The introduction of a system allowing people to pay for public transport by mobile phone was chaotic and the boss of the company in charge says the first few days were ‘worthless’, the AD said on Friday.

New figures show 4,702 people have managed to pay for a bus or train trip by swiping their mobile phones but most people who downloaded the app have failed to get the new payment system working, the paper said.

Translink director Arco Groothedde told the paper: ‘The first few days were worthless. I can’t say anything else.’

The system should allow subscribers to Vodafone, KPN, Telfort, Simyo and Yes Telecom to swipe their phones at check-in points rather than use their OV chipcard. The system is currently only available to passengers paying the full fare.

However, the chaos among KPN subscribers was so serious that Translink blocked new KPN users from registering to use the system. It is now being reopened to them but loading the app is still proving complex, the AD said.

According to figures from the Google Play store, the app has been downloaded between 10,000 and 50,000 times.