Skip to main content

Milestone for Opal smart cards in Sydney

Public transport passengers in Sydney, Australia, have enthusiastically welcomed the city’s new Opal smart card, being progressively rolled out across ferries, trains, buses and light rail in the greater Sydney area, with 10,000 already issued since trials began in December 2012. By 2015 the Opal system, being installed by the Cubic-led Pearl Consortium for Transport New South Wales, will cover 42 ferry wharves, more than 300 train stations and more than 5,000 buses and light rail systems.
August 1, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Public transport passengers in Sydney, Australia, have enthusiastically welcomed the city’s new Opal smart card, being progressively rolled out across ferries, trains, buses and light rail in the greater Sydney area, with 10,000 already issued since trials began in December 2012.

By 2015 the Opal system, being installed by the 378 Cubic-led Pearl Consortium for Transport New South Wales, will cover 42 ferry wharves, more than 300 train stations and more than 5,000 buses and light rail systems.

Figures just released by the New South Wales transport minister, Gladys Berejiklian, show that commuters have made more than 100,000 trips using the new adult Opal card to date. The Opal website, which was launched at the beginning of June this year, has already recorded approximately 100,000 visits.  Minister Berejiklian said 90 percent of customers were registering for a card online instead of by phone, and more than 70 percent were opting for the auto top-up function.

Cubic Transportation Systems’ managing director for Australasia, Tom Walker, said it is gratifying to see how enthusiastically Sydneysiders have adopted the new Opal card.  “We are delighted with the uptake of the Opal card and the benefits it is already providing to Sydney commuters,” said Walker.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Multi-operator, multi-mode integrated travel information
    February 1, 2012
    David Crawford looks forward to the completion of Stockholm's JustNu project. End-2010 is the target date for delivery of the final stages of Stockholm public transport authority (PTA) Stockholms Lokaltrafik (SL)'s ambitious JustNu (Right Now) integrated travel information system. Installation began in 2004, and the result will represent a large-scale and highly exportable solution to the need for harmonisation of traveller information in urban regions with multiple transport operators.
  • Cubic and partners recognised for innovative and disruptive use of technology in Melbourne
    August 11, 2017
    Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS, the University of Melbourne and its project partners received the OpenGov Recognition of Excellence award from OpenGov Asia for the development of the Australian Integrated Multimodal EcoSystem (AIMES), formerly known as the National Connected Multimodal Transport Test Bed. AIMES is Australia’s first large-scale, live ecosystem for implementing and testing connected transport technologies. The award recognises innovative and disruptive use of technology in the public secto
  • Conduent continues New Jersey contactless upgrade
    April 17, 2024
    Company also recently supplied contactless payment options on transit in Pennsylvania
  • Cubic, EY, support London’s contactless transport
    September 17, 2014
    Cubic Transportation Systems and Ernst and Young (EY) have spoken in support of Transport for London’s (TfL) introduction of contactless payments on Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and National Rail services that accept Oyster.