Opal card

Previous systems

Sydney has used a number of automated ticketing systems since the opening of the Eastern Suburbs Railway in June 1979. The Sydney Automated Fare Collection System (AFC) was rolled out across all government-run train, bus and ferry services in Greater Sydney between 1988 and 1993. The system featured loose integration between the different modes of transport, a complex fare structure and excluded private operators. By being limited to the services provided by the government agencies, most bus services in the outer western, northern and southern parts of Sydney, plus all bus services of the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Illawarra regions were excluded from the system.

A unified brand for the majority of public transport tickets was introduced in April 2010. MyZone was designed to simplify the fare system and remove one of the stumbling blocks to the introduction of a smart card. The AFC system was retained where it was in use, but tickets could also be used on private buses - and subsequently on light rail - by presenting a ticket to the bus driver or tram conductor.

Tcard

A replacement for the AFC based on smart card technology, named Tcard, was first announced by the government in 1996, with the aim of having a system in place before the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The contract was awarded to ERG Group, but was delayed until 2002 due to a lawsuit from the losing bidder Cubic Transportation Systems, which was labelled 'dishonest' by the presiding Supreme Court of New South Wales judge.

The development and rollout of the system was beset with difficulties, leading the government to terminate the contract in November 2007. The government sued ERG for $77 million who counter sued for $215m. The claim was settled in February 2012.

History

After terminating the Tcard contract, the government quickly moved to reset the smartcard project. It called for expressions of interest for the second attempt at the project in August 2008. In April 2010 the government awarded the contract to the Pearl Consortium, whose members are the Commonwealth Bank, Cubic Transportation Systems and Downer EDI.

In September 2011 the new name for the system was announced as 'Opal', chosen from a selection of 665 names. Transport for NSW said Opal was chosen because it was 'uniquely Australian', short, and easy to say. As well as the opal being Australia's national gemstone, the black opal is the New South Wales gemstone symbol.

Rollout

The first stage of the Opal card rollout commenced on 7 December 2012 as a trial on the Neutral Bay to Circular Quay ferry service followed on 8 April 2013 by the Manly to Circular Quay service. From 30 August 2013, Opal was available on all Sydney services. Opal was rolled out on Newcastle's Stockton ferry service on 20 November 2014.

The Opal rollout on train services commenced on 14 June 2013 on the City Circle and T4 Eastern Suburbs lines. The final stations were brought online on 11 April 2014.

A trial rollout on bus services commenced in Sydney on northern suburbs routes 594 and 594H on 30 September 2013, followed by eastern suburbs route 333 on 6 December 2013. The mass rollout to all bus services operating under a Metropolitan or Outer Metropolitan contract commenced on 14 April 2014 and was completed on 20 November 2014

The final stage in the rollout of the core infrastructure occurred on 1 December 2014, when light rail was brought online.

Single trip ticket machines were rolled-out during 2016. The process was completed on 1 August 2016.

Withdrawal of paper tickets

Opal replaced all pre-existing paper tickets, with these tickets being withdrawn in stages:

Services that accept Opal

Opal is valid on:

It will also be valid on the Sydney Metro and Newcastle Light Rail networks when these services begin operation.

Card and ticket types

Reusable Opal cards come in five different types, each with their own colour. These are: Adult (black), Child/Youth (green), Senior/Pensioner (gold), Concession (silver), Employee (Silver) and School (blue). Reusable Opal cards can be ordered online or over the phone. Adult and Child/Youth cards are also available from retail outlets, such as convenience stores, newsagents, supermarkets and at Service NSW centres.

The Adult fare card was the first card to be released, becoming available in December 2012. On 6 April 2014, the Child/Youth card was made available. These cards had to be ordered either online or over the phone. From 28 July until the end of September 2014, temporary kiosks were set up at major railway stations and shopping centres, as unregistered Adult and Child/Youth cards were made available for the first time. Opal retailers have distributed unregistered Adult and Child/Youth cards since 10 August 2014.

The Senior/Pensioner card was made available for ordering online or by phone on 3 November 2014. Between 11 November and 5 December 2014, temporary kiosks were set up at shopping centres to allow seniors and pensioners to order their Opal cards.

The Concession card is available to eligible apprentices, trainees, tertiary students and job seekers. Concession cards became available to tertiary students on 2 February 2015. To be eligible for the Concession Opal, students must be enrolled full-time at a participating institution. Students need to give consent for their institution to share enrolment details with Transport for NSW. As of 14 June 2015 the cards were available for students at over 80 institutions. The Concession Opal became available to eligible NSW job seekers from 29 June 2015.

The School card covers travel to and from school only. No fares are charged when using this card. Owing to the light rail's heritage as a privately run enterprise, free travel for school students was traditionally not available on this mode. The School Opal was introduced on light rail from July 2016.

An Opal card is available for holders of a free travel Vision Impaired Person’s Travel Pass. The card can be used to open ticket gates at stations and ferry wharves without requiring staff assistance.

The Employee card gives certain public service employees (eg. NSW Police) free travel on all public transport. It is not generally available to the public.

Non-reusable (single trip) Opal tickets can be bought at some top-up machines or from bus drivers. These tickets are available in Adult and Child/Youth forms.

Fares

Opal integrates ticketing on all modes of public transport; however, it does not integrate fares. The four fare types for reusable cards are peak period train, off-peak train, ferry and bus/light rail. All fares are calculated based on the distance travelled and are for single trips only - there are no return or periodical options available. Single trip tickets use the same fare types as the reusable cards but offer no off-peak train fare and are more expensive than the equivalent reusable card fare.

The following tables list Opal fares for reusable cards and single trip tickets:

^= $2.50 cap applies for Pensioner/Senior cardholders

Card fares as of 4 January 2015. Single trip fares as of 5 September 2016.

When tapping on or off at Sydney Domestic or International Airport stations, there is a station access fee of $13.40 for adult cardholders or $12.00 for other cardholders. However, for travel between the two airport stations, a discounted station access fee for all card types of $2.00 applies, and for travel between either airport station and Green Square or Mascot, a fee of $5.40 applies, but the initial balance needs to be higher if travel starts from an airport station.

Being a distance based system, Opal card users are required to tap on and tap off on all modes (apart from the Manly Ferry) to ensure the correct fare is charged. If a user does not correctly tap off after tapping on, a default fare will be charged, corresponding to the maximum fare on that mode of travel. However, a lower default fare applies if it is not possible to reach the maximum fare on the route for which the tap on took place. On Sundays, the default fare is $2.50. The default fare will be charged after a time-out period of five hours from initial tap on or if the user changes modes or taps on at a gated station.

Transport Officers and NSW Police, who randomly patrol services, are equipped with portable card readers and mobile phone based readers.

Trips, journeys and transfers

Fares are categorised in two ways: a trip is a single unit of travel, from tap on to tap off; a journey is a collection of 1 or more trips taken within a short space of time of each other. Trips will be counted as one journey if a passenger taps on for a new trip within 60 minutes of tapping off from their previous trip (on the Manly ferry the time limit is 130 minutes from tap on). Trips are used to calculate fares. Fares for consecutive trips involving the same mode of transport are combined so the passenger is charged as if they have taken just one trip, from its origin to ultimate destination. Journeys involving transfers between modes generally attract separate fares for each mode. From 5 September 2016, a discount is applied when changing modes during a journey. As of 5 September 2016, this discount is $2 for adult cards and $1 for other cards for the first eight journeys made during the week and half those amounts thereafter (when fares are also halved). The exceptions to the general transfer rules are the rail-replacement shuttle bus serving the Newcastle CBD, which is classified as a train and the Stockton Ferry (also in Newcastle), which is classified as a bus. Once the CBD and South East Light Rail opens in 2019, passengers will pay a single fare for a journey involving the use of both light rail and buses.

Once a journey count of eight is reached during the week (Monday to Sunday), all subsequent travel is half-price for the rest of that week. This discount was changed from free travel to half-price travel on 5 September 2016. An unannounced feature existed in the calculation of trips leading up to a completed journey. Whenever an Opal customer completed four trips on the same mode of transport (even within the 60 minute transfer), a new journey commenced. That allowed for the eight-journey discount to be applied after a number of short trips, typically between close stations. The number of trips required to force the creation of a new journey was increased in March 2016 to make it more difficult to quickly complete eight journeys.

Discounts

In addition to the transfer discount and half-price travel after eight journeys, Opal offers a number of other mechanisms to keep users' costs down.

Daily costs are capped at $15 for Adult cards, $2.50 for Pensioner/Senior cards and $7.50 for other cards. A $2.50 cap for all cardholders applies on Sundays. Additionally, weekly costs are capped at $60 for Adult cards and $30 for other cards. Weekly airport station access fees (which are calculated separately and not subject to other caps) are capped at $23 for Adult cards and $20.50 for other cards. The access fee cap was introduced on 1 September 2014.

Trains offer cheaper fares for travel during the off-peak. Standard peak times for trains are between 07:00 to 09:00 (for Sydney Trains stations), 06:00 to 08:00 (for intercity stations) and 16:00 to 18:30 (for all stations) on weekdays. Starting a journey outside of those peak times will attract a 30% discount compared to the peak fare.

Topping up

Placing money on to an Opal card is known as topping up. As of January 2016, there are over 2,000 Opal card retailers that provide top up services across New South Wales. There are also top up machines at railway stations, light rail stops and ferry wharves. Opal cards may also be linked to a credit or debit card, allowing users to top up their balance online or by phone. When linked to a credit or debit card, Opal cards can be configured to automatically top up the balance when it falls below a pre-set amount (auto top-up), currently $10.

IPART fare review

In response to a reorganisation of bus routes in the Sydney central business district that lead to increased modal interchange, in July 2015 the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) was requested to investigate the possible introduction of integrated fares in Sydney, with a proposed implementation date of 1 July 2016.

In December 2015, IPART proposed the following changes and invited public comment:

The final recommendations were released in May 2016 and differed significantly from the initial proposal as a result of Transport for NSW advising that some aspects of the initial proposal would be difficult to implement. The major changes were: replacing the proposal to charge a single fare across modes for an entire journey with a discount when passengers switch modes on the same journey and replacing the proposal to charge for the 10 most expensive journeys made during the week with a 50% discount on travel after the first eight journeys in the week. On 26 May the government announced that both of these modified recommendations would be taken up. The changes took effect on 5 September. IPART's other proposals were not taken up.

Top up machines

Over 350 top-up machines are installed at railway stations, light rail stops and ferry wharves throughout the Opal area. The first generation machines can only provide top-ups with a debit or credit card. Second generation machines provide top-ups and can also sell single trip tickets. There are two types of second generation machines - the difference between the types is the ability to accept cash in addition to electronic payment. All second generation machines also support contactless payment. On 11 March 2015 the first top-up machines became available at the recently-opened Edmondson Park and Leppington railway stations. This had been extended to nearly 100 stations and wharves by July 2015. In 2016 the second generation machines are being installed with 58 of the credit card only and 118 of the cash and credit card machines installed as at 23 June 2016.

Card readers

Card readers are used to tap on or off. They are installed atop existing ticket barriers, or mounted on a stand-alone pole at railway stations, light rail stops or ferry wharves. Buses are the exception, with readers installed on the bus itself. Opal only gates have been installed at a number of stations including Olympic Park, Bankstown, Central, Town Hall and Wynyard. When tapping on or off, all readers display the current balance of the card or an error message if the tap failed to work. Tap offs also display the fare deducted for the trip. A trip that is part of an existing journey will display "transfer" when tapping on.

Concession fare Opal cards have their own distinct 'ding' when tapping on or off, in addition to having a light mounted atop a train station or ferry wharf barrier lit up, allowing for Transport Officers and Police to identify and enforce correct fares.

The design of the cigar-shaped Opal card poles won the Transport category of the Sydney Design Awards, the Australian International Design Award and the Powerhouse Museum Design Award.

Supporting products and services

Transport for NSW operates the Opal website and a 24/7 phone hotline for customer service, card top-ups, orders and inquiries. It provides an "Opal Travel" app for Android and iOS devices. The app includes a trip planning facility, allows Opal card top-ups and provides access to Opal card data. Android devices that include Near-Field Communication hardware can scan an Opal card to access live data, including the card's balance, tap status (tapped on/off), weekly travel reward status, top-up status and card number.

Transport for NSW also sells a number of mobile phone case accessories that incorporate a pocket for the Opal card.

Reception and usage

As of 13 July 2015, close to 3.2 million cards had been issued, 355,000 of those being Senior/Pensioner cards. More than 50% of all registered Opal customers had set their cards to be on auto top-up. By June 2016, 7.7 million cards had been issued. The most widely used card types (in descending order) are Adult, Senior/Pensioner, Child/Youth and Concession.

Transport for NSW has stated that customers forget to tap off after about 3% of journeys, so they are charged the default fare.

The Opal electronic ticketing system has won a range of awards reflecting excellence in design for its unique card reader poles used at ungated ferry wharves, light rail stops and railway stations. In addition the project and its implementation was recognised for excellence by the leading national infrastructure industry organisation, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia. On 12 March 2014, Opal was awarded Australia’s 2014 Smart Infrastructure Project of the Year.

The different fare structures of Opal and the former MyZone paper tickets have occasioned debate. Despite being cheaper than single cash fares, Opal single fares were more expensive than bus and ferry TravelTens, and there is no equivalent to the all-you-can-use MyTrain or MyMulti periodical tickets. Corinne Mulley, the chair of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, described the launch of the card as a "missed opportunity" since, at the time, Opal retained many of the "interchange penalties" of paying for transfers, and Opal was more expensive than MyMulti for some multi-modal commuters. The then Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian rejected the criticism, stating that "we believe that customers should pay for the mode they are using".

An unofficial fare comparison site called Opal or Not claimed that more than half of all the public transport trips it compared were more expensive using Opal than with paper tickets. Transport for NSW disputes the site's findings, calling it "riddled with errors" and stating that only 7% would "potentially" pay more, but refused to release the analysis behind that figure. Oppostion transport spokeswoman Penny Sharpe said the government should set up its own similar website to Opal or Not to allow commuters to make their own comparisons. Financial planning app Pocketbook found that from a sample of 4,383 commuters, most are paying more by using the Opal card than with paper tickets. Transport for NSW disputes the findings but has declined to provide analysis showing the cost impact of the Opal smartcard on commuters.

Privacy

Significant privacy issues have been raised, as Opal travel information is available to government departments without a warrant. Among those who have expressed concerns have been New South Wales Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Coomb, the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW, and the University of Sydney.

During the Opal card customer trial period, all Opal cards were required to be registered with the customer's personal information. This allowed for feedback and issues to be recorded against an individual's account. Registered cards offer the ability to protect the balance and transfer it to a new card, if a card is lost, stolen or damaged. Data is made available to other NSW government departments and law enforcement agencies. Concerns about privacy have been repeatedly raised in the mainstream media, with commentators questioning the extent to which user data can be accessed by authorities. Since July 2014, unregistered adult and child/youth Opal cards have been available. In December 2014, University of Sydney delayed collaboration with the new Opal card system, citing privacy concerns, whereas Macquarie University, University of New South Wales and Australian Catholic University had already agreed to provide the "student data" to the card network.

Future developments

The Opal card will be augmented by a trial of a new system supporting direct payments from debit and credit cards, thereby removing the need to use an Opal card or ticket. The technology will be based on a system developed by Cubic Transport Systems for Transport for London. The trial will begin in 2017.