Public transport users in Rotterdam will only be able to travel with the new smart card from January 2009 junior transport minister Tineke Huizinga will announce on Friday, reports the Algemeen Dagblad.

The move means Rotterdam will be the first city to dispense with paper tickets for bus, metro and tram travel.
The city has been running tests with the controversial public transport chip card (ov-kaart) for two years. It was due to be introduced nationwide from January 2009 but the launch has been hit by concerns about fraud and privacy.
Huizinga has always declared that paper tickets would only disappear when the chip card worked properly. She says this is now the case, says AD.
Rotterdam public transport company RET says early glitches have been ironed out and that around 40% of all journeys on its metro are now made with the card. The AD says it did its own spot checks and found the figure to be 19%.
Huizinga now plans to have the card in place in major cities by the end of 2009. Regional bus services will follow a year later. Dutch Rail will choose its own date for the introduction of the smart card.