Public transport in the Netherlands

[Part_Time_Civer]

So I was going to help my colleage with some advice. He works in an other department, about 100 km (66 US miles) away. I offered him to come over sometime next week just because I'm very happy he's gonna take over some of my workload. He asked me if I could be there next wednesday.

Now, suppose I want to be there next wednesday at 9 am. I take the tram to the railway station (don't have a car, parking places are traded for over E 100.000,- in the city were I live, no kidding ). From the railway station I take a bus, will probably take me something like half an hour or something. Now, if I want tom be there at 9, I'd have to get up at....lemme think...4.45 AM!!!
I guess I might as well go by bicycle....

What sort of god-forgotten country do I live in!! Ok, so not everybody is a genius. Sure, if you build a dyke connecting 2 parts of the country you'd have to be as smart a Albert Einstein to think of building a railway track on top of it. What am I thinking, people probably enjoy a nice detour...

In China you'd probably be hanged if you make a mistake like that. In Holland? Nobody got fired over that ridiculous ommision. I hate them f*****g civil servants. If I mess up at work I get fired. That's the way it should be. They can destroy the nation and will still keep their pension benefits. They can all **** my my big fat ****!!!

I loathe this detestable defaitist attitude in my country. We're supposed to be part of the western world, founding fathers of capitalism, founding member of the EU. Were one the busiest places in the world, yet I bet the public transport in f****** sub-saharan Africa is better than here!!

The railway company has been privatized a couple of years ago. That means now they have shares outstanding (half of them are in the possesion of the goverment so they're de facto still a public company). The c**ks****ng CEO claims the company is doing a good job because 86-something percent of the trains arrive on schedule (imagine 86% of the operations by a surgeon would work out ok )

The worse part of it? Everybody thinks it "normal". There so much used to it that they just accept. No revolutions, no riots, not even protests. Our nation is so incredibly complacent about bad service. I just got a call from my energy supplier; they will be over tomorrow to install a measuring device. "Are you ok with an appointment between 9 and 11 AM, sir?" No of course I'm not ok with that, I will have to be at work dumb b*tch!

I can't move to America (my mom lives here plus I'm European at heart I guess) but I tell you one thing; I've never been so envious of you Americans who live in the nation were customer service means something and where people can actually get fired (even if they work for the goverment).

What can I do? Can somebody organise a protest in Den Haag? Stapel, if you know somebody in the goverment, can you please ask tell them this: IK HEB ZIN OM JULLIE KOP ERAF TE TREKKEN EN IN JE NEK TE SCHIJTEN!!! (cheating moderators by swearing in Dutch)

Please say something to make me feel better, it will be appreciated...

 

[philippe]

it's worse in Belgium zo chillen kerel, anderen hebben het nog erger

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

An institution that is supposed to make profit and has no competition is the worst possible solution. Who ever thought of that idea should be put in prison.

 

[Part_Time_Civer]

An institution that is supposed to make profit and has no competition is the worst possible solution. Who ever thought of that idea should be put in prison.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[Phlegmak]

So I was going to help my colleage with some advice. He works in an other department, about 100 km (66 US miles) away. I offered him to come over sometime next week just because I'm very happy he's gonna take over some of my workload. He asked me if I could be there next wednesday.

Now, suppose I want to be there next wednesday at 9 am. I take the tram to the railway station (don't have a car, parking places are traded for over E 100.000,- in the city were I live, no kidding ). From the railway station I take a bus, will probably take me something like half an hour or something. Now, if I want tom be there at 9, I'd have to get up at....lemme think...4.45 AM!!!
I guess I might as well go by bicycle....

What sort of god-forgotten country do I live in!! Ok, so not everybody is a genius. Sure, if you build a dyke connecting 2 parts of the country you'd have to be as smart a Albert Einstein to think of building a railway track on top of it. What am I thinking, people probably enjoy a nice detour...

In China you'd probably be hanged if you make a mistake like that. In Holland? Nobody got fired over that ridiculous ommision. I hate them f*****g civil servants. If I mess up at work I get fired. That's the way it should be. They can destroy the nation and will still keep their pension benefits. They can all **** my my big fat ****!!!

I loathe this detestable defaitist attitude in my country. We're supposed to be part of the western world, founding fathers of capitalism, founding member of the EU. Were one the busiest places in the world, yet I bet the public transport in f****** sub-saharan Africa is better than here!!

The railway company has been privatized a couple of years ago. That means now they have shares outstanding (half of them are in the possesion of the goverment so they're de facto still a public company). The c**ks****ng CEO claims the company is doing a good job because 86-something percent of the trains arrive on schedule (imagine 86% of the operations by a surgeon would work out ok )

The worse part of it? Everybody thinks it "normal". There so much used to it that they just accept. No revolutions, no riots, not even protests. Our nation is so incredibly complacent about bad service. I just got a call from my energy supplier; they will be over tomorrow to install a measuring device. "Are you ok with an appointment between 9 and 11 AM, sir?" No of course I'm not ok with that, I will have to be at work dumb b*tch!

I can't move to America (my mom lives here plus I'm European at heart I guess) but I tell you one thing; I've never been so envious of you Americans who live in the nation were customer service means something and where people can actually get fired (even if they work for the goverment).

What can I do? Can somebody organise a protest in Den Haag? Stapel, if you know somebody in the goverment, can you please ask tell them this: IK HEB ZIN OM JULLIE KOP ERAF TE TREKKEN EN IN JE NEK TE SCHIJTEN!!! (cheating moderators by swearing in Dutch)

Please say something to make me feel better, it will be appreciated...

Sorry to tell you, Part_Time_Civer, but the US is mostly the same regarding unfireable civil servants. However, the US has a few obvious benefits to infrastructure: it's a younger nation. Younger nation => fewer ancient structures to build around => rails and roads can be mostly straight and logically placed. It's also larger, so there is more space. And generally no dykes either. The only place that comes to mind is New Orleans with its levee system.

And subSaharan Africa cannot possibly be better regarding railways.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

The worse part of it? Everybody thinks it "normal". There so much used to it that they just accept. No revolutions, no riots, not even protests. Our nation is so incredibly complacent about bad service. I just got a call from my energy supplier; they will be over tomorrow to install a measuring device. "Are you ok with an appointment between 9 and 11 AM, sir?" No of course I'm not ok with that, I will have to be at work dumb b*tch!

You're lucky. 8:30 to 12:30 or 13:00 to 17:00 is the norm here (Tilburg). I have to take the afternoon off, so some guy can do 15 minutes of work.

Don't get me started on trains. I have experienced the last train being cancelled which got me stuck and made me get a cab, which are freaking expensive. Trains being 30 minutes late when I am travelling to schiphol. At the last connection between A'dam and schiphol the (dutch: conductrice) ticketwoman told me: It's full, you can't get in. Yeah right, I'm going to miss my plane because of you ...try and stop me. Etc etc etc.

But I have noticed that it the same is almost all countries.

 

[bhsup]

And generally no dykes either.

Just a quick correction. That would be "dike". Your spelling refers to those ladies batting for the other team.

 

[AceChilla]

Now you know why you should never ever make an appointment to be in Groningen(?) at 9 o'clock in the morning. Or ever go there period

Recently I had to go from Nijmegen to Soesterberg. Thats about an hours drive normally. I have made an active effort to never ever to never ever take the highway dispite my TomTom telling me so because I knew I would just get in a jam no mather what. It took me 2 hours.

So now in Holland the roads that are supossed to be for the fastest travel are the slowest, and the country roades where maximum speed is 50 take you where you want to go fastest....

I can't really complain about public transport since for me it's all free, and I have to admit the train company Syntus is doing a pretty good job on the line I take usually. If they are late it is mostly because the NS is messing things up.

 

[Part_Time_Civer]

Now you know why you should never ever make an appointment to be in Groningen(?) at 9 o'clock in the morning. Or ever go there period

Nice guess, no I'm going from Amsterdam to Leeuwarden... I told my colleague to expect me there around lunchtime.

 

[Fëanor]

The major problem are the morons that live in the randstad and then go to work in Friesland or Groningen and expect to do that on public transport and the equally large morons that live in Friesland or Groningen and then drive to work in the randstad, clogging the highways.

IK HEB ZIN OM JULLIE KOP ERAF TE TREKKEN EN IN JE NEK TE SCHIJTEN!!!

Thats exactly what should be done to the above mentioned morons.

 

[Part_Time_Civer]

The major problem are the morons that live in the randstad and then go to work in Friesland or Groningen and expect to do that on public transport and the equally large morons that live in Friesland or Groningen and then drive to work in the randstad, clogging the highways.


Thats exactly what should be done to the above mentioned morons.

I live and work in Amsterdam, so I guess I don't qualify? I knew it would be quite a trip to Leeuwarden (I reckoned like an hour or so). I didn't know I would have to take a detour across 3 other provinces, if that makes me a moron, fine.

 

[Fëanor]

Comparing the dutch public transport system to the ones of sub Saharan Africa because there is no high speed line between Amsterdam and a remote city in an overwhelmingly rural region is a pretty moronic thing to do yes and ranting about it because you have to do it once is equally stupid.

 

[Part_Time_Civer]

Comparing the dutch public transport system to the ones of sub Saharan Africa because there is no high speed line between Amsterdam and a remote city in an overwhelmingly rural region is a pretty moronic thing to do yes and ranting about it because you have to do it once is equally stupid.

So let me get this right; you are Dutch and you agree that our public transport is pretty lousy (I assume you agree there since you state you shouldn't live in one part and work in another part of our tiny country). Did I understand this right?

Then you say it's stupid to rant about it? So what you're saying (correct me if I'm wrong) is that one should simply accept things that are bad and not rant about them? (for if one does that is "stupid" )

Is that correct?

 

[Phlegmak]

Just a quick correction. That would be "dike". Your spelling refers to those ladies batting for the other team.

http://m.reference.com/d/search.html?q=dike

"Also: dyke"

Ha! Ha, I say!

 

[angeleyes]

The c**ks****ng CEO claims the company is doing a good job because 86-something percent of the trains arrive on schedule (imagine 86% of the operations by a surgeon would work out ok )

I wouldn't mind if my surgeon takes 5 minutes extra to do his job.

Is it part of the dutch identity to complain so much?

 

[Fëanor]

So let me get this right; you are Dutch and you agree that our public transport is pretty lousy (I assume you agree there since you state you shouldn't live in one part and work in another part of our tiny country). Did I understand this right?

I am saying that the Public Transport is not bad at all and that people should not expect high speed lines between locations that don't really need them. The main problem with the Infrastructure right now is that its being overwhelmed because people think its normal to live on a couple of regions away from where they work and drive each day to work, causing massive congestion. the other problem is that the government is privatizing everything and cutting all kind of budgets so that there is no real expansion of the Infrastructure (the infrastructure is expanding slower than the growth in use of the infrastructure)

Then you say it's stupid to rant about it? So what you're saying (correct me if I'm wrong) is that one should simply accept things that are bad and not rant about them? (for if one does that is "stupid" )

Is that correct?

You should not complain/blame others for problems you made yourself

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

You are sissy-arsed baby. Why don't you come to North America and use our public transport... then you will understand that it is IMPOSSIBLE to be worse off in the Netherlands. Between city travel? Well, our passenger service is known for waiting for hours in the middle of no-where to let freight trains pass!

Got an issue? Get a tissue.

That being said, privatizing monopolies is ********.

 

[Rhymes]

If you are in a fair shape you could easily get there by bicycle in about 3 hours, so if you add 30 minutes to get ready you could get up at about 5:30h am. That would definitely be my solution!

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

If you are in a fair shape you could easily get there by bicycle in about 3 hours, so if you add 30 minutes to get ready you could get up at about 5:30h am. That would definitely be my solution!

It would be fun too!

 

[bhsup]

http://m.reference.com/d/search.html?q=dike

"Also: dyke"

Ha! Ha, I say!

Hmm, I stand corrected. It seems they are interchangable as far as an earthen structure is concerned. Thanks for the heads up!

Dyke or Dike may refer to:


Look up dike, dyke in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Dike (construction), a long wall or bank built to keep out the sea or enclose or separate land
• Dyke (ditch), a ditch or channel, often used for draining land
• Dike (geology), a long mass of minerals, usually an intrusion of igneous rocks, filling up rents or fissures in the original strata
• Dyke, a slang term, sometimes offensive, for a woman who is attracted to other women, a lesbian
• Dikes, a term for diagonal pliers, a hand tool used by electricians and others