Dutch Transport Agencies Set New Date for Turning Off 20-year-Old Closed-Loop Card Program–in Two Years; Will They Make It?
Transport agencies in the Netherlands, the first country of any size to accept open-loop fare payments nationally, are having a more difficult time with a complementary piece of their new system–shutting down their 20-year-old closed-loop OV-chipcard.
The group of Dutch transport agencies coordinating both the open- and closed-loop rollouts recently said it expects to finish the migration of a new “OV-pas” closed-loop card by the end of 2026. That means all bus, tram, metro and ferry operators in the country would stop accepting the aging but still popular OV-chipcard (OV-chipkaart in Dutch) by Jan. 1, 2027.
Netherlands Plans to Expand Open Loop to More Discount Products–as Growth in Adoption Continues to Slow
Public transport operators in the Netherlands plan to expand the discount products that customers receive when they tap their debit cards–with the goal of offering the same discounts as riders now get with the country’s much-used national closed-loop card.
This expansion has long been planned but is occurring as Dutch transport agencies see a continued slowing of growth of open-loop adoption nationwide. (See chart and table below.)
Death of Dutch Prepaid Bank Card Deal Shows Concept is Difficult Proposition for Agencies
The recent break between Dutch transport-ticketing agency Translink Systems and Netherlands-based neobank bunq is another setback for the idea of using prepaid bank cards in place of closed-loop fare cards for agencies already offering open-loop payments.
Bunq faced a lot of restrictions in how it could profit from issuing the card, such as a ban on using
Updated: Netherlands Stands by Plan to Retire Much-Used Closed-Loop Card by End of 2025
Dutch transport officials are still on track to fully retire the country’s nationwide closed-loop card program, OV-chipkaart, by the end of next year, the program director for the year-old open-loop OVpay system told Mobility Payments.
OVpay, the first major nationwide open-loop system globally, will likely only account for 25% to 30% of
‘Frankly Outrageous’: Open-Loop Pioneer Says Interchange Fees for Transit Agencies Too High, Especially in U.S.
Shashi Verma, chief technology officer for Transport for London and the driving force behind the agency’s landmark open-loop payments service, called for greater regulation of interchange rates outside of the UK and European Union to reduce fees agencies pay.
Special Report: Despite Industry Push, Few Transit Agencies Rolling Out ‘Closed-Loop EMV’ So Far
Transit agency Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, or SL, in Stockholm launched what is believed to be the industry’s first rollout of white-label EMV cards for its closed-loop customers in September 2021. To date it has issued around 1.5 million cards, which customers use frequently.
Dutch National Rail Operator to Launch Open-Loop Payments as Part of Nationwide Rollout in Netherlands
Nederlandse Spoorwegen, or NS, the Dutch national railway and by far the largest transit operator in the country, yesterday announced it will launch open-loop payments next Tuesday. While open loop will only apply to single ticket sales–a reported 10% of NS’s total trips–the launch is a major milestone for the Netherlands’ nationwide EMV payments project.