7NEWS Australia published this video item, entitled “Billions of trips on New South Wales’ public transport system recorded by Opal usage | 7NEWS” – below is their description.
It’s been ten years since the first public transport fare card, the Opal Card, was introduced in New South Wales.
Former premier Gladys Berejiklian was the first person to tap their card. Since 2012 there have been more than 4.5 billion taps on the network.
Opal NexGen is due to be rolled out in the next five years at a cost of more than half-a-billion dollars. The government is promising the upgraded system will make it faster and easier to travel around the state.
Opal Card data supplied by the transport minister’s office:
As of 1 December 2022, the combined number of Opal card and contactless payment method trips taken on the Opal network is 4,470,297,397 trips.
This is broken down into:
Rail: 2,478,020,503 trips
Bus: 1,802,232,771 trips
Light rail: 98,862,307 trips
Ferry: 91,181,816 trips
More than 56 million Opal cards have been issued for contactless payments, more than 260 million trips have been taken up to August 2022. In August 2022, contactless payments accounted for 40 per cent of all adult trips.
The Opal card replaced paper tickets that were fully retired in August 2016.
– 7 December 2012: Adult Opal card launches on Neutral Bay to Circular Quay ferry service April
– 2014: Child/Youth Opal card became available November 2014: Gold Senior/Pensioner Opal cards became available
– February 2015: Concession Opal card begins progressively rolling out to eligible customer groups, starting with tertiary students
– July 2016: School Opal card commences roll out
– August 2016: Opal Single Trip Tickets introduced and all other paper tickets were retired
– In July 2017, Transport for NSW introduced the option to tap a credit or debit card, or linked smart device on Opal readers to access the same fares and benefits as an Opal card.
– OpalPay launched in December 2017. OpalPay is a convenient way to pay for travel using your Opal card on participating transport services, including selected private ferries and On Demand public transport.
– In February 2019, the Opal enabled Newcastle Light rail opened.
– In May 2019, the Opal enabled Metro North West opened.
– In December 2019, the Opal enabled L2 Randwick light rail line opened.
– In April 2020, the Opal enabled L3 Kingsford light rail line opened.
7NEWS Australia YouTube Channel
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