Yahoo Finance Opal fares to rise for Sydney commuters next week
Sydneysiders travelling on public transport will be forced to pay more for their regular commute from next Monday.
Three months ago, Transport for NSW introduced a 50 per cent discount on off-peak travel to reduce crowding and support social distancing, said Transport for NSW chief operations officer Howard Collins.
But the 50 per cent discount will come to an end on Monday 5 October, he revealed.
From that date, a 30 per cent discount will apply for off-peak travel on buses, trains, metro and light rail.
“Although this period has ended, we will be keeping a 30 per cent off-peak Opal fare for bus and light rail too,” said Collins. “Before the pandemic this was only available on metro and trains.”
Is anything else going to change?
Peak hour fares will continue to apply. This is when peak hours are:
6:30am–10am on Sydney Trains, Sydney Metro, light rail and bus
6am-10am on NSW TrainLink intercity services
3pm-7pm on Sydney Trains, NSW TrainLink intercity services, Sydney Metro, light rail and bus
Weekday and weekly travel caps also remain in place, as well as half-price trips after eight journeys in a week.
If you’re a Gold Senior or Pensioner Opal card holder, you’ll continue to get $2.50 unlimited travel.
And if you’re travelling on the weekend, you’ll still get an all-day travel cap of $8.05, or $4 if you’re a concession holder.
Don’t ride if you’re not masked: NSW Premier
The announcement comes as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian encouraged commuters to wear masks on public transport.
“You should not be catching a bus or a train if you are not wearing a mask, it is as simple as that,” Berejiklian said as reported in The Guardian.
“At this moment, we are continuing keeping our policy advice around masks under review. Data out of Service NSW indicates that following our advice to the community … around the importance of mask wearing, we have seen [an] increase of mask wearing.”
ℹ😷 In line with @NSWHealth advice, wearing a face mask while using public transport is strongly recommended. #WearAMask #MaskUpThumbsUp 👍https://t.co/yJaeGcVPAQhttps://t.co/wfldzu17Sy pic.twitter.com/gKS5gXdxkP
— Trains Info (@TrainsInfo) September 27, 2020
However, the premier has stopped short of making masks mandatory in the state.
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