De OV-chipkaart-ellende, deel zoveel

Deze keer eens een verhaal van een niet-Nederlander en de problemen waarmee hij geconfronteerd werd:

The story goes like this: At Enschede the line towards Münster leaves
from platform 4b. While normally the a/b distinction would of course not
be a physical one, just a designation for two halves of a continuous
platform, at Enschede passengers have to go through the barriers, as the
trains to and from Münster are not part of the OV system and stop
outside the area that is physically controlled by the new system. (Or
rather platform 4b is "inside the civilised sphere", as it is still
openly accessible from the station. See
<http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/52.22237/6.89011> src="/images/smileys/blink.gif" alt="knipoog"/>

A few factors had come together to leave me completely unprepared for
that situation. I had spent the weekend at the Hertme Afrikafestival,
which was a wonderful Netherlands experience, the nearest station is
Borne between Hengelo and Almelo. On Saturday I had travelled there via
Osnabrück - Bad Bentheim - Hengelo and had to take two replacement buses
due to track renovations (Bad Bentheim - Hengelo and Hengelo - Borne [-
Almelo]). As a BahnCard 50 owner I had bought my return ticket from a
German ticket machine to use my 50% discount. The return journey was the
last connection of the day on a different route, as I had wanted to stay
at the festival as long as possible. The connection went from Borne back
to Hengelo on another replacement bus, and then came my first journey on
a Dutch regional train in decades (which I was looking forward to), from
Hengelo to Enschede. There were no barriers on the way to platform 3a in
Hengelo.

I arrived at Enschede and the connection as printed by the German ticket
machine told me that I had arrived on platform 4a and that I had 11
minutes to change to the train to Münster on 4b. I noticed the barriers
and saw that the station looked like a dead-end station. I did not fully
realise that track 4 is the only one that goes past the "dead end" and
therefore the only one with an a/b distinction. In fact as the OSM map
suggests, the platforms 1–4 in the "Dutch area" show no a/b sectioning
at all.

I was curious about the barriers immediately, but still thought that 4b
must be some part of the "platform 4" that I was on according to the
signs. Due to my interest I started chatting to what appeared to be a
conductor of the train on platform 3 and wanted to know if/how the
barriers would work with my German ticket. It was puzzling when he told
(and showed) me that I did indeed need assistance from someone like him
to get through (he opened the gate with his card, my ticket did not have
the QR code that would have worked on some of the barriers). Thinking I
needed to stay on the same side, I declined his offer of going through,
thanked him for the demonstration and said with a smile that basically
they were imprisoning their German customers. He didn't appreciate the
humour much and said there would always be some staff member available
to let someone through. Then he entered the train at platform 3 and the
train left. The train that I had arrived on was still on platform 4 but
no staff were to be seen. My departure at 22:26 was also getting closer
and with the help of a Dutch passenger on the platform I realised that
no train to Münster would be leaving from here so I had to get to the
other side to hopefully find it. As I approached the barriers again I
finally saw the train waiting at section 4b, but now, in spite of the
earlier promise, I could not see any staff, not on any platform and not
in the visible area behind the gate. I was very lucky to see some
passengers in the entrance hall who were about to go through to my side
of the barriers, so I shouted to them that I needed to get through but
couldn't with my paper ticket. They opened the gate and went through
quickly, I hurried through the other way (causing some loud beeping) and
got to my train.

Talking to conductors on the German train, I learned that they hand out
papers with the required QR code to passengers who need to get to the
"Dutch platforms". I believe they said that these passengers can keep
the code and use it on their way back. But of course there are cases
like mine where the two journeys are not the same for some reason, or
the paper could get lost, etc ... It seems a rather helpless way of
mitigating the problem that actually is a fundamental change to the
character of a railway platform brought about by the compulsory Dutch
chipcard and the control mentality that has come with it.

I'm wondering if I should make something out of this. I really had a
sense of imprisonment on that section that I could not get out of
without assistance, and I very nearly missed my last connection. Would
the Dutch railways have paid for a hotel?

PS1: Actually, I could have jumped onto track 4 from the end of platform
4(a), circumvented the barrier by walking on the track for a metre, and
climbed back onto platform 4b. Not only clearly illegal but also
impossible for some less agile passengers.

PS2: Two times now that I almost didn't get home on an international
train journey, just three days apart ... I hope there won't be a repeat
for quite a while! :-)
17 jul 2015 - bewerkt op 18 jul 2015 - meld ongepast verhaal
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freebird, man, 12 jaar
   
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