I take back all the nice things I said. I just bought train tickets and it does suck.

I decided to look at it with fresh eyes and I don't know how any jetlagged passenger manages to buy tickets.

The machine that used to work for my credit card is gone.

Some machines don't take credit cards at all, and they are marked, but no traveler would know what the markings mean.

Many machines claim to take Visa, MC, etc. but none of them would even read my cards. These are cards with PINS and that normally work for me. I'd get as far as saying I'm using credit, the machine instructs me to continue with the key pad and insert my card in the slot. I tried every card in my wallet at several machines and never even got to the "enter pin" stage. They all just said "cancelled" on the screen. Maybe they only take chip cards, but then SAY SO, maybe I was putting in the cards the wrong way, but there was no instruction or illustration on the machine.

I had plenty of Euro bills, but not a single machine took currency, only coins. WHY???? This is just plain absurd. VENDING MACHINES take currency when you want a bag of chips for heaven's sake, the technology can't be that expensive or complex to implement.

If you happen to have enough coins, which I didn't, some machines have coin slots and some don't, but they all look the same meaning you need to carefully inspect for the presence of a coin slot before beginning your transaction.

So, over to the window to stand in a long queue of clueless people - 90% of them are buying tickets to Amsterdam Centraal, how about dedicating a window to just that?? And, maybe put a big display board above it saying "Tickets to Amsterdam Centraal only at this window, Single EUxxx, Day Return EUxxx, plus EU0.50 service charge, Cash and Credit Cards accepted, along with the upcoming train times and track numbers.

Then, I need to find the train. The only reliable way to do so is to look at the big yellow schedules and try to decipher it, but nothing tells you that either. The signs over the ramps to the tracks don't always show all the stops so you can't rely on that. Many times I've walked past all the tracks, scratched my head and then went to the yellow board to find "I need track X". Thinking I'd midread the display, I check and indeed Amsterdam Centraal is NOT on the display at the ramp, even though the train is stopping there. At Centraal there are boards specifically for trains to Schiphol, wouldn't it make sense to have the same displays for trains TO Centraal at Schiphol?

Not to sound like a fan of DB, but in Frankfurt every train that's stopping at Frankfurt Hbf always includes that on the displays even if other intermediate stops may not always show.

Finally, put a little airplane symbol on all the trains going to Schiphol, Frankfurt has figured out how to do this for any train going to FFM Flughafen, makes it all pretty idiot proof.

It just seems like no one has given this any thought, and I sympathize. This shouldn't be rocket science.