Hi, this post is for those with extensive knowledge of the trains in The Netherlands, and in particular, for Dutch_traveler who I am gathering is a local based on all of his very informative and accurate answers.
We are meeting our son in Maastricht (where he is studying at the university) and will be traveling from there to Arnhem. From the ns.nl web site, it appears that there are three different train routes we can take to Arnhem, with total travel time ranging from 2:09 to 2:33 depending on the route we choose. The one that takes the longest has only a single transfer, while the other two involve two transfers.
The shortest, involves transferring at Roermond and then again at Nijmegen.
But the transfer time listed on the ns.nl web site at Roermond is only 2 minutes. This seems an awfully short time to me, but since the web site lists it as a possibility, I am wondering if it is expected that passengers should have no trouble in making that connection. The site lists arriving on track and leaving on track 3B, so I suppose that could mean it is on the same platform, which would make transferring easy.
Furthermore, while the first and last trains are NS trains, the train from Roermond to Nijmegen is an Arriva train. And on one of the web sites where I was reading about the OV chipkaart, it said that when changing train companies, you are "technically" supposed to check out and check back in again on the card. So that would add even more time, especially if the machines to check out and check in are not located on the platforms. But not sure if that is actually necessary.
So am I foolish to try and use the shortest route because I run the risk of missing the connection, just to save 24 minutes?