Opal Card - Is it really cheaper?

Sydney is finally moving into the electronic age with the Opal Card. The Opal Card is the new fare card for the public transport system. This comes after years of saying the system is too complicated to move to a fare card system.

In 2010, we saw a fare simplification move to the MyZone system. This much awaited move reduced
the number of tickets which commuters needed to chose from. During this change over the fares for longer distances were reduced and medium distance were generally increased. Some said that this was a political move to capture the Western Sydney voters.

This year (2014) we finally saw the system moving to fully electronic. This was after the failed Tcard trial in the late 1990s. Sydney is truely behind the 8 ball with moving to an electronic card. Other cities in Australia, such as Perth have already implemented an electronic card system. Most of Asia have embraced such electronic system such as the Octopus Card in Hong Kong (launched in 1996) and Ez-link Card in Singapore (launched in 2001).

The Opal Card has also changed the fare system. There are some of the benefits:

• There is a 8 journey cap per week starting from Monday. (Beneficial particularly for people using single mode trips.)
• You don't have to pay for your bike when travelling during peak hours on the train.
• Sundays are capped at $2.50.
• Daily caps are lowered to $15.
• Fares are generally cheaper for commuters making more than 8 journeys per week.
• You don't need to queue up to buy a ticket every week.

On the downside:

• Bus users who normally use Travel Ten tickets who travel less than 8 journeys a week would see a significant price hike.
• Bus and ferry users who normally share a Travel Ten ticket with their family would need to have an Opal Card each when travelling together. This forces users to put money in their cards when they might not be travelling on the bus often - especially on pre-paid buses.
• If you forget to "tap off" on a bus, you will be charged maximum fare. This is easy when you normally don't have to "tap off".
• The 8 journey cap is more expensive compared to the Monthly, Quarterly and Annual MyZone or MyMulti tickets. You can still buy these up till 30 August 2014.
• Like a credit card, if you lose this card, it is easy for people to use it on you if you don't realize and have not reported it. But it doesn't have the refund safeguards you would have with a credit card. So watch out how much you put in and your auto top-up options.
• Weekly caps are now increased to $60 per week.

Can we really trust the advertising all over our train stations when it claims cheaper fares? It's very easy to forget how much we are spending when we tap and hurry off!