Paper train tickets gone from July 9

From the 9th of July, traveling by train in the Netherlands will no longer be possible with a paper train ticket, as they are being phased out. Whoever wants to travel by train will have to do so using the OV-chip card. This will also be possible on a one-time basis, but that will make the trip €1 more expensive, deredactie.be reports. The chip card has been used in the Netherlands for some time now. It works by loading a certain amount of money onto a plastic card, and scanning it in front of special chip card readers on platforms at the start and end of the journey, checking in and checking out. Travelers can pay per trip, or can also opt for a month subscription for commuters or specific routes. The paper tickets were still available up to now for those who did not use the train very often. This will be replaced by a one-time chip card. These cards make the trip €1 more expensive to make up for the cost of producing the plastic chip cards, the National OV- Council says. These one-time chip cards are available for purchase at a dispenser, or at the desk in train stations. Just with the OV-chip card, the traveler has to check in and check out with the one-time card. If the traveler does not check in, then the ticket is invalid, and if the traveler doesn't check out, then he cannot switch trains. Dutch Rail (NS) wants to expand step by step the number of stations with closed barriers. This way, checking in will become unavoidable from August onwards, and access to the platform is only possible by checking in with a chip card. The phasing out of the paper ticket was preceded by Cabinet negotiations, as a solution was needed for the double boarding tariff that travelers have to pay if they use two different transport companies in one trip. This solution is now at hand. Traveling long distance with more than one company will become slightly cheaper from the 25th of June.