NS to tackle crowds at Schiphol train ticket machines
NS turning its attention to tackling chaos at train ticket machines at Schiphol airport, caused by foreign tourists with no public transit cards who want to buy tickets to travel to Amsterdam. The Dutch rail company is approaching international travel providers to convince them to sell online train tickets to and from Schiphol to tourists in advance, the Telegraaf reports.
"A ticket on the smartphone is then sufficient to go straight to the station on arrival at Schiphol Plaza. That saves long waiting times at the ticket machines and NS counter", a spokesperson said to the newspaper. According to the NS spokesperson, an experiment with Booking.com is yielding "thousands of train tickets" per month for travelers with no public transit cards. "We now want to arrange this online service with other parities."
Schiphol is embracing this plan to improve the flow in the arrival hall.
NS and ProRail are also going to tackle the busy Schiphol station. It is one of the fastest growing railway stations in the Netherlands, with passenger numbers expected to reach 95 thousand a day by the end of this year, according to the newspaper. The two companies are therefore going to increase the size of the station, with more entrances and larger platforms.
