If you travel by train, a good NS Travel Planner should not be missing on your iPhone. In this article we list some practical tips and offer some alternatives.
Whether you take the train to work or school every day, or only travel with the NS during the weekend: the NS Journey Planner Xtra app from the Dutch Railways deserves a prominent place on your iPhone’s home screen.
Download NS Travel Planner
The NS Travel Planner Xtra app can be downloaded free of charge and has been developed for both the iPhone and the iPad. You need at least iOS 8.0 or newer to use the app, in our iOS update overview you can check whether your iPhone is suitable for this. The app takes up 80.8MB of space.
The Dutch Railways have packed a freight train of functions into the app, but fortunately they are clearly packaged. This way you can of course plan your trip, but you also stay informed of disruptions, work, news and services such as the OV-fiets and NS Zonetaxi. To make this clear, we have listed a number of practical NS Travel Planner tips below.
Set an alarm for disruptions on your route
If you regularly travel on a fixed route, it is useful to receive notifications about delays, disruptions or work. You can set this by going through the steps below.
- Open the NS Travel Planner Xtra app on your iPhone;
- Tap the hamburger menu (the three bars at the top left) and choose ‘My Trips’;
- Tap the blue plus to add your route;
- Under the heading ‘Notifications’, turn the switch behind ‘Deviations’ to green.
Let us know if your train is too busy
Standing in a crowded train over and over again is no fun. To map out this problem, a notification function has been added in which you can report how busy your train is. Choose a green, orange or red face to indicate your emotion and write below whether you had to stand, sit or not at all. The Dutch Railways collects this feedback and can adjust the timetable accordingly in the future. This is how you pass on the train pressure:
- Open the NS Travel Planner app and search for your train via the Travel Planner;
- In the next window, tap on the name of the intercity;
- Select ‘Busy’ and indicate how busy it is;
- Send your feedback by tapping ‘Submit’.
Organize the travel information on punctuality, crowds and transfer
You can use the Travel Planner filters in the NS app to indicate what is important to you for your journey. This way you can visualize the fare, or the number of times you have to transfer. The same applies to crowds, travel time and rail.
- Open the Trip Planner app and plan a trip;
- Tap the pin at the top right of the screen;
- Change your results by dragging blocks down.
View all trains with the NS Treinrader
The Dutch Railways has incorporated a nice extra into the travel planner in the form of the NS Treinradar. This map shows all trains that are currently driving in the Netherlands. You open the Train Radar by opening the menu and tapping on ‘Train Radar’.
Then choose one of the moving dots to get more information about an individual train. For example, see how fast it drives, how many parts it consists of and where it is going. This way you can also know whether there is a quiet compartment or toilet available before your train enters the station.
Check the facilities of a station
The NS Travel Planner comes in handy both in the train and at the station. This way you can see exactly what the layout is per station and which facilities are available. Tap the hamburger menu and select ‘Stations’ to request a list of all stations in the Netherlands. Here you then choose a station to view the shops, services and the map. For example, you know exactly what food you can get somewhere if your train is delayed.
Alternative NS apps for your iPhone and iPad
In addition to the app from the Dutch Railways itself, there are plenty of other apps in the App Store that also keep you informed of the latest travel information. Below we have listed some of our favorite alternatives.
- Rail planner (download for free)
- Google Maps (download for free)
- Train 2 (download for free)
- 9292ov (download for free)
- Moovit (download for free)
- HERE WeGo (download for free)
What is your favorite app for traveling by public transport? Let us know in the comments!