Opal Card Fare Issues

[mandonov]

Is that rule only a thing because there are 7 stations in the CBD?

[boronia]

I am only going by the material published, but I read it as being the 7 nearby stations to Sydenham, not 7 stations in every direction.

The 7 closest stations to Sydenham are likely Tempe, Wolli Creek, St Peters, Erskineville, Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and Hurlstone Park.

Where is this "published material"? I couldn't find it on the Opal website, although I may not be using the correct search terms.

[Passenger 57]

A ministerial press release if I recall correctly some time around the drafting a IPART report.

[boronia]

I watched a couple of UNSW students getting on a bus the other day. Both triggered to "low balance" alarm and showed a balance of just $0.41.

They only went a couple of stops, and when they tapped off, the reader showed a $0.00 fare and their balance remained at $0.41.

So if you have a low balance, the system doesn't take what you have left?

[mandonov]

That means they reached a cap, be it daily or weekly, but only had the 41c on the card.

[boronia]

A possible scenario, but I think the time this occurred would not support either cap, mid morning, mid week.

[Frosty]

Could of been a transfer possibly ?

[mandonov]

The only other scenario I can think of is if it's within the transfer window and the couple stops they travelled was still in the same fare band.

[boronia]

OK, so under normal single fare circumstances, the system would have taken their $0.41 balances down to zero? That was the intention of my question.

[mandonov]

No it would go into a negative balance if that $0.41 is enough for the minimum fare. If it isn't, then it will be a red "Balance Too Low" alert when tapping on.

[andy_centralcoast]

Channel 7 news had an "exclusive" report last night that Opal barriers at the Airport stations will be upgraded to prevent people tapping off unless they have a minimum $20 balance.

[rogf24]

Will there be top up machines inside the gates at the airport stations? Wouldn't make sense to do this unless there were.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

[Tonymercury]

an "exclusive" report

Meaning that TfNSW has told a select part of the media, but are not bothering to issue a formal press release.

[stupid_girl]

Will there be top up machines inside the gates at the airport stations? Wouldn't make sense to do this unless there were.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

There are already top up machines inside the gate.

[andy_centralcoast]

an "exclusive" report

Meaning that TfNSW has told a select part of the media, but are not bothering to issue a formal press release.

Channel 7 have had a few "exclusives" like that recently, including some where Constance or Gladys gave interviews to 7 only. They also had pretty favourable coverage of the network meltdown on Sunday. Related?

[mandonov]

They've always had that sort of relationship with 7.

[Newcastle Flyer]

Yet again, another A to B Opal fare that shouldn't be there. We tapped on at "A", tapped off at "B", but my activity statement shows that I tapped on at "B", and off at "C". But we didn't use public transport between B & C.

And yes Opal still claims that the activity statement is correct. IF we did not reach our daily cap, that would have been an extra fare.

It also claims that we didn't tap on at one station, then off at another station, even though we did.

[moa999]

Kind of pointless post without details.
GPS tends to work or it doesn't.

Rail poles and gates are hard coded so would rarely be incorrect (there were a few in the early days that got installed at the wrong station but quickly fixed)

[neilrex]

Channel 7 news had an "exclusive" report last night that Opal barriers at the Airport stations will be upgraded to prevent people tapping off unless they have a minimum $20 balance.

Really > So if I am a tourist to Sydney and plans carefully to put the right amount on my Opal card, the system will still rip me off a couple of bucks ?

[Passenger 57]

Rarely are any media reports about Opal 100% accurate. People with Australian bank accounts can get a refund without too much difficulty. The cheque refund offered to international tourists is probably not worth the hassle given bank charges on international cheque deposits.

[andy_centralcoast]

Labor promises refunds for avoidable train delays over 30 minutes if it wins next election
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/lab ... 508eh.html

[Stu]

If Labor are in power after next election and there is an event causing severe rail delays, like any government in the hot seat, Labor will do everything to weasel their way out of having to honour this proposed refund. The parameters that they have set are fairly generous to provide some insulation from having to refund fares to customers.
- 30 minutes or more of delays.
- If the event could have been avoidable or if Sydney Trains are responsible.


ABC News. 10 January 2018. The first major rail emergency event of the year due to staff shortage. Constance claims Act Of God and bo refunds.
https://www.google.com.au/amp/amp.abc.n ... le/9316860

NEWS Ltd. 29 July 2018. Planned track work plus signal failures across the network.
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.new ... 680f836f8e

[Newcastle Flyer]

Yet again, the media couldn't get the correct train picture & state a few months ago!

[gld59]

News (on all media) have a pathological fear of words without illustration, so I think a lot of the time the pics / footage are just there for "this is what a train looks like", rather than specifically related to the story. I'm sure they'd show pics of Thomas The Tank Engine if there was nothing else available.

[jpp42]

I've been hearing a number of complaints lately about discounts not taking effect for transfers from trains to StationLink buses. People are paying two separate train fares even though the transfers are well within the time window. Anyone heard of this and know how / why this could happen ?