Under the six-month trial, passengers will be able to use a bank or credit card to activate ticket barriers for travel between Leiden and The Hague. NS has invited passengers travelling regularly between the two stations without a season ticket to participate in the trial.

Currently passengers must use the OV-Chipkaart national smartcard to travel on NS services and the trial aims to establish the feasibility of introducing bank cards into the check-in check-out system.

Passengers participating in the trial have a contactless bank or credit card from one of the six major banks in the Netherlands (ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, SNS, ASN Bank and RegioBank) or a contactless Mastercard or Visa credit card issued by International Card Services.

If the trial is successful, bank card payments could be gradually rolled out nationwide, although this will require significant modifications of the smartcard system as well as the back office systems of the banks and Translink, which is responsible for managing the OV-Chipkaart system and allocating revenues to public transport operators.