*Opal Card INFRASTRUCTURE roll-out progress ONLY*

[matthewg]

Noticed something about the Opal poles on the stations - the pole itself must be manually programmed with it's location. One of the poles on my local station now thinks it's one station further down the line that it really is. So 'randomly' (depending on which reader of 4 you use at the time) you get tapped on/off at the wrong station.

In my case it doesn't matter as the fare is the same either way, but other people may have gotten overcharged and unless they keep checking their Opal history like I do, they would never notice.

I never expected a fixed pole to have a 'geolocation' error.

I had sort of expected the poles to auto-configure off the station controller, but if they did, this sort of mistake couldn't happen.

[Jurassic_Joke]

Reviving a long dead project, but good on them. The next station to receive new Opal gates, North Sydney.

6BE34C94-9E2F-4D70-A125-1FA7155F2DB5.jpeg (82.33 KiB) Viewed 2453 times

[swtt]

Reviving a long dead project, but good on them. The next station to receive new Opal gates, North Sydney.

6BE34C94-9E2F-4D70-A125-1FA7155F2DB5.jpeg

I get the gut feeling they're actually slower to open than the usual gates?

Sent from my Huawei Mate 9 using Tapatalk

[andy_centralcoast]

I initially found them a bit slower and more temperamental especially if you followed someone too closely, but you get used to it and now I don't notice it anymore.

[boronia]

Reviving a long dead project, but good on them. The next station to receive new Opal gates, North Sydney.

And I guess the wide gates will be left opened, rendering these pointless.

[Passenger 57]

One of the poles on my local station now thinks it's one station further down the line that it really is. So 'randomly' (depending on which reader of 4 you use at the time) you get tapped on/off at the wrong station.

In my case it doesn't matter as the fare is the same either way, but other people may have gotten overcharged and unless they keep checking their Opal history like I do, they would never notice.

Or undercharged of course. Very convenient if you wish to travel between that pole and the other station. Free trip! Or do it repeatedly, get a free room and board at a Government resort.

I had sort of expected the poles to auto-configure off the station controller, but if they did, this sort of mistake couldn't happen.

I've come to the realisation that I need to lower my expectations about anything associated with the Opal project

[boxythingy]

Readers previously on Platform 4 base of stairs have been removed at Tempe Station

[Jurassic_Joke]

Top-up machines have been placed inside the gates in the two airport stations I see. I think they are getting ready to, if they haven't already, fix the airport loophole by not allowing a tap-off if the cards balance goes into negative although I see nothing on the Opal website.

Looks like its an episode of Constance fixing yet another part of Gladys’ patchy loophole-ridden system.

[BeauGiles]

Top-up machines have been placed inside the gates in the two airport stations I see. I think they are getting ready to, if they haven't already, fix the airport loophole by not allowing a tap-off if the cards balance goes into negative although I see nothing on the Opal website.

Looks like its an episode of Constance fixing yet another part of Gladys’ patchy loophole-ridden system.

I think the top up machine, at least at Domestic, has been there at least a year.
I don't think the 'logic' to prevent cards without enough balance out of the gate at the airport has happened though.

[pgt]

I think the top up machine, at least at Domestic, has been there at least a year.
I don't think the 'logic' to prevent cards without enough balance out of the gate at the airport has happened though.

Domestic may have been there even longer; International I know was there when I went through it back in September last year.

I get the feeling re implementing the logic to prevent insufficient balance cards from exiting might be a question of whether they can do it - easily - just for those two stations, or whether it has to be done for all stations (a-la Japan, where they have fare adjustment machines at the exit barriers at stations).
Though yes it is probably just a matter of time before it happens, so probably more a question of "when, not if".

[Passenger 57]

The airport Stations already have different logic in their readers so I don't see why there would be a technical impediment. I can't imagine that variations to Opal come very cheaply though. I suspect it will happen even if it is uneconomical because it is a something of an embarrassment.

[Jurassic_Joke]

Top-up machines have been placed inside the gates in the two airport stations I see. I think they are getting ready to, if they haven't already, fix the airport loophole by not allowing a tap-off if the cards balance goes into negative although I see nothing on the Opal website.

Looks like its an episode of Constance fixing yet another part of Gladys’ patchy loophole-ridden system.

I think the top up machine, at least at Domestic, has been there at least a year.
I don't think the 'logic' to prevent cards without enough balance out of the gate at the airport has happened though.

I see... I stand corrected. I don't usually take the train to the airport, so when I saw them inside the gates where its not like that at any other station, I just assumed ^

Well, they have the appropriate infrastructure in place. They've been able to code Opal on the other side of the barriers to not let anyone in if they dont have the minimum airport fee + minimum train fare on their card. Its surely not that difficult to put something in reverse for tapping off. Each day they let it go by as people use this loophole, think of all the $14.30's gone in go, never to be recovered. *shrug*. Up to you, NSW Transport.

[moa999]

They've been able to code Opal on the other side of the barriers to not let anyone in if they dont have the minimum airport fee + minimum train fare on their card.

But that's part of the programme from the beginning - min fare applying at the time plus any location specific fees.

I suspect there isn't any programming for check of balance at tap off at all as the cards have been designed to be allowed to go slightly negative.