The government has invested over €1bn in the new public transport smart card and not the €130m ministers claim, Trouw reports on Wednesday.

The paper says junior transport minister Tineke Huizinga now admits that the government gave Dutch Rail €500m in 2001 to pay for security gates and has put a further €226m into the development of the smart card itself.
Amsterdam and Rotterdam city councils have also invested millions of euros in the project which has been dogged with setbacks including its sensitivity to fraud and privacy concerns.