Skip to main content

New South Wales scraps paper tickets

New South Wales, Australia will move towards a modern integrated electronic ticketing system on public transport on 1 August, when the last of the old paper tickets will no longer be sold or accepted. Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said that customers have embraced Opal, with two million customers taking 13 million journeys a week. “Opal is being used for 95 per cent of all public transport trips,” Constance said. “Given the enormous success, it’s now time to stop running t
July 5, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
New South Wales, Australia will move towards a modern integrated electronic ticketing system on public transport on 1 August, when the last of the old paper tickets will no longer be sold or accepted.

Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said that customers have embraced Opal, with two million customers taking 13 million journeys a week. “Opal is being used for 95 per cent of all public transport trips,” Constance said.

“Given the enormous success, it’s now time to stop running two ticketing systems and move to one convenient system that enables future innovation.

“With the single electronic system we can move to the next stage in ticketing, with a customer trial in 2017 for tapping on with credit and debit cards.”

Since the roll-out of Opal began in December 2012 customers have taken 800 million trips and more than 7.5 million cards have been issued, including one million Gold Senior/Pensioner cards, 700,000 Child/Youth cards, and 350,000 School Opal cards.

A comprehensive information campaign will remind the remaining customers who don’t have Opal that it’s time to make the switch.

Related Content

  • Win for Cubic and Transport for London Win the Rail Business Awards
    March 4, 2016
    Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and Transport for London (TfL) have been awarded the Technological Innovation award at the UK’s18th annual Rail Business Awards, which recognises excellence and innovation in the United Kingdom’s rail sector. Launched in 2012, the contactless bankcard system was extended in 2014 to cover London’s entire transport network, including Tube, rail, bus and tram services. Since the introduction of the contactless payment scheme, more than 350 million contactless journeys hav
  • Co-funding available for European sustainable mobility projects
    March 28, 2014
    CIVITAS Capital is offering co-funding of up to 50 per cent for urban mobility projects. To be eligible, projects must focus on one of six topics: integrated planning; urban freight logistics; demand management strategies; transport telematics; safety and security; and clean fuels and vehicles. The project is supporting the take-up of sustainable urban mobility measures through an Activity Fund. This co-financing mechanism will encourage the transfer of successful measures from ‘pioneer’ cities to ‘take-
  • Vaisala: Weather data is vital for connected vehicles
    August 26, 2016
    Vaisala’s Dr Kevin Petty explains why the weather will continue to play a big part in road safety and traffic management in the smart cities of the future. The world is becoming increasingly connected. Thanks to advances in information and communications technology, the cities we live in are becoming ‘smart’, with everything from education to law enforcement managed by integrated tech solutions in a bid to improve quality of life.
  • US transportation policy needs to restart to sort shortcomings
    August 2, 2012
    Joshua Schank has no illusions when it comes to what he and the Bipartisan Policy Center are suggesting in Performance Driven: New Vision for US Transportation Policy. Released in June of this year, this major report (see Sidebar, 'The Shift in Thinking') advocates no less than a root-and-branch overhaul of the way in which the US transportation system is run - how money is allocated and how the beneficiaries of that funding are selected. As its name suggests, Schank and his colleagues are urging senior US