NS delay refunds split by fare type: a day return pays a quarter at 30 minutes

From 04:00 on Monday 31 August until 02:00 on 12 September no trains run between Dordrecht and Roosendaal, and between 5 and 7 September the Amsterdam Zuid to Rotterdam to Breda stretch and the Schiphol to Rotterdam stretch close as well. Both closures were announced in advance, and that phrase decides whether you are owed anything at all. The NS conditions define a delay far more narrowly than everyday speech does: a deviation from the timetable caused by engineering work or a closure announced at least one day before your travel day is not a delay, so the extra hour costs you nothing back. What does pay out is an unannounced late arrival of 30 minutes or more at your destination station, and the payout is a fraction of what you paid that depends entirely on which fare you were holding. Commuters meet this rule all year, not only during these two weeks.

The official compensation table splits it into two bands, 30 to 59 minutes and 60 minutes or more. A single fare returns half and then the whole amount, which matches what most people assume. A day return does not: it returns a quarter and then a half, and the discounted day cards sold through Kruidvat, HEMA and Albert Heijn follow the same quarter and half. Season products work differently again. Dal Vrij pays one thirty-sixth of the monthly amount and then one eighteenth, Weekend Vrij one twelfth and one sixth, Altijd Vrij one forty-second and one twenty-first. The student travel product is a flat 2,32 euro and 4,64 euro. Above all of that sits a floor almost nobody checks: if the calculated amount comes to less than 2,30 euro, nothing is paid. So the step worth taking is dividing 2,30 by your own fraction. A day return has to cost more than 9,20 euro and a single more than 4,60 euro before the 30 minute band pays anything at all.

• Two bands and the fractions: 30 to 59 minutes and 60 minutes or more; a single fare pays half then the whole amount, a day return only a quarter then a half, and discounted day cards follow the day return
• Where and when it is measured: lateness counts on arrival at your destination station, along the optimal route the planner showed before you left; a via-route you typed in yourself is not the optimal route
• Who this changes most: daily commuters, holders of Dal Vrij or Weekend Vrij season products, and families travelling on a discounted day card, because those three sit furthest apart on the table
• Limits and next step: a check-in and a check-out are both required, nothing is paid below 2,30 euro, one claim per person per delay with outward and return submitted separately, and the claim must reach NS within three months counted from the day after you travelled
• The high-speed line is the exception: on Intercity direct and the Den Haag to Eindhoven service the threshold starts at 15 minutes, half the usual wait

Hokimi field note: write down the fare of the trip you made most often last month, multiply it by your own fraction, and compare the result with 2,30 euro once. That single sum tells you whether a future late arrival is worth ten minutes of form filling. If your commute is cheap you will almost never clear the floor, and that is not bad luck, it is what the rule was built to do. Sources: source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4.