Rail user lobby group Rover has slated proposed higher charges for rush hour travel, saying the scheme is impractical and will cost travellers a great deal more money.

Dutch Rail hopes that a more expensive ticket will deter people who do not need to travel during peak times and that passenger numbers will be spread more evenly throughout the day.

Rover says the extra fees will not only make tickets much more expensive but will create confusion about prices in general, with travellers confronted with as many as six different prices in a day.

Prices would also change during the week, as Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays are busy days and Wednesdays and Fridays are not.

The scheme is also unfair, because, Rover said, “a person who works in Utrecht cannot take the train to Alkmaar because it is not a busy station.”

“A teacher cannot decide to switch his working hours to Wednesdays and Fridays because the trains are cheaper,” Rover director Freek Bos said.

The ANWB, consumer organisations, student unions and organisations representing the chronically ill, the disabled and the elderly have joined Rover in a call to pull the plug on the plans.

Bos said he hopes MPs will ‘pull the emergency break” and vote against the plan. “They should reward people who travel by train, not punish them,” he said.

If the subject is not declared “controversial”, i.e. not fit to be decided on by the caretaker government, the next NS multi-year concession to operate train services will be the subject of a parliamentary debate on September 26.