Cabinet does not currently implement single check-in and check-out on the track

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Stientje van Veldhoven, the State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management, has informed the House of Representatives in a letter that the cabinet will not at present introduce single check-in and check-out for rail travel. Implementing this now would, among other things, be too expensive.

The State Secretary says in the letter that she agrees with the conclusion of the NOVB, an advisory body that includes governments, carriers and consumer organizations. This body has come to the conclusion that it is better not to adapt the current public transport chip card system so that simple check-in and check-out becomes possible, but instead to set up the future public transport payment system accordingly. This concerns transfer problems on a rail route where multiple carriers travel. Travelers have to check in and out by carrier, while with the single variant the public transport chip card only needs to be used at the start and end points.

In the letter, the State Secretary states that the traveler benefits from the introduction of simple check-in and check-out, because it saves time and costs less money because fewer mistakes are made during check-in and check-out. This benefit would amount to 14.1 million euros over the next fifteen years. Over the same period, there are costs of a total of 104 million euros, including ‘one-off development and implementation costs of 22 million euros, an annual recurring amount of 7.7 million euros for, among other things, maintaining the software and the back-office system. , and determining the revenue distribution for journeys crossing concessions’. In the letter, the State Secretary therefore speaks of a ‘negative cost-benefit balance of approximately 90 million euros’.

The advice not to proceed with the implementation is also based on other research results, namely the finding that fewer and fewer incomplete transactions take place due to mistakes made by passengers when switching between different train carriers. This would be partly because it is no longer possible to check out at stations with gates for the wrong carrier.

In addition, according to the advice, new payment methods will be introduced in the near future that will further reduce switching problems. An example of this is an app that has been tested on the Gelderse Valleilijn, where travelers buy a ticket via an app prior to the trip; interim check-in and check-out is then no longer necessary and any gates on the route can be opened with a barcode. This app would be suitable for national implementation, although this method is really only suitable for occasional travelers.

Another method is an app that maps the location of the travelers; a suitable app has also been tested on the Valleilijn. Travelers then have to log in to the app, after which the route is tracked via a smartphone with location determination. The State Secretary says that ‘an app with location determination using GPS can be an attractive alternative for the frequent traveler’. For the time being, such an app is not suitable for national import, but the various carriers will start preparations this year for a ‘phased national roll-out from 2020’.

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