Residents of the New England and Northern Inland need to demand the Premier of NSW, Chris Minns, to implement OPAL Card ticketing for our buses and trains. OPAL Card ticketing is a form of transport ticketing that is essential for all travellers in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. OPAL cards are similar in appearance to the plastic club membership cards. Passengers present the cards to machines known as “OPAL Card readers” that are located at stations and on most buses. Travellers “tap on” when starting their journey and “tap off” when exiting. The card automatically collects the correct fare from funds that have activated the card by the user of the card prior to the journey. Users “top up” the card with additional funds as needed electronically from their bank account or via payment vouchers from retailers.
OPAL Cards are a major planning and administrative tool that help make passengers’ journeys cheaper and easier. Generally, people who use an OPAL card do not require the booking of seats or pre-purchase of tickets to travel on a bus or train. Where bookings are mandatory, generally the ticket can be paid for with an OPAL card or a normal bank account transaction card.
Each OPAL card is unique to the owner and automatically permits discount and concession fares to be charged. Child fares, full adult fares and even the basic $2.50 pensioner fare are all normally automatically transferred when people “tap on” and “tap off.” A country pensioner entitlement fare for the train trip from Central to Armidale can be reduced from the full fare of $89.80 to just $2.50 with an appropriate OPAL card.
The use of OPAL cards on a bus is very similar to use on a train, as the card always remains the property of the cardholder. Most OPAL card readers on a bus are located near the driver at the point of entry. If card users have the card at the ready as they board, there is little delay as passengers “tap on” and the bus loads. “Tap off” readers are located near the exit doors.
OPAL cards or similar are in extensive use worldwide and the technology is well-proven and the ease of use is as simple as possible. The statistics collected by the OPAL-enabled network are a major benefit of the technology employed. No longer will we have to guess or use crude estimates of the number of people who use the train to and from Armidale Station on each and every trip. One survey indicated that the average passenger numbers are 37 passengers per arrival and departure, and the average fare is about $7. Public OPAL data available from Transport for NSW will show the accurate detail of the passenger movement and fares paid. Experienced users of this data can even determine the stations used by passengers.
This detailed data will be of major assistance with providing new services, making more suitable timetables and adjusting the number of seats on each service. Whilst OPAL cards capture lots of data about travellers, they are certainly not “Big Brother” as they do not identify cardholders’ identity in the data collection process.
Armidale Times readers clearly have nothing to lose and a huge amount to gain by the introduction of OPAL cards. If it is fair for those travellers living in Sydney to have the benefits and convenience of OPAL ticketing, then surely regional travellers should be provided with the same facilities.
Rick Banyard
rick.banyard@bigpond.com
041 999 3867