Over 1,000 fines have been handed out to people using Rotterdam’s central station without a valid ticket in the past two weeks, Dutch railway company NS says.

The stations was closed to all but ticket holders two weeks ago.

In addition, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people loading money onto their public transport smart cards, the NS says. Before the station was closed, some 1,450 people a day were topping up their ov-chipkaart cards, but that has now risen to 2,500, NS officials say.

The number of single tickets being bought has gone up from 2,200 a day to 3,900 since the stations was closed.

By the end of May, 43 of the 400 Dutch stations will be closed to all but ticket holders, which the NS says will boost safety as well as stopping people travelling without paying.