Passenger Rail, Research & Development, Technology and IT

2 billion trips taken on Opal cards since 2012

The NSW government has praised the success of the Opal card, after it was announced approximately 2 billion trips have been made by public transport users since the electronic ticketing system was introduced in December 2012.

The Opal card system began as a trial on a single ferry route at Neutral Bay during that month over 5 years ago and, subsequently, gradually expanded, across the public transport network, completely replacing paper tickets in August 2016.

“There are now more than 3.7 million Opal cards being used to complete more than 56 million trips a month and an average of 13 million trips a week,” the NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said from Wynyard Station on Tuesday.

“Now, in 2018, Opal geographically is the world’s largest electronic ticketing system, covering 40,000 square kilometres, 310 train stations, 44 wharves, 23 light rail stops and 39,599 bus stops.”

The government spruiked the benefits of the transfer discount, the weekly travel “reward” and other “incentives” that have been introduced with the Opal system.

$160 million has reportedly been returned to passengers via the transfer discount – in which adult Opal card users receive a $2 discount for every transfer between transport modes in the process of a single journey – while pensioners using Opal Gold are, collectively, estimated to save $33 million annually.

According to state transport minister, these savings, and the maintenance of Opal pricing at the rate of inflation, shows that the Opal system is achieving what it was designed to do: put the commuter first.

“Since Opal’s introduction in 2012, average Opal fares have not risen above CPI [consumer price index]. While we’ve made plenty of improvements to public transport and are investing record amounts in transport infrastructure, we also focused on keeping fares affordable,” Constance said.

The government’s reluctance to raise the price of transport fares goes against the advice of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, which suggested in 2016 that they be increased by an average of 4.2% annually over three years.

However, according to the Labor opposition, the government’s narrative neglected to mention the rise in average Opal fares by 10% since the phasing out of paper tickets from 2016.

“[Constance] needs to be honest in what he does in future with Opal fares. People should have certainty about what they can expect,” Labor’s transport spokeswoman Jodi McKay was reported as saying by Fairfax.

Constance indicated that the electronic system had allowed Transport for NSW to accrue valuable trip information and data that allowed for improved planning for transport systems.

“Since 2011 we have introduced almost 30,000 additional weekly public transport services and we have been able to design these services to suit our customers travel patterns,” he said.