimmest gripper ever - even surlier than the BA staff. I'd
hate to imagine how he'd have acted if we'd given up on the infinite
card shuffle and boarded ticketless...

6) BA to LGW. See 2).

7) FGW to Reading. Why is the North Downs Line so goddamn *slow*?
Still, at least the train was on-time, clean, comfortable, etc. No sign
of gripper.

8) FGW to Oxford. Why aren't there any fast trains in the evening? Slow
train was 15 minutes late (well, actually it was cancelled at Reading
due to a failed unit and restarted with a new one) and took 45 mins.
This is irritating, given that the fast trains take about 20.

Overall, not a bad PT experience on either side of the Channel - and as
usual, the weakest link was the plane. The card experience was
frustrating, though: do UK ticket machines treat foreign cards as
ineptly as the Dutch machines do?

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

In message .com, at
06:15:55 on Mon, 22 May 2006, John B remarked:
The card experience was frustrating, though: do UK ticket machines
treat foreign cards as ineptly as the Dutch machines do?

Credit cards acceptance in the UK is much higher than most of
Continental Europe. I share your frustration when buying tickets in
Holland. Brussels was just as bad pre-Euro, although I think they've
upgraded many of the machines since. They'll take banknotes anyway -
another blind spot in Holland.
--
Roland Perry

Credit cards acceptance in the UK is much higher than most of
Continental Europe. I share your frustration when buying tickets in
Holland. Brussels was just as bad pre-Euro, although I think they've
upgraded many of the machines since. They'll take banknotes anyway -
another blind spot in Holland.
--

It's because there is quite a lot of consumer resistance to credit
cards especially in Germany where it's a cultural thing to not like
them.

Over here, of course, we eat them.

allan tracy wrote:

It's because there is quite a lot of consumer resistance to credit
cards especially in Germany where it's a cultural thing to not like
them.

Looking at German banks' websites, I don't think I'd have one over
there. The charges (including annual charges, which are now pretty
much unknown over here) are extortionate, and the interest rates poor.

Over here, of course, we eat them.

Indeed. They can be very useful for such things as interest-free loans
(on 0% cards) and consumer protection. I use mine extensively, but
apart from 400 quid on a 0% card which I'm planning to have paid off
before the 0% period ends I always pay at the end of the month, and
thus never incur interest charges.

They are also useful for delaying payment while an expense claim is
paid, and for spending abroad (with the noted exceptions).

Neil

Neil Williams wrote:
allan tracy wrote:

It's because there is quite a lot of consumer resistance to credit
cards especially in Germany where it's a cultural thing to not like
them.

Looking at German banks' websites, I don't think I'd have one over
there. The charges (including annual charges, which are now pretty
much unknown over here) are extortionate, and the interest rates poor.

It's not just German banks, or credit cards for that matter. Credit
Lyonnais charges 26 Euros a year for a debit card.

--
John Ray

John Ray wrote:
Neil Williams wrote:
allan tracy wrote:

It's because there is quite a lot of consumer resistance to credit
cards especially in Germany where it's a cultural thing to not like
them.

Looking at German banks' websites, I don't think I'd have one over
there. The charges (including annual charges, which are now pretty
much unknown over here) are extortionate, and the interest rates poor.

It's not just German banks, or credit cards for that matter. Credit
Lyonnais charges 26 Euros a year for a debit card.

--
John Ray

I don't think banks on the continent are better or worse than British
banks, they only have a different way of making their money, and levels
of service are often better.

Yes, my bank account at NatWest is free, but take an example: for
Euro-transactions they charge a hefty £10 on top of the exchange rate.


My german bank account costs about £2 a month, but Euro-transactions
are free AND work online, as are many other extras for which British
banks charge you through the nose.

In the end both end up costing about the same.

There is no need to own a credit card in Germany. Debit card works
fine.

Having said that, deutsche bahn used to take credit card only for its
online tickets. Don't know if they've changed their policy.

On Mon, 22 May 2006, John B wrote:

4) Trams are good. Having ticket machines onboard is a brilliant idea
and I wish TfL would add them to the bendybuses. Overall (and
uncontroversially), Amsterdam's public transport system is one of the
best I've ever used. Haven't tried the underground, though.

Not sure what ticket machine setup they have there, or you'd want for
London. First in York have put machines in the new bendy bus, sorry i mean
'ftr'.

Now everyone queues in the rain while people in front buy a ticket from
said machine and go sit down - it was quicker with the pay the driver
system. The only times it works is when the machine is broken .. which is
quite often so far

I did hope the ticket machine would enable faster boarding, and people
would get on and buy their tickets on the move. I guess the HSE wouldn't
allow things like that, people not in their seats while the bus is on the
move.

Bring back the conductors! Apart from speeding up journeys, they can bring
in some "heavy duty" ones for late night busses for example.

Cheers

Chris
--
Chris Johns

John B wrote:

Overall, not a bad PT experience on either side of the Channel - and as
usual, the weakest link was the plane. The card experience was
frustrating, though: do UK ticket machines treat foreign cards as
ineptly as the Dutch machines do?

I don't know, but my experience of the Schiphol machines is that you
sometimes have to try again if you pull your card out too quickly, as
that's when the strip is read.

The Centraal machines do not accept any UK credit cards, so far as I'm
aware, and only accept Maestro (not Visa) debit cards. This is the
same throughout .nl, except Schiphol (which could trip up a lot of
people).

Neil

"John B" wrote in news:1148303755.459166.188860
@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
Overall, not a bad PT experience on either side of the Channel - and as
usual, the weakest link was the plane. The card experience was
frustrating, though: do UK ticket machines treat foreign cards as
ineptly as the Dutch machines do?



I use my Maestro to get train etc tickets at Amsterdam central station.
Never had a problem.

I know that many UK ticket machines do not accept Visa Electron from the
continent. In fact, many shops don't, for some reason.

"John B" wrote in message
oups.com...

4) Having ticket machines onboard is a brilliant idea
and I wish TfL would add them to the bendybuses.

I've noticed that some or most of the stops on the country end of (London's)
N29 have no ticket machine, instead having an instruction to pay at the
destination.... but for short journeys, this might not be possible at all.