As of this summer, teens aged between 12 and 18 will be able to travel by train at a much lower price if they travel outside of peak hours. NS hopes that this will encourage more young people to take the train.
Up to the age of 12, children can travel for free on the train accompanied by an adult. Students also get free travel on certain days or discounted tickets. Between these ages, though, teens have to pay full price. NS is now going to do something about this by offering two new types of tickets to this group.
The new Young Person's Day Ticket will allow unlimited travel outside of peak hours for just 7,50 euros. For this ticket, no subscription is necessary and it can be bought via the NS app, meaning no OV-chipkaart is needed as the barcode given in the app can be scanned at the station gates. The other new ticket option is the Young Person's Weekend subscription. With this subscription, teens have access to unlimited train travel in the weekend for only 15 euros per month.
NS research shows that young people aged between 12 and 18 primarily take the train for trips to a different city or to visit friends or family. 71 percent of the 1.087 young people surveyed said that they would take the train more often if there were a specific young persons train ticket.
The answer is no, at least not because tickets for young people are getting cheaper. The discounts for young people will first be paid for using the bonus NS received from the government for meeting all of its targets in 2019. Of course, the Dutch rail company hopes to earn back its investment by having more young people take the train.