Rotterdam experiments with travel account

The Rotterdam inner-city travel service RET will make it possible to travel on an account.  With this new scheme, travelers using RET (Rotterdam Electrical Trams) will pay off their travels at the end of the month. The technique that makes this possible offers new payment possibilities for the future, such as paying via a mobile phone and settling an account by swiping a bank card.

Director of RET, Pedro Peters, announced the plan on Monday. From Monday on, the first 100 people can sign up to the traveling on account scheme. After six months, everyone can sign up. The RET wants to make public transport more attractive with this new scheme. Research shows that 75 percent of people are happy with the OV-chipkaart, but it also shows that some users still have difficulty checking out, regularly topping up and the way in which excess payment of travel money has to be collected at the city transporter. These are some of the reasons why the RET is making this next step in payment methods. "This way it will soon become possible to introduce all sorts of other payment methods, such as paying with a barcode. Luxor Theater can then for example offer guests an ov-discount, because they can check in and check out with the theater ticket with a barcode", Pieters explains. A spokesperson from Trans Link Systems, which is responsible for the new service's technology, wants to start a test by letting public transport travelers check in and out with their bank cards, the so-called contact-less payment. "Other parties, such as banks, should also be ready for that", the spokesperson said. The new technique in Rotterdam is the first step.