Last month, the State Minister for Transport announced that Sydney’s new integrated public transport ticketing system, the Opal Card, would begin operating in late 2012. (See here for
a list of other names considered for the new contactless smartcard
ticketing system. Ideas ranged from literal, i.e. “Ride Card,” to
downright bizarre, i.e. “Cheese & Kisses Card.”)
Integrated ticketing has been promised in Sydney since 1993. It was
meant to have started in time for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but
disagreement between the government and the contractor meant the system
was never established and ended up costing taxpayers close to AU$200
million. However, the recently elected government seems committed to
getting the system running.
While Sydney’s ticketing systems for buses, light rail and ferries
will mesh fairly easily with a new integrated system, heavy rail (run by
CityRail) uses a very dated ticketing regime. With that in mind, here
are the top seven issues to consider for the current CityRail ticketing
system to encourage more Sydneysiders to get on board.
1. Discounts for return trips
Sydneysiders pay the same for a single trip as for a return trip.
Buying a return ticket saves CityRail money by printing less tickets and
serving less transactions at the ticket office, so why not pass the
savings on to passengers? Although few other rail systems offer
discounted return tickets, they do offer discounts on multi-trip credit
top-ups. New York, for instance, gives a 7 percent discount on pay-per-ride credit top-ups of $10 or more.
2....
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