Barriers Remain to Dutch Smart Card Introduction

By Badcock, Peter

The Netherlands could be one of the first countries in the world to implement a national public transport smart card. But as Peter Badcock reports, plans to expand the system across the whole country are being dogged by technical difficulties. PLANS to introduce a nationwide public transport smart card called OV-Chipkaart have considerable political support in the Netherlands. The Lower House of the Dutch parliament wants transport secretary of state Mrs Tineke Huizinga to give more impetus to the introduction of the OVChipkaart, but technical difficulties have dented confidence in it, and its introduction looks set to be delayed in many regions.

It will be difficult for the transport secretary to take a more central role in the project because responsibility for the introduction of the OV-Chipkaart has been de-centralised to the provinces, larger municipalities and Netherlands Railways (NS). The aim is still to introduce OV-Chipkaart in phases by January 1 2009, running parallel with paper tickets for about six months before paper tickets are withdrawn, but the evidence seems to suggest this deadline is in danger of slipping.

OV-Chipkaart is currently on trial in Rotterdam (RET’s trams, buses and metro and some regional bus services) and Amsterdam (metro only) as well as NS services from Rotterdam Central to the Hook of Holland. The card can be used as a pre-paid electronic purse or loaded with specific products such as day tickets or season tickets.

The smart card is intended to offer a new level of convenience to passengers, but things are not going smoothly. Trials in both cities have been plagued by defective entry and exit gates and problems loading funds onto the cards. In Rotterdam, thousands of passengers were reimbursed after money was taken from their accounts but not loaded onto their OV-Chipkaart.

A software system is still being developed to prevent removal of the credit card from the machine until the electronic purse of the OV-Chipkaart has been correctly loaded, and there were too few ‘loading’ machines, which resulted in long queues of passengers. Furthermore, passengers could only check at metro station vending machines their recent journey transactions and the remaining cash value still loaded onto the electronic purse; an online service was initiated in October 2007.

Trials in Rotterdam and Amsterdam have been hampered by defective entry and exit gates.

Provisionally, there are two types of OV-Chipkaart: one for NS and one for regional and municipal operators. It is still envisaged that passengers will need a time-consuming and inconvenient check- out and check-in during the cross-platform interchange between NS trains and the metro at Amsterdam Amstel. Passengers are now being advised not to keep all their smart cards together when checking in and out after many complained that the same journey was being charged to each card.

Engineering and management consultants Horvat & Partners is supporting calls from consumers’ organisations for a phased introduction. However, it concluded that 16 of the 62 public transport regions are unlikely to be ready for introduction of the OVChipkaart before December, meaning it will be difficult to withdraw paper tickets by the start of next year as was originally proposed.

Some municipalities and NS also believe the January 2009 deadline is no longer realistic. NS has got no further than a trial introduction on the Rotterdam – Hook of Holland line and says it will not be able to introduce OVChipkaart on its trains until mid- 2009 at the earliest. Even then, passengers will only be able to travel with a ‘loaded’ pre-paid OV-Chipkaart and have the correct fare deducted on checking-out. Simple singles and returns will only become available at a later date. While 1100 ticket machines have already been equipped with the necessary hardware, the software is still being developed.

NS accepts that it will not be able to withdraw paper tickets until all its products are available on the OVChipkaart and its passengers have accepted the new system. NS is still testing hand- held smart card readers before issuing 5500 machines to on-train staff. Some installation of ticket barriers has started at stations on its routes to Lelystad and Schiphol Airport. To maintain commercial freedom and flexibility, NS intends to offer throughticketing, but with different fares on the rail and non-rail legs of the journey. Regional train operators of integrated public transport concessions will probably choose to use the same (lower) tariff for all modes.

Some provinces and larger cities want to withdraw their monthly and annual season tickets which are a convenient and relatively inexpensive stimulus for people to use public transport, especially for commuting. Instead, passengers could purchase a ‘frequent user’ card giving a 20% price reduction.

Losing support

The present technical problems in Rotterdam and Amsterdam and the resulting delays to the nationwide rollout are resulting in loss of public support for the smart card. The Dutch public transport users’ group Rover has drafted a basic list of problems still being faced by the OV-Chipkaart. Rover says the new smart card does not meet a primary aim in that it is not always quicker or simpler to use than a paper ticket.

In Rotterdam, RET only provides points to purchase the OV- Chipkaart at its metro stations while the paper ticket is available from many tobacconists in the suburbs. RET plans to introduce 100 more purchasing points at shops near bus and tram stops this year, and has recently initiated an online purchase and automatic card loading system.

The second requirement is that the fare structures are transparent, predictable and can be checked. Passengers should not be paying more for their trip just because they are using the smart card, yet some regional and municipal operators have been guilty of providing little fare information so far.

Rover also cites potential problems for passengers who need to use more than one mode for their journey. Interchanges between modes, especially at zone borders, still result in incorrect fare calculations, sometimes to the disadvantage of the passenger, sometimes to the disadvantage of the transport operator. It seems unlikely passengers will tolerate being charged a second fare each time they change from train to bus, or bus to metro.

Presently, this second charge is limited only to changes taking more than 35min, although this may prove inconvenient when changing onto services with only an hourly frequency. Furthermore, operators admit that clocks at ticket barriers are not currently synchronised so that even the fleet of foot may face a second charge on their card.

Transparency needed

There is still a lack of transparency on discounted tickets offered by various operators, most specifically for off-peak travel. Regional passenger operator Veolia was even planning to limit this off-peak price reduction to holders of smart cards issued by its own agents. Despite giving all its off-peak railcard holders an OV- Chipkaart, it is still not clear what reductions NS be will offering passengers for travel outside peak periods.

Customer information on OV-Chipkaart is another cause for concern and in many cases remains far from clear. Conditions of use are confusing to passengers because so many operators are involved. It is unclear who is responsible when something goes wrong and passengers can still only with difficulty claim back incorrectly- charged fares. However, NS has started recruiting additional service staff to help passengers with the introduction of the OV-Chipkaart.

Last September, the transport secretary prevented RET CEO Mr Pedro Peters from withdrawing use of paper tickets on the Rotterdam metro. Peters said this would be necessary to reduce fare evasion on the metro but the transport secretary concluded that the OV- Chipkaart still had too many teething problems and was inconvenient for those travelling into Rotterdam from smart card-free areas. Paradoxically, fare evasion on the metro has now risen to 25% because of the need to keep defective ticket barriers open.

Some users of wheelchairs and adults with children’s pushchairs find the ticket barriers difficult to negotiate, despite the installation of at least one wider gate at each location. The introduction of these barriers is also proving obstructive to pedestrians who, for many years have used station subways to move between different areas. An example is at Leiden Central, where gates sited at the station access points would not only make the university hospital less accessible but also deprive commercial units, on which NS makes a considerable profit, of much passing trade. At some locations non-rail users will still be able to use these routes for now providing they book in and out within 30min, but, of course, this accessibility will only be available to OV- Chipkaart holders.

Issues also remain around passenger privacy and data protection. There is no objection to the use of anonymous data to better match services to demand. However, NS intends to aim promotional advertising at selected passengers according to data gathered on their travel habits. The national data protection agency has yet to resolve this issue, but faces a dilemma because NS is contributing 65% of the project’s estimated euro1.2 billion cost. Customer confidence in the new system has been damaged by defects in both hardware and software, delays to introduction of the new system and the presence of too many partial solutions. Politician Mr Paul de Krom has calculated that for every year the introduction of the OV- Chipkaart is delayed, the project cost increases by euro50 million. This may help to explain why perception of the OV-Chipkaart is poor among the non-using public; particularly those who scarcely use public transport or live in regions where the smart card has yet to be introduced.

However, a recent governmentfunded survey of OV-Chipkaart users showed that, depending on several parameters, 54-78% of passengers found the smart card to be as good as, or better than paper tickets and season tickets. So despite the teething troubles, it seems the Dutch public may yet warm to the idea of a national smart card.

Copyright Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation Feb 2008

(c) 2008 International Railway Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.