Netherlands Train System Report

I did not see any of those handy white and yellow train boards
NS - the Dutch Railways - is more and more relying on passengers using their smart phone for information. Those yellow boards for departure times (NS has never had white ones for arrival times) are nowadays limited to just one in the departure hall or at the platforms at larger stations. Instead you'll find a real-time electronic board in the station hall near the entrance to the platforms.

I'm sad to hear that the Departures charts are disappearing. There's something romantic about them. Yes, I used to travel with my own copy of the Cook's Timetable.

There's something romantic about them
You're totally right. I still have fond memories of those departure boards at Paris' Gare du Nord. Under the heading »Départs Grandes Lignes« you could dream of jumping on a train and travel to unknown cities.

Sam - we also found that finding the correct train would have sometimes been difficult without having previously looked at times/track numbers. The sign would say a train was going somewhere else, but where we wanted to go was actually one of the stops along the way on that train, and it was not listed on the departure board when first entering Centraal. Our stop WAS listed on the departure board at the track but sometimes you had to wait for it to scroll through to see your destination listed. I was using wifi only on our trip and didn't want to get caught out so I usually took some screenshots of departure times and track numbers before we left the apartment. That way I didn't have to worry about finding which track to go to.

For foreigners doing several train trips in the Netherlands, there is a new option called the Holland Welcome Pass (aka Tripkey). It works like the domestic transit pass called the OV chipkaart, but it's linked to your credit card account, so you don't need to worry about reloading it or paying 7 euros just to buy it. I used it in the Netherlands and it works on buses, trams, and trains all over the country.

I just have a need for single return train trip from Amsterdam airport to Middelburg over a long weekend. I assume that there is no need buy to train tickets in advance, just buying them on the day of the trip will be sufficient and safe. Not sold out etc.

Intercity to Den Haag. Change at Leiden.
That will be two single tickets. And they can't sell out. Dutch trains have no reservation. And there is no price difference between local (Sprinter) and express (Intercity) trains, except for international trains and the Intercity Direct. It makes life so easy.

Some clarifications: you always need to check in and out of train stations, regardless of the status of gates. You can do that on the gates where they exist, or on totems near all exists of a station in smaller ungated ones.

Rotterdam Centraal, Utrecht Centraal and other stations have international trains and closed gates. You can use the bar code of your international train ticket, or the QR code (even Thalys printed tickets have them), to open the gate. There are specific gates that read barcodes and QR codes, they have a scanner. It will read codes out of your phone screen as well. The gates at Amsterdam Centraal will be one of the last to be closed, they are all in place now.

Ticket machines indeed to not accept banknotes. They are going to phase out coins as well, as part of a project to get rid of cash transactions on public transportation (you already cannot use cash to buy tickets in several bus systems in the country, it's either OV Chipkaart or a bank card).

I highly recommend people travelling by rain in Netherlands to download the free app NS Reisplanner Xtra. Most trains have free on-board wi-fi. The app gives precise real-time updates on the train system, it is as up-to-date as the screens you see on stations.

Yes, there is free Wi-Fi available on most trains (Wi-Fi in de trein is the name of the network you are looking for).