Dutch Flyer Break of Journey allowed?

[laphroaig]

I've just booked this for next month on the overnight sailing to Hoek, my ticket just says 'to any dutch station' on the specific date. Stena's website describe it as an 'open' ticket. I will be aiming for Maastricht but would quite like to stop off at one or two places en route for a look around / lunch break etc, I will need to change trains a couple of times anyway.

Would this cause any issues? I don't know if NS have such things as ticket barriers, and I wouldn't want to risk invalidating my ticket by exiting a station premises.

If anyone can confirm that BOJ is okay, thank you, any suggestions of nice towns / cities in which to do so? I'd like to get to know the Netherlands a bit better!

 

[NeilWatson]

http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/rail-and-sail/holland/terms-conditions/

Looks like no break of journey allowed.

 

[Stonesourscotty]

when i used it i just said im getting some food at the station when i was leaving the platform and they where ok with that they dont seem to timestamp the ticket or anything like that so i dont know how they enforce it

 

[mancnq]

I used the Dutch Flyer last month and despite the T&Cs on Stena's website, the on board staff confirmed that break of journey is allowed. We broke our journey several times in the Netherlands and all the NS staff we encountered did not have a problem with this at all (presumably as long as we didn't double back). On the way back to London, we even broke the journey at Shenfield to visit friends and when we returned to the station ready to use Oyster if we needed to, the Greater Anglia staff were more than happy to let us continue travelling to Liverpool Street on the integrated Stena ticket. Gate staff at Liverpool Street just waved us through.

I can highly recommend the service. It really gives you a chance to explore on both sides of the water.

 

[atillathehunn]

As I understand, though I have never used it, the NS end of the ticket is a normal day ranger ticket. Unless it states otherwise on the ticket, you should be able to turn up and use the ticket on the train. There are no barriers to exit the station, so they will never be able to tell whether you left the station. As long as you get to your end destination within 24 hours of reaching the Netherlands.

Should add that you don't have to state your end destination either, so they will never know.


Oh, and so happy to get a shout-out for Maastricht! Let me know if you need any information on our beautiful city/tourist info

 

[davetheguard]

As I understand, though I have never used it, the NS end of the ticket is a normal day ranger ticket. Unless it states otherwise on the ticket, you should be able to turn up and use the ticket on the train. There are no barriers to exit the station, so they will never be able to tell whether you left the station. As long as you get to your end destination within 24 hours of reaching the Netherlands.

Should add that you don't have to state your end destination either, so they will never know.


Oh, and so happy to get a shout-out for Maastricht! Let me know if you need any information on our beautiful city/tourist info

I always wonder about break of journey when on the Continent. I'm used to being able to do it with most tickets in the UK (not cheap train-specific "Advance" ones of course), but have not seen a thread about this subject anywhere. No doubt every country/state railway will have its own rules.

Perhaps attilathehun could say what the situation is in the Netherlands.

Oh, and yes, although I've only visited once or twice, I do like Maastricht.....

 

[radamfi]

There are no barriers to exit the station, so they will never be able to tell whether you left the station. As long as you get to your end destination within 24 hours of reaching the Netherlands.

Many stations will have operational barriers at some point in the future, though, when paper tickets are withdrawn for domestic travel. The barriers have been in place for some time but are just left open at the moment. Any idea when the barriers will start working?

As I understand it, most (all?) of the barriers won't be manned so you will have to use the help point to talk to a member of staff if you have difficulty with the barriers.

 

[atillathehunn]

Yes there are barriers in place, but they never close, radamfi is correct. You must touch out with your OV-card on the reader or you will receive a fine, but there is nothing to stop you. There are still a lot of problems to overcome before they will close the barriers, but this is all up in the air at the moment.

Break of journey is allowed on any single/day return/weekend return ticket. There are some stipulations: on a single ticket or day return ticket, you may break journey as long as you complete your journey before 04:00 the following day. On a weekend return the outward journey must be completed in a single day, and the return likewise. A public holiday is counted as a weekend. So this coming weekend is a long weekend, so a weekend return is valid from 19.00 Friday until 04.00 Tuesday.

I hope that made some form of sense!

Maastricht is beautiful, though small. There is more than just the treaty

 

[High Dyke]

Oh, and so happy to get a shout-out for Maastricht! Let me know if you need any information on our beautiful city/tourist info

A fine city i haven't visited for many years... My nephew and his girlfriend moved there last August.

 

[laphroaig]

Thank you all kindly for the replies, seems I can be fairly flexible, I won't use the ticket to track-bash all day or anything but maybe I'll stop off just once, perhaps in Tilburg. It sounds, from what several of you write, as though I should get to Maastricht fairly early anyway to make the most of my time there, looking forward to it!

 

[atillathehunn]

Tilburg perhaps not the first choice of cities I would stop at on the way round! But yes, you will be able to hop on and off without anyone questioning you.