Keolis Nederland

Keolis Nederland runs bus and train services across several Dutch regions, and its trains carry two different brand names depending on where you board. Around Zwolle, the trains are Keolis Blauwnet. Around Amersfoort, they are RRReis. The brand on the platform sign matters more than the company name behind it.

Blauwnet: trains around Zwolle

Keolis Nederland operates the Zwolle to Kampen and Zwolle to Enschede lines under the Blauwnet name. The trains are painted blue on purpose. A traveller changing between two Blauwnet services at the same station does not need to check out and back in, unlike most transfers between operators on the Dutch network.

A short stretch between Wierden, Almelo, Hengelo and Enschede carries both NS and Blauwnet trains side by side. Look at which company's train is pulling in before you check in, then use the matching post or gate: blue for Blauwnet, yellow for NS. Getting this wrong at the barrier is an easy, avoidable mistake.

Blauwnet also shares track with Arriva in places. At Zutphen, changing between an Arriva train and a Blauwnet service means checking out at the red post and in at the blue one, or the reverse. It sounds fussy on paper. In practice the posts are colour matched, so it takes seconds once you know to look.

Tickets through OVpay

The old OV-chipkaart is being retired nationally, and Blauwnet has already moved onto OVpay. In second class, without a discount or subscription, you check in and out with a contactless bank card, a phone with contactless payment enabled, or the new OV-pas, and you are billed automatically afterwards at the standard fare. Keep to one card or device for the whole trip. The system cannot close the journey if you check out with something different from what you checked in with.

Regular Blauwnet and bus travellers in Gelderland, Overijssel and Flevoland, excluding Almere, can add one of two OVpay subscriptions to a bank card or OV-pas. Dal Korting Oost Trein en Bus costs €4.99 a month for 40% off in off-peak hours, weekends and public holidays. Voordeel Oost Trein en Bus is free to hold and simply caps what you pay: spend more on travel and the discount rises, up to a point where a month never costs more than €160. Neither subscription covers NS trains.

Forgot to check out? The OVpay app or website can fix it from six hours after the trip, and you have 60 days to sort it.

Assistance and disruption

Free travel assistance is available at every Blauwnet station for travellers who need help boarding or changing trains. Arrange it in advance through Blauwnet's customer service rather than assuming staff will be on the platform. Engineering works do interrupt the network from time to time, occasionally replacing a whole stretch with buses for a weekend, so a quick look at Blauwnet's disruption page before you travel is worth the minute it takes.

RRReis around Amersfoort

Keolis Nederland also runs regional trains under the RRReis name around Amersfoort and Ede-Wageningen, a smaller network of eight stations. Ticketing follows the same OVpay system used across the rest of the company's train services.