Flying as we know is one part of the multi-modal mix of travel – it is normally combined with something else – be it driving, coach, train or metro.
KLM is making one of those connections, with passengers being able to book a train ticket from Schiphol to Amsterdam Centraal Station with NS Dutch Railways.
NS and KLM together – Rendering, KLM
According to the airline, the service is mainly intended for foreign visitors flying KLM to Schiphol and staying at accommodation in Amsterdam.
The upshot will be that you can book your entire journey in one place, and skip on the tedious queuing to buy tickets, or trying to work out how to using a ticket vending machine.
Previously, KLM passengers had the option of combining their air tickets with car rental or taxi service via the booking platform CarTrawler. The new train ticket is an additional option, not only making things more convenient when passengers book their trip, but also encouraging them to use rail transport.
In terms of booking, after completing the booking procedure, travellers are emailed their train tickets by NS Dutch Railways.
Beyond Amsterdam Centraal
Obviously, there are opportunities (and life) beyond Amsterdam, so NS and KLM will worth together to offer further domestic rail services to and from Schiphol from various NS destinations.
This fills one a big connectivity gap in the end-to-end passenger journeys, allowing people not to default to cars or taxies, but to use less environmentally impacting options instead.
Changes happen slowly – and it is something I’d like to see other airlines replicate (eg an airport to city ticket or onward connectivity). For NS and KLM – they found a way to do it.
It will be interesting to see if other domestic rail operators decide to work hand-in-hand with airlines willingly.
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The train is mostly filled with dirty tourists going to smoking weed. I’ll stick to uber, thanks.
This is nice but Schipol to downtown is one of the easiest train transfers to figure out on your own in the world. How about they tackle LGA-JFK transfers or LHR trains or….. Sorry to be negative as it’s a nice feature.
Love the idea – air/rail interline generally starts at home so product and operational teams can get a good feel for the model and implementation process. After this KLM should look to extend this to other away market destinations.