Rotterdam station closed to all but travel card holders

Rotterdam’s main railway station has become the first big station in the Netherlands to be closed to all but ticket holders. Some 100,000 people use the station on a daily basis.

The turnstiles were closed to people without a public transport smart card (ov-chipkaart) on Friday. The date was brought forward because of a number of violent incidents against railway staff, often carried out by people without tickets.

Last year, the NS closed off 24 stations to all but card-carrying passengers and it aims to close more this year.

Officials and reporters said the closure of the station had gone smoothly and most passengers understood the reasoning.

However, passenger Rob van Elewout pointed out on Twitter that casual users will need to have €20 uploaded to a chip card to be able to buy a sandwich in one of the station shops.

Others wanted to know how they could meet someone from a train without a ticket.

In December last year, the AD reported that Amsterdam and Leiden will remain open for the time being and Utrecht and the two main stations in The Hague do not yet have any gates.