The test phase of the OV-chipkaart, a credit card-sized replacement for all public transport tickets, has been successfully completed in Rotterdam, the city’s RET transport company announced Thursday.

This opens the way for a national rollout of the card, which is due to replace all other payment methods such as tickets and strippenkaarten by January 1 2009.
The Rotterdam test, initiated in the spring of 2005, had been plagued by technical problems.