NS trialling e-tickets
 

Dutch railways, NS, are trying out e-tickets that you print out at home. Just for normal train journeys.
At the moment they are only available to Dutch users (or those with a Dutch internet bank account), but hopefully if it proves successful they will open it up for other nationalities.
It would mean you could buy your ticket from Schiphol to Amsterdam at home, and in combination with your passport you could show the A4 printed ticket when asked by a conductor, or other NS personnel.
I'll keep you posted on this and hope they open it up to others sometime soon.

Thanks! That's good to know. Please keep us posted.

Why would NS require one to print the ticket on A4 paper?

spaarne I have no idea, I am merely quoting what it says on the NS site. Obviously most people, in Europe in any case, have A4 paper in their home printer so the ticket is presumably designed around that. It has to have you name and DOB on it as well as the date of travel and route so needs to be bigger than a normal ticket.
Since the OVkaart is being introduced later this year it will be interesting to see if they continue with this option.

We have a Dutch account and live in Spain...Good news for when we return to visit family and friends.
Thanks for the information.