It is extremely unlikely that the new public transport smart card will be introduced in January 2009 because of serious problems with microchip security, junior transport minister Tineke Huizinga admitted on Monday evening.

The minister’s statement follows a highly-critical report on the card’s security by London’s Holloway University.
The report was commissioned after hackers had managed to break the security system several times, opening up the possibility of financial fraud on a national scale.
The smart card, known as the ov-chipkaart, is supposed to replace paper tickets on all trams, buses and trains and is currently undergoing trials in Rotterdam. It has been developed by the public transport companies together with the private sector.
Left-wing MPs have called for an emergency debate on the situation. ‘This card is completely finished,’ Socialist MP Emile Roemer was reported as saying in the Volkskrant.