Opal card ‘is losing millions’, with readers malfunctioning on buses

COMMUTERS on the city’s 5000 buses are constantly faced with Opal card readers malfunctioning, forcing drivers to let passengers ride for free.

• OPAL CARD COSTING RATEPAYERS $190 MILLION

CLOSE to 8000 Opal card reader breakdowns on Sydney buses each year are being blamed on major glitches in computer equipment and staff shortages at the contractor hired to run the system.

Commuters on the city’s 5000 buses are constantly faced with Opal card readers malfunctioning, forcing drivers to let passengers ride for free.

It has been revealed that servers meant to link bus drivers’ Opal consoles to the electronic ticketing card system’s main computer fail on a regular basis.

The “tap on, tap off” system failed on buses close to 8000 times last financial year, figures from the NSW Audit Office show / Picture: Opal.com

And staff numbers needed to run and maintain Opal are down by more than 50 per cent.

Cubic Transportation Systems, based in San Diego, runs the Opal computer system as part of a 14-year $370 million contract with the state government.

The Opal card readers are linked to a Cubic-designed central computer system that controls the electronic ticketing network.

The “tap on, tap off” system failed on buses close to 8000 times last financial year, figures from the NSW Audit Office show.

Drivers say the faulty card readers meant passengers travelled for free.

RTBU Bus Division secretary Chris Preston said State Transit drivers are fed up dealing with passenger complaints about the faults.

“Every depot in Sydney and Newcastle has the same issues with the system,” Mr Preston said.

“Drivers have lost their patience with the constant hardware crashes that cause safety problems and delays.

“The government is clearly missing out on millions of dollars of revenue because commuters aren’t able to pay their fare when a machine isn’t working properly.”

A Cubic TS insider said a major server in the commuter network that enables bus consoles to communicate with the main commuter sometimes stopped working.

“As a result of this server not working, a lot of buses were not able to run their Opal systems,” the insider said.

“For every glitch that makes the public news, seven or eight go unreported.”

The insider said Cubic TS only has 45 per cent of the staff it needs to fulfil the contract.

“Things are bad. Really really bad.”

In November acting Auditor-General Tony Whitfield found that Cubic TS is not required to have an independent body confirm that the Opal system is operating effectively.

Cubic TS referred requests for comment to Transport for NSW, which in turn said it was working with Cubic TS to implement software upgrades.

It said with more than 15,000 Opal readers installed across the transport network, including trains and ferries, the reliability of readers is almost 100 per cent.