Lost bicycle keys again, who does not know this problem? As of today, the Dutch Railways will introduce public transport bicycles with a new lock. This new lock is an electronic lock and can be opened with your OV chip card. You hold your OV-chipkaart against the lock, the lock opens and the rental starts automatically if you have an OV-bicycle subscription. If you want to park and lock your public transport bicycle somewhere along the way, you have to press the button for one second. Then push the ring lock a little down, this will unlock the chain lock. Close the ring lock and the chain lock. This OV-fiets can only be opened again with your OV-chipkaart. You hold your OV chip card against it and keep the button pressed for three seconds, then you can detach the chain.

Your OV chip card is therefore the key to the OV bicycle, you no longer need a key. You do not have to visit a service employee to rent a public transport bicycle, or look at the self-service rental location for the bicycle that belongs to the key. The rented public transport bicycle must be returned to the location where you rented it. You place the bicycle on the public transport bicycle spot and close the lock by pressing the button for 1 second and closing the ring lock again. Your public transport bicycle ride will now be closed automatically.

The bicycle shed at Apeldoorn station is the first bicycle shed with public transport bicycles with these new electronic locks. Here, all 400 public transport bicycles are equipped with an electronic bicycle lock, which can be opened with the OV chip card. The intention is that more and more public transport bicycles will be fitted with this electronic lock by 2021. The NS expects that approximately seventy percent of public transport bicycles will have a new electronic lock by the end of this year.

Photo above and below: NS image bank.

Also read: Number of NS passengers has fallen dramatically compared to 2019