All Dutch buses may eliminate cash fares on robbery fears

Cash payments on buses may soon be a thing of the bast in large parts of the Netherlands, following a series of robberies involving buses and bus drivers in Amsterdam-Noord, a teenager who used a shotgun in an incident last month and two knife-wielding men in clown masks attacking a bus driver last week. On Friday Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan announced that cash payments on the bus will no longer be possible by the end of the year. A spokesperson for Arivva Nederland, which is responsible for much of the Netherlands' bus transport, told BNR that the company also wants to stop cash payments. The company is already running a experiment with card payments on buses only in Zuid-Holland. Arivva wants to extend this to the rest of the country, and completely abolish cash payments. Connexxion is also busy with a project to reduce the use of cash on buses, according to news wire ANP. Whether cash payments on buses will actually be abolished by the end of the year, remains a question. Dutch law states that bus drivers have to accept cash. To ban cash payments, the law will have to be amended.