Surge in Opal cards as paper tickets are axed in NSW

THE first day with no paper tickets could cause chaos for Sydney commuters this morning as new single-use Opal card machines are not installed at every station.

THE first day with no paper tickets could cause chaos for Sydney commuters this morning after transport bosses admitted the new single-use Opal card machines were not installed at every station and there were reports some machines had failed.

There was a surge in demand for Opal travel smartcards after the last paper ticket on Sydney’s transport network was sold on Sunday.

Commuters in Sydney, Newcastle, Central Coast and Wollongong can no longer purchase paper tickets and must use either the Opal smartcards or new “last resort” single-use Opal cards instead — at a 20 per cent premium to standard fares.

Ticket offices will become simply, well, offices.

By 7am on Monday morning, commuters were queuing at Opal top-up machines and the new “last resort” machines as the paper ticket dispensers stood idle.

@TransportforNSW first day of no paper tickets and machines are frozen. Where's the public service gone? pic.twitter.com/Qh9fwHfgrV

— John Mills (@sti11q) July 31, 2016

There were reports some Opal ticket machines were off line just as the first rush hour of the new ticketing regimen was due to kick in this morning.

It comes as the Telegraph reported that 28 Opal top-up machines failed on a single date last month while more than 100 faults were registered on another day. A lack of technicians meant few of the machines were fixed by the target time of three hours.

when you forget that they're not longer accepting paper tickets and still haven't replaced the opal card you lost 🙂🙃

— viv. (@vvnvo) July 31, 2016

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) said it had received thousands of phone calls about new Opal cards in the past two weeks as the deadline neared with some types of card seeing an 80 per cent increase in orders during July compared to an average month.

But passenger advocates questioned why paper tickets were being phased on NSW’s trains, trams, buses and ferries before the system has been upgraded to allow commuters to tap on with their credit and debit cards — a step which is due to happen in just months.

From this morning you will never be able to buy one of these again. Picture: Jonathan Ng

SURGE

Two years ago, Melbourne’s transport system went paperless forcing commuters to use a Myki card or not travel at all.

Last month, NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said Sydney would follow suit on August 1 in an “historic transition” to a modern ticketing system.

There are now 3.2 million Opal cards in circulation which are being used to make eight million trips a week.

A spokeswoman for TfNSW told news.com.au there had been a rise in take up in recent weeks.

“Since the government announced the final date for paper tickets last month those few remaining customers have made the move to Opal with more than 10,000 phone calls in the past two weeks to the Opal Customer care service ordering cards and making inquiries.”

The biggest demand has been for the child/youth cards with an 80 per increase over the past month and the gold senior/pensioner card with a 75 per cent increase.

Ita Buttrose has been encouraging people in NSW to get their Opal cards ahead of the paper ticket phase out. But not all stations will have the machines that dispense the new single trip Opal tickets..

NOT ENOUGH MACHINES

The advent of single use Opal cards, that have to be thrown away after one trip, should avoid the anger experienced from customers in Melbourne who are forced to buy a new Myki smartcard — at $6 a go — if they leave their card at home. As a result many Melburnians have growing collections of Mykis stuffed in drawers.

Daniel Bowen, from the Public Transport Users’ Association, said moving from paper to plastic made sense but single use Opal cards were only useful if you could actually purchase them.

“The Sydney situation is different to Melbourne because they are retaining some kind of single use tickets,” he told news.com.au. “But it falls down if you can’t buy any kind of tickets at some railway stations.

“The key is, you need to provide plenty of options to pay your fare because if don’t have availability of tickets it may inconvenience those passengers who don’t use the system regularly.”

End of an era. Last day ever of paper train tickets. Off to Richmond for a pub lunch. pic.twitter.com/MYx1m0CYdH

— Matt (@MercurialMattyV) July 31, 2016

TfNSW said there were 355 Opal top up machines installed, “many of which also issue last resort Opal single trip tickets”.

However, the transport authority has confirmed only 255 of those machines also issue Opal single-trip cards and they are spread across the rail, ferry and light rail networks.

With more than 300 stations in and around Sydney, it’s likely around 100 stations will have no alternative option for customers that don’t have an Opal card.

However, transport bosses say this won’t be a problem.

“The machines cover most light rail and ferry wharves and at stations that cover 99 per cent of all train trips,” the spokeswoman said.

“With the vast majority of customers using Opal cards and 80 per cent of customers also topping up at Opal retailers or with auto top up there is no requirement to have an Opal top up and single trip ticket machines at every train station.”

Opal or out. Picture: Supplied.

Passengers will be able to buy single Opal tickets on buses while standard Opal cards can be purchased from 2100 retailers including 7-Eleven and Woolworths as well as online.

But Mr Bowen said passengers could still be inconvenienced.

“You’d have to find a retailer and how easy is that if it’s a long distance to (walk) and while you’re trying to sort that out how many trains have you missed in the meantime?”