Yahoo Finance Bye-bye Opal card: Contactless available on entire Sydney public transport network
Say goodbye to anxious waits to top up your Opal card: contactless payments are now available across the entire Sydney Opal network.
Sydneysiders travelling on buses will now be able to use their credit card instead of an Opal card to get from A to B, NSW transport minister Andrew Constance said today.
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The ability to use credit cards across the entire network has been long-awaited since NSW Transport began testing contactless on the F1 Manly to Circular Quay ferry service in 2017.
Commuters using American Express cards will also be able to use their card to tap on and off on buses, trains, ferries and the light rail.
“This achievement marks the final piece of the contactless payments puzzle,” Constance said on Monday.
Visa, Mastercard, American Express debit and credit cards, and enabled smartphones and smartwatches will be supported, following a gradual contactless roll-out.
While it used to cost more to use a credit or debit card than an Opal card, NSW Transport in July allowed credit card users to accrue the same travel benefits and discounts as Opal card users.
Those benefits include a discount when transferring from one form of public transport to another, discounts when a threshold of weekly trips are reached, and off-peak pricing.
However, pensioners will still need to use their Gold Opal cards to qualify for pensioner discounts.
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