Non-standard situations

Special rules apply for travelling with NS Hispeed trains.

The monthly season tickets known as a Maandtrajectabonnement or Maandnetabonnement are not yet available on an OV-chipkaart. You can still use an OV-chipkaart as your identity card. You need to enter the 7-digit number on the top right of your OV-chipkaart when you purchase a Maandabonnement at the ticket machine. You can also carry on using the 'old-style' identity card.

If your NS Maandabonnement has an urban/regional supplement, you can use the buses and trams by showing this ticket. However, the Amsterdam and Rotterdam metros already operate entirely with the OV-chipkaart, so the gates there are closed. 

This is how you open the gates to the Amsterdam metro:

• Go to a GVB Tickets & Info branch or the NS Service Desk in Amsterdam
• Show them your Maandabonnement with urban/regional supplement
• You will be given an access card that opens the gates
• The card is valid for one month
• Every time you buy a new Maandabonnement, you will be able to pick up a new access card in this way

This is how you open the gates to the Rotterdam metro:

You need a personalised OV-chipkaart to open the gates to the Rotterdam metro.

If you already have a personalised OV-chipkaart, go to an RET Service Shop or RET Service Point, where they will add the urban/regional supplement to your card. Then you can use your OV-chipkaart to check in and out of the Rotterdam metro.

If you do not yet have a personalised OV-chipkaart, you can request one from an RET Service Shop or RET Service Point. You will need a passport photo. The card will be sent to your home address within three weeks, after which you can have the urban/regional supplement added to it.

As of 1 January 2012, it is no longer possible to buy an OV-Dagkaart. However, undated OV-Dagkaart tickets can still be used up to the end of 2012. The OV-Dagkaart product cannot be put on an OV-chipkaart. However, the Amsterdam and Rotterdam metros already operate entirely with the OV-chipkaart, so the gates there are closed.

This is how you open the gates to the Amsterdam metro:

• Go to a GVB Tickets & Info branch
• Show them your OV-Dagkaart
• They will give you a GVB metro day pass
• This card will let you check in and out of the Amsterdam metro for one day

This is how you open the gates to the Rotterdam metro:

• Go to an RET Sales and Information point at a metro station or the NS Service Desk at Rotterdam CS or Schiedam Centrum
• Show them your OV-Dagkaart
• They will give you an access card

This card will let you check in and out of the Rotterdam metro for one day

You are not allowed to travel in the opposite direction to your route. For instance, if you checked in at Den Bosch, you are not allowed to travel in a train from Utrecht to Den Bosch. You were not allowed to do that before either if you had bought a one-way ticket for Den Bosch-Utrecht.

There are however two routes where you are allowed to travel in the opposite direction:

• from Arnhem to Maarn/Veenendaal West/Veenendaal Centrum/Rhenen and vice versa. In this case you travel via Driebergen-Zeist.
• From Lelystad Centrum to Almere Oostvaarders and vice versa. In this case you travel via Almere Buiten.

You still need a valid ticket if NS puts on buses, whether or not they are scheduled or unscheduled. In such cases, you need to check in and out at the station, as usual. If NS arranges bus transport, there may sometimes be mobile posts available for checking in and out.