Opal Card Electronic Ticketing System For Sydney

A new electronic ticketing system, the Opal card, will transform the way commuters travel in Sydney.

Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian said the Opal card would launch with a customer trial from 7 December on the Neutral Bay ferry route. It would then be rolled out across greater Sydney for all Sydney ferries, train, bus and light rail customers through to 2015.

“London has the Oyster, Hong Kong the Octopus and from next month Sydney will have the Opal card,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“The Opal card will transform the way people get around, making public transport more convenient and seeing the end of ticket queues and fumbling for coins.

Public transport customers using the Opal card will ‘tap on’ at the start of their trip on each mode and ‘tap off’ at the end, with the Opal card working much like an e-tag.

The Opal card is expected to be available for all Sydney Ferries’ customers, at more than 40 wharves from Parramatta to Manly, by the end of next year, with the roll out to trains starting on the City Circle in the second half of 2013.

Ongoing fares for the Opal card will be detailed next year following the ferry trial, but Ms Berejiklian announced three key incentives will be in place to encourage uptake of the Opal card and greater public transport use.

These incentives are available for Opal card customers as the electronic ticketing system is progressively rolled out across ferries, trains, buses and light rail.

The incentives include:

- A weekly reward providing free travel after eight paid journeys in a week – for example a customer using their Opal card paying for two journeys a day to and from work from Monday to Thursday will be eligible for unlimited free travel on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays;

- A $2.50 daily cap on Sundays for Opal card customers– travel all you want and it will cost no more than $2.50 per-person;

- A daily travel cap of $15 from Monday to Saturday - helping tourists and one-off users travel affordably using an Opal card.

There is no change to paper tickets or other fare products at this time.

By 2015, 42 ferry wharves, more than 300 train stations and more than 5,000 buses and light rail will have Opal equipment operating in Sydney, the Hunter, Central Coast, the Illawarra, Southern Highlands and the Blue Mountains.