Maastricht is not a big city, and the city centre (where a big chunk of your life as a student will probably take place) is easily manoeuvrable by foot or bike; still, there will be times when you may wish or need to use the public transport in the city. Alternatively, you may be interested in visiting other places in the Netherlands, or you may have to commute from a different city to Maastricht. Whatever it is, here you’ll find the info on what it will cost you.
By bus
If you wish to move around within the city, the main (and only!) means of public transport available is the bus. The routes can all be found here, and you should also check out our section on transport for all the technical details of moving around in the Netherlands. Now, let’s talk money.
Bus ticket prices depend on whether you have an OV-chipkaart (the Dutch public transport card). Having the card makes things cheaper (by how much depends on the length of the journey). However, if you don’t want to get a card, for whatever reason, it’s no problem; you can get bus tickets on the bus from the driver. However, know that you cannot buy the ticket from the driver with cash. You will need a debit card. If you don’t have the card, a one-way bus ticket within the city will cost you around €3.75.
By train
Getting to and from Maastricht and other (neighbouring) cities is made pretty easy by the great railway system in the Netherlands. Information about the different lines can be found here. Again, prices mostly depend on the journey and whether you have an OV-chipkaart. The latter not only allows you to buy cheaper tickets, but you can also load different travel products onto it, which can significantly lower commuting costs. You can find more information about that on our transport section.
The Dutch national railway authority is called NS, and the website is very easy to use, including to find tickets and prices. To give some examples of prices, tickets between Maastricht’s three train stations (Centraal, Noord and Randwyck) will cost you between €1.20 and €1.80 per trip, without an OV-chipkaart. A one-way trip from Maastricht Centraal to Sittard station (around 25km, or 15 minutes) costs €4.90, and a one-way ticket from Maastricht Centraal to Aachen Hbf (around 40km, or an hour) costs €11.22. A trip to Amsterdam takes around two and a half hours and costs €27.40.
Other train operators include Arriva and NMBS (Belgian railway operator). Both their websites are super easy to use to find train tickets and prices.
Taxis
Taxis are not a common way of getting around for students, so we’ll only give a brief overview of the basic tariffs. According to Numbeo, the normal start tariff for taxis is €7.50, and the usual rate per 1km is €2.10.
