NS - Communications Confusion Continues. #FAIL

No information, so time abandon the journey

Dutch railways goes from bad to worse. Arrived at Hilversum Central Station at 1345 this afternoon to find that no trains were running in either direction. The information boards simply say wait for announcements. Which of course don't come. Talked to the driver of the train on Platform 6. How long have you been here? An hour. Any news? Well my colleague says there's a power cut along the line between Bussum and Utrecht. Should I wait? Can't say, but I hear 16.30 at the earliest. I check Twitter. Other passengers say they're hearing the problem may not be solved before 10 pm at least. Someone has dug through a main power cable. Still nothing on the Tannoy. Give up. Abandon ship. Head home in the rain.... Useless. When will they take customers seriously? Someone outside solving people's problems is the very least I expect from an organisation that demands all my privacy details before it will allow me to travel on credit. (take the 320 bus over there to Amstel Station and change for Schiphol...We've arranged a coach in 20 minutes for those trying to get to Naarden) Why is customer service so terribly hard?

Chaos outside the station. No information. No direction. No plan

Dutch Railways Fails to Communicate to Tourists

There has been a head-on collision to the West of Amsterdam Central Station. The Dutch website of NS tells you that trains travelling West have all been cancelled until at least 2 am Sunday morning.

But the English language site is business as usual. 

The failure by Dutch railways to communicate is truly awful at the moment. In fact there was a points failure west of Amsterdam last evening as I was travelling back from the same station. The message over the station tannoy in Dutch was clear. The fumbled translation in English said that due to a "switch failure" there were no trains to Schiphol. They should have said that "due to a points failure there were no direct trains to Schiphol. Take a local train to Duivendrecht and change to the lower platform for a direct train to Schiphol. Allow an extra 40 minutes for your journey." 

God Help You on Dutch Railways

God help you if you have a problem with your "Oyster" RFID card on Dutch railways. Because you won't get much help from human beings. Bear with me or skip to the bottom for my conclusions.

The Saga

Somewhere between checking in at Hilversum station and being checked by a conductor on the train to Amsterdam (near Weesp), something happened to my NS travel card which made it unreadable on the little device they carry. First I am accused of not checking in. So I asked them to phone Hilversum station to check whether I had indeed checked in. And I had. That's where the smiles ended. At Schiphol Amsterdam station, I couldn't check out of the ticketing system.

So I phoned the Customer Service number on the back of the card. I quickly realised that I should press the other option to avoid getting into a tree of automated answers which basically tell you to put the phone down and log-on to www.ns.nl. About two minutes later talked to someone who went through all the security checks possible and then told me she couldn't log me out of the system nor ask for a new card. "No, you will have to go to a counter at a manned railway station to get two forms. One to send the card back for a replacement, for which there is a charge. And you need to get a claim form because if you haven't logged out of the Dutch Railways system after 4 hours, then the system fines you 10 Euro extra". The customer service agent said she has access to my account but couldn't log me out even though I was trying to report a defective card.

Attempting a Solution

Hope you don't have a train to catch.

Joined the long queue at Schiphol railway station. Waited for ages as someone was told off for paying with a foreign credit card that didn't have a chip in it. Finally, a free agent. Explained the problem again. The agent went off to look for a form in the cupboard. He didn't have the claim form and couldn't do anything more for me because he couldn't read the card. Next?

Dinglish on the Internet

Dinglish - been like that for ages. Love the FAQ's

Went to the customer service pages on the Interwebs. Just for amusement, let's assume I don't understand Dutch. Well, then you're sunk because I think they've used Google Translate to translate about half the site - the rest is in Dutch. Oh, and there's a bit of cheery news in Dutch that the Post Office has delays at the moment so that might affect delivery of new cards.

Conclusions

I find it a disgrace that NS customer service cannot do anything to check people out and order a replacement card with one phone call. My card is in the post - during which time I have no valid proof I have a subscription to NS at all. I'm told a replacement card will take two weeks, postal slowdown permitting.

My conclusion is that NS is a public monopoly where NS stands for No Service. God help places where Dutch railways is winning contracts to run other railways in the UK. I hope UK consumer shows keep a close watch on the performance of Abellio. Sadly, the experience from the lowlands mother ship is simply awful!

Hilversum station at 6 pm today. No-one in information, sorry. 

Will do an update when I get a new card - and perhaps some money back.

Watch out for the broadcasters!

Dutch railways is currently in the news because of another poor show of performance during two weeks of frosty weather that's no behind us. I saw this sign at the WTC Amsterdam stop, which confused many people on the platform who don't speak Dutch. It means "please listen for announcements" over the station's public address system, because the current train schedule has been suspended. The current criticism in the Dutch parliament is that Dutch railways are probably the worst in the country when it comes to informing people about what's happening during an emergency (weather) situation. Planned engineering works are well documented and shouted out. But when the system fails, for whatever reason, then you can wait in vain for any form of announcement. In Schiphol you'll get them in English, German and Dutch. But on most stations you'll get them in Dutch only, if at all. I'm rather furious that the coordinated bus/train schedule system 9292.nl which is supposed to explain how to get from A to B has disintegrated into fantasy land. Best advice is to go to the bus-stop and/or train system and hope for the best. I took the picture because it could be taken out of context to imply that Dutch railways cares about the future of broadcasting. But the creative collapse of some areas of broadcasting is something for another post.

Dutch Railways - Trouble at the Terminus

I have a running gag with Dutch railways who are trying to adapt ideas from the airline business but are so screwed up with their own bureaucracy that they are going nowhere fast. No wifi in the trains yet - free wifi in many Dutch buses. You can print out your own ticket at most airline sites. Dutch railways still wants to send you a ticket through the post. Having booked a ticket for yourself, there is no way to see the seating plan on international trains so you can ensure you're sitting next to a colleague on the same train. You can't book a ticket more than 3 months in advance. It's a long list of what's not possible. Several years ago I registered Dutch Railways as a URL - you'd think a bit more logical than the current address which is http://www.ns.nl/servlet/Satellite?....etc. No-one has bothered to call so far.

Oh, and don't try and pick up a guest from Amsterdam city station. They have put up electronic departure boards telling you the times and platforms when trains get the hell out of Amsterdam. But several friends of mine have noted that Amsterdam city station has no arrival boards. Which platform will my friend be arriving on? Good luck with that one!