The OV-card and you
Jan. 29th, 2009 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzWell, my friends, I'm sorry to say that should you come to visit Rotterdam, your life will be more complicated as of today. The Netherlands is finally switching its public transport system over to paying by a computer system in stead of with a token piece of paper: de Strippenkaart [.gif]. Rotterdam is the first city to test the new system, and as of today you can only use the subway by paying with the new OV-chipcard, as it's called.
There's been a lot of news about the OV-card. I wrote about it myself a couple of times. (more later)
Mostly, the transition phase we're currently in is very inconvenient. I live in the city suburbs, where the metro runs, there's buses and even a trainstation nearby. I can use an old strippenkaart in each of these, even the train (but only if I travel to Rotterdam or Schiedam), but as of today I need this OV-card for the subway.
Worse, Ragar lives in the Hoekse Waard, a rural area with small villages that sports an excellent bus system. If I want to go to him, I can take the subway to Zuidplein, and then catch a bus. Before, I could pay for the entire trip with my strippenkaart. Now I need to pay for the Zuidplein zone twice, because I need to switch to a different payment method, because the buses are not ready for the OV-card yet. *sigh*
Add to this that it's a very confusing time for any visitors from outside the city, especially tourists and the elderly. You can get stuck in the entry gates, and I've seen older people get stuck and nearly panic. Scary shit!
The plan is to switch all public transport to this new system, but the Dutch Railway (NS) is not ready for the OV-chip and the transition could take a further three years. Next to that, they are violating people's privacy by recording where they're traveling to. They will start their testing in May on one part of their tracks (Flevolijn).
Meanwhile, the chip in the card can be cracked, and reporters have been travelling with the hacked card for a couple of days to 'test' the safety of the system. People with a visual handicap have many problems with the new system, but only a temporary solution is offered and the problems will not be solved.
There was a last minute motion by left-wing parties in our Parliament to stop the OV-card yesterday, but it didn't pass. The subway company (RET) reports that the morning rush hours passed with little incident.
As far as I can track back in my own journal, I wrote about the OV-card three times, all three times in Dutch. The first post dates from January 2007 and I reported that the card's introduction would be postponed for at least another quarter year. They finally managed to push it through 2 years later. What an achievement!
The Dutch media, especially local Rijnmond-media, have been brimming over with news. All links link to Dutch articles:
Alleen nog maar OV-chipkaart in metro
RET: Geen problemen in metro tijdens ochtendspits
Motie tegen invoeren OV-chipkaart haalt het niet
RTV Rijnmond reist dagenlang met gekraakte OV-chipkaart
Londenaren tevreden over hun OV-chipkaart
Blinden en slechtzienden ontevreden met OV-chipkaart
NS stelt invoering ov-chipkaart jaren uit
NS begint in mei met ov-chipkaart op Flevolijn
NS schendt privacy met OV-chipkaart
And here's what I wrote in the past (and can actually find back): (all in Dutch)
Blijde Nieuwsjes (friends-only)
De OV-chipkaart, deel veel.
De OV-chipkaart met een staartje(friends-only)
-
Edited to add: I have a discount card for the train, and I have no idea how that's going to work. It's got a chip in the card for the OV-card as of this year, but I don't know if it'll work for the subway as well. Can they actually make an integrated system? We'll find out in a fewmonths years!
There's been a lot of news about the OV-card. I wrote about it myself a couple of times. (more later)
Mostly, the transition phase we're currently in is very inconvenient. I live in the city suburbs, where the metro runs, there's buses and even a trainstation nearby. I can use an old strippenkaart in each of these, even the train (but only if I travel to Rotterdam or Schiedam), but as of today I need this OV-card for the subway.
Worse, Ragar lives in the Hoekse Waard, a rural area with small villages that sports an excellent bus system. If I want to go to him, I can take the subway to Zuidplein, and then catch a bus. Before, I could pay for the entire trip with my strippenkaart. Now I need to pay for the Zuidplein zone twice, because I need to switch to a different payment method, because the buses are not ready for the OV-card yet. *sigh*
Add to this that it's a very confusing time for any visitors from outside the city, especially tourists and the elderly. You can get stuck in the entry gates, and I've seen older people get stuck and nearly panic. Scary shit!
The plan is to switch all public transport to this new system, but the Dutch Railway (NS) is not ready for the OV-chip and the transition could take a further three years. Next to that, they are violating people's privacy by recording where they're traveling to. They will start their testing in May on one part of their tracks (Flevolijn).
Meanwhile, the chip in the card can be cracked, and reporters have been travelling with the hacked card for a couple of days to 'test' the safety of the system. People with a visual handicap have many problems with the new system, but only a temporary solution is offered and the problems will not be solved.
There was a last minute motion by left-wing parties in our Parliament to stop the OV-card yesterday, but it didn't pass. The subway company (RET) reports that the morning rush hours passed with little incident.
As far as I can track back in my own journal, I wrote about the OV-card three times, all three times in Dutch. The first post dates from January 2007 and I reported that the card's introduction would be postponed for at least another quarter year. They finally managed to push it through 2 years later. What an achievement!
The Dutch media, especially local Rijnmond-media, have been brimming over with news. All links link to Dutch articles:
Alleen nog maar OV-chipkaart in metro
RET: Geen problemen in metro tijdens ochtendspits
Motie tegen invoeren OV-chipkaart haalt het niet
RTV Rijnmond reist dagenlang met gekraakte OV-chipkaart
Londenaren tevreden over hun OV-chipkaart
Blinden en slechtzienden ontevreden met OV-chipkaart
NS stelt invoering ov-chipkaart jaren uit
NS begint in mei met ov-chipkaart op Flevolijn
NS schendt privacy met OV-chipkaart
And here's what I wrote in the past (and can actually find back): (all in Dutch)
Blijde Nieuwsjes (friends-only)
De OV-chipkaart, deel veel.
De OV-chipkaart met een staartje(friends-only)
-
Edited to add: I have a discount card for the train, and I have no idea how that's going to work. It's got a chip in the card for the OV-card as of this year, but I don't know if it'll work for the subway as well. Can they actually make an integrated system? We'll find out in a few
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-29 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-29 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-29 02:14 pm (UTC)En nee, ik heb die kosten niet teruggevraagd, sinds de laatste keer dat ik een probleem had met de kaart (http://janestarz.livejournal.com/604923.html) ik gelijk mijn buik vol had van de applicatie, de RET en die hele klotekaart.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-29 03:32 pm (UTC)Wat dus betekent dat als ik naar Rotterdam ga, ik een chipkaart moet kopen en daarmee vol tarief moet gaan reizen. Terwijl ik ook gratis mag reizen vanwege mijn OV. (Je weet wel, dat leuke ding dat iedere maand 70 euro bij mijn studieschuld optelt. Nu hoop ik wel een diploma te gaan halen en dus een deel van die schuld kwijtgescholden te krijgen, maar toch, voor het idee. )
no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 11:19 am (UTC)