Opal Discussion and Observations

[Fleet Lists]

When was that?

[stupid_girl]

A sitting government of ether side would need to have a strong backbone even think about announcing a gold Opal daily cap rise without worrying about the outcome of the decision could be

Increasing adult fare is politically easier and also leads to higher revenue gain.

[Randomness]

The fare raise annoys me especially with the also recently announced $60 toll cap. What a lovely way to encourage people onto public transport by raising fares and subsidising Transurban’s monopoly as per usual.

[alleve]

The fare raise annoys me especially with the also recently announced $60 toll cap. What a lovely way to encourage people onto public transport by raising fares and subsidising Transurban’s monopoly as per usual.

FWIW I really don't think the fare raise is turning anyone off public transport. It's still far cheaper than other options

[boxythingy]

Under 3km bus and light rail fares frozen at $3.20 / $2.24 for second year running.

Well they increased the price by too much because they thought it would help with the social distancing aspect of preventing the spread of a certain disease, but it hasn't I'm now counting the days until my ebike investment breaks even.

[TheOpalUser]

Looks like Opal cards get to live for 15 years now https://x.com/theopaluser/status/173038 ... 51078?s=46

[TheOpalUser]

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/do- ... 5eo5u.html

Eighty-six of the 1412 Opal cards issued in December 2012 are still in use today, a Transport for NSW spokesperson told The Sun-Herald.

[Linto63]

Expiry dates for adult cards which was originally 9 years, then 11 years has now been extended to 12 years.

[Glen]

How can you tell the age of your card?

[boxythingy]

Have they been extending the maximum life of the cards because of a current global chip shortage which is affecting Pasmo and Suica in Japan, for example?

[Engineering]

When opal cards were first issued in Dec 2012 the opal system was only operating as a very small trial on a couple of bus routes. It wasn’t till 2014 that it was at all Sydney suburban train stations.

I wonder how many of these original opal cards were issued to genuine travellers on those initial routes, versus collectors or transport buffs.

[boronia]

Was the expiry date predicated on the anticipated life of the card, the chip, or data stability.?

Perhaps testing is finding these issues performing better than anticipated, and thus reducing the need to replace them?

[moa999]

When opal cards were first issued in Dec 2012 the opal system was only operating as a very small trial on a couple of bus routes.

Started on select ferry routes.. and you had to fill in a form and mail it in to get the card.

While I still have my original card, I've shifted the balance to a new one, due to the extra beeps warning of expiry (since multiple times extended)

[Linto63]

Was the expiry date predicated on the anticipated life of the card, the chip, or data stability.?

Possibly, the original nine years was probably a guesstimate as to how long cards would safely last before problems began to arise. With problems not having occurred, it has been decided to extend their lives rather than replace. Same thing happened in Queensland where Go Cards were scheduled to expire after 10 years, but can now be extended for a further 10 years, although does require a visit to a retailer or ticket office. In Victoria, Myki cards are set to expire after four years, but can be extended for a further two years.

[Swift]

A moot point in Victoria as fare evading is a culture in Melbourne.

[boxythingy]

Started on select ferry routes.. and you had to fill in a form and mail it in to get the card.

While I still have my original card, I've shifted the balance to a new one, due to the extra beeps warning of expiry (since multiple times extended)

Neutral Bay Ferry line to be exact, then it was more ferry lines, before being expanded to Trains onto the North Shore line up until Chatswood from Central and Eastern Suburbs line between Bondi Junction and Central from what I remember, then onto the select bus routes.

[matthewg]

Perhaps testing is finding these issues performing better than anticipated, and thus reducing the need to replace them?

There are two lifetimes. One is what the manufacturer says the expected life of the flash chip is and what they will guarantee the life will be. Seems Melbourne went for the 'manufacture guaranteed' life and Sydney and Brisbane went for the 'expected' life.

They can determine the average failure rate of the cards by analysing the backend data and calculating age vs rate of failure. As they know the serial numbers of the cards, they can probably break the life tie down to the batch level - some batches may have lower failures than others. So if your card is of the batch that is showing low failure rates, keep extending it when they are presented, if the batch is showing a high failure rate, expire them out.

There is some need to expire old cards or your readers are stuck supporting old format cards forever. Oyster didn't set an expiration so old MiFare classic cards (like our now 20-year-old cards) can STILL be used. Currently issued cards are MiFare desFires. So the Oyster gates have to support multiple formats forever. (My last few visits to London, I switched to using contactless, lately via my phone - my wife still uses her old Oyster card).

Melbourne could have (but probably hasn't) changed the format of the data on a Myki card multiple times - as they only have to support the old cards for 5 years. So 5 years after a file format change they can finally remove the 'old' code.

[iamthouth]

How can you tell the age of your card?

On the Opal login you can see when cards were ordered for a good estimate.

[boxythingy]

The NSW government has extended by two years a crucial contract with the private operator of the state’s ageing Opal ticketing system for public transport amid delays to a tender for a complex $568 million upgrade.

Dubbed Opal Next Gen, the project to upgrade the system will require the replacement of 22,000 electronic Opal readers on buses and at train stations, light rail stops and ferry wharves, as well as changes to back-office billing.

The ageing Opal ticketing system is “reaching end of life”.
The ageing Opal ticketing system is “reaching end of life”.CREDIT:RHETT WYMAN

Global transport technology company Cubic has had a $1.3 billion contract to run the Opal ticketing system for trains, light rail, buses and ferries in greater Sydney for the past 14 years. That deal was to expire in September this year.

Transport for NSW confirmed that it has extended Cubic’s contract to operate Opal until September 2026 under existing terms and conditions. The cost of the extension will be revealed in the next few months.

However, two years after ambitious plans to upgrade Opal were unveiled, Transport for NSW has yet to put the project out to tender. So far, it has spent $41.5 million on research, trials, and preparations for the tender process.

RELATED ARTICLE
A Tangara train pulls out of Milsons Point station on a journey across Sydney Harbour Bridge on Tuesday.
Public transport
Sydney’s old trains get $450m to keep them in service for extra 12 years
Just over a week ago it told the market that it expects to release by the end of July requests for companies to deliver a new account-based ticketing system.

Transport for NSW had previously planned for the Opal upgrade tender to be released to market in late 2023.

Under its latest plans, the agency will also put out to tender a separate package to deliver “end-to-end” support for the state’s 5000-strong bus fleet, which will include new back-office equipment to improve the tracking of buses and better predict when they will turn up at stops.

Advertisement

The planned contract for the bus fleet will involve installing new driver consoles, passenger counters and computer and communications systems.

Coalition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said the Opal system was a state-critical asset, and a lack of transparency on the upgrade was concerning.

“When government and technology upgrades mix, it is always risky. Delays and a lack of detail say this could be a disaster waiting to happen,” she said.

A spokesperson for Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the government was confident the Opal network would meet passengers’ needs as it gradually transitioned to a new ticketing system.

“Natalie Ward’s desperate scaremongering about Opal Next Gen shows that the Liberals have nothing serious to say about public transport,” she said.

Senior transport officials have warned since at least early 2022 that the existing system’s hardware is “reaching end of life” and needs to be replaced to ensure fares are collected.

RELATED ARTICLE
The existing Opal ticketing system is reaching the end of its working life.
Public transport
Critical upgrade of Sydney’s strained Opal system will take until 2026
Infrastructure NSW, which advises the government, will review the transport agency’s tender documents for the Opal project before they are released to market.

The agency said it undertook market-sounding as part of the tender process in late 2022. It was followed by a “request for information” from the industry in the middle of last year “to provide further information”.

The modernisation of the ticketing system was first announced in June 2022 by the previous Coalition state government, which described the upgrade as “like a Netflix for transport”, allowing commuters to order ride-share or e-scooters as well as using it for public transport.

Signalling that it is set to bid for the Opal upgrade, Cubic said it looked forward to reviewing the tender when it was released, adding it was positioned to bring new developments to benefit the state.

“As the developer of the Opal card system, we would like NSW commuters to continue to enjoy a system that is on par with New York, London and other major cities,” it said in a statement.

[Randomness]

That’s a shame to hear. Opal can be incredibly clunky for anything other than a card, and even then it can spit random errors for no apparent reason.

Good to hear about upgrades to those Wayfarer consoles though, they’re much, much, past end of life. Hopefully it’ll lead to contactless support in the regions too.

[Linto63]

Fares to rise by an average 3.6% on 1 July, $50 weekly cap, $2.50 pensioner daily cap and $2 transfer discount to remain unchanged.

How much your Opal fares will rise on Monday (Sydney Morning Herald)

[Merc1107]

I suppose not everyone hits their weekly caps, but it seems a bit counter-intuitive to raise fares when it will only make regulars that do hit the cap, hit it faster.

[Linto63]

TfNSW press release on 2024/25 fares.

[boxythingy]

Looks like sometime in 2021 there have been minor changes to how the Opal Transfer Discount works from how it was originally envisioned.

1. Before half price trips kicked in after 8 journeys were completed, the Opal Transfer Discount rate (OTD) would halve. This has effectively been removed again since last year's fare increases which eliminated half price trips. Historically, trips were free after completing 8 journeys, even if these were all shorter ones. There was no need for a half OTD rate in such circumstance.

2. Your second fare is effectively free, assuming your first paid fare is the higher of the two.

e.g. Adult off peak Train 0-10km fare of $2.80+ off peak Bus 0-3km $2.24 means you only pay $2.80, not $3.04 (had the OTD rate of $2 applied)

Based on this example and due to the short bus trip premium implemented as a COVID-19 spread mitigation measure that has yet to be removed (along with extended peak hour windows), this actively penalises and charges a premium on those passengers who only require a shorter bus trip to a railway station, but not the other way around.

Effectively there is a reward for people for making a shorter bus trip after taking a railway trip, but do it the other way round, you are charged a premium. $3.04 vs just $2.80.

Why the intermodal fare does not apply to transfers between Light Rail and Ferries, except for when transferring at Circular Quay remains a mystery.

[Linto63]

There are all sorts of anomalies with the fare system. The whole transport discount thing should be binned and in the same way that Brisbane and Melbourne do, the same fare be charged for journeys of the same distance irrespective of modes used, ferries perhaps excepted.