AUSTRALIA: The open payment ticketing trial in Sydney was expanded on November 27 to include the Sydney Trains network and NSW Train Link services that accept Opal cards.
Transport for New South Wales began a contactless ticketing trial on the Manly Ferry service in July 2017 using open payment technology developed by Cubic Transportation Systems with Transport for London, which owns the intellectual property rights. This was expanded to include all ferries and light rail in March, since when 235 000 trips have been made using contactless payment.
As well as Visa, Mastercard and American Express credit and debit cards, passengers can pay using mobile and wearable devices with wallets linked to a payment card. Daily, weekly and Sunday caps will be applied to contactless fares, but the weekly travel discount, concessions and the transfer discount remain available only when the Opal smart card is used.
Transport for NSW aims to roll out contactless ticketing to the Sydney bus network in mid-2019.
