14 Paper tickets get retired from tomorrow. So here is what you need to know/FAQ's

The NSW Government & Transport for NSW have announced that certain paper tickets will no longer be available to purchase from tomorrow, Monday 1 September 2014.

We have also heard that there has been some confusion about what tickets will still be available to purchase along with tickets that can't be purchased after tomorrow and we thought we would create an FAQ sheet to explain everything in detail to you.

What tickets are being retired?

As per the below table the following tickets are being retired from sale from tomorrow and will not resold:

• MyTrain: Adult off-peak return, Adult weakly, Adult fortnightly, Adult monthly, Adult quarterly, Adult yearly, Concession monthly, Concession quarterly and Concession yearly
• MyMulti: Adult monthly, Adult quarterly and Adult yearly
• MyFerry: Adult TravelTen
• LightRail: Adult yearly

(Source: Transport for NSW)

Can you still purchase Pensioner Excursion Tickets (PET) after 1 September?

Yes you can at train stations, at Ferry wharves, aboard LightRail services and onboard private bus services (run by Busways, Transit Systems Australia, Forest Bus Lines, etc). 

It is important to note that ALL Sydney Bus services do not sell PET's and you will need to pre-purchase tickets from either your local train station, 7eleven store or participating Woolworths Supermarkets.

Will Pensioner's and Adult Concessioners have an Opal Card to purchase and if so when?

The Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, has confirmed that Pensioners and Adult Concessioner ticket users will eventually be able to purchase the Gold Opal Card. However there is no official timeframe for this to occur and we here at Transport for All NSW have either been told (unofficially of course) that the Gold Opal Card will become available from either late September through to December and even early January and February next year.

If I purchase the current Adult or Child Opal Cards, will I be charged Pensioner Concession fares?

No. The Adult or Child Opal Cards will not utilise the Pensioner Concession fares and if you wish to utilise the pensioner fares, you will need to wait for the Gold Opal Card to become available later this year sometime.

Where can I pre-purchase Pensioner Excursion Tickets from?

You can pre-purchase PET's from either your local 7Eleven store or participating Woolworths Supermarket (we have contacted Woolworths Limited for a list of Woolies stores selling pre-purchased PET's but are still waiting to hear back at this stage).

You can also purchase PET's from your local Sydney Trains & NSW TrainLink Intercity stations on the day you wish to travel, however you cannot pre-purchase such tickets from these stations.

When the Gold Opal Card for Pensioners & Adult Concessioners become available, where will I be able to purchase these tickets from?

At this stage, we can confirm that the Gold Opal Card for Penioners & Adult Concessioners will be available to obtain through the Opal Website & the Opal Customer Care on 13 67 25 (13 OPAL).

However we cannot confirm as to whether the Gold Opal Card will become available to purchase at retail outlets. We have reached out to Cubic Systems Australia (the owners & builders of the Opal Card system) along with Gladys Berejiklian & Transport for NSW, but we have yet to hear anything further.

If you wish to find out more about the Opal Card, you can view the Opal Card website here - www.opal.com.au

Transport Minister & Staff refuse to answer questions on Opal Card for pensioners/concessioners

Yesterday, Transport for All NSW finally received an email letter response from the Transport Minister Secretary for transport and roads who is also the minister for the Hawkesbury region, Ray Williams, to which a lot of the questions we put to the minister about the Gold Concessioner/Pensioner Opal Card have been left unanswered.

The questions Transport for All NSW put to the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian related to the following:

1) when would the elusive gold opal card for pensioners and concessioners actually be released (we asked for a specific date, not the usual 'later in the year' crap)?;

2) how would the opal card work and benefit a person with a severe disability who may not be able to physically tap on or tap off?

3) can the minister confirm reports Transport for All NSW have found relating to private bus companies (namely busways) not selling the Pensioner Excursion Tickets (PET) to pensioner and concessioners come the 1st September despite the TransportNSW website stating clearly that PET tickets will still be sold aboard private bus companies excluding State Transit Buses (STA)?

Now these questions are quite easy to reply to and quite honestly as the NSW Liberal Government has championed itself in being fully transparent, one would think the NSW Government would reply to all the answers and finally provide more information that what is currently available right?

Well they didn't and won't it seems. Below is a copy of the reply we got:

We here at Transport for All NSW are quite disappointed that the minister nor the secretary for the Transport Minister have failed to answer all our questions and it certainly does beg the main question, is the transport minister trying to deceive the disabled and elderly community by not providing real answers and what is the NSW Government trying to hide?

We have out our questions again to the minister and will await their reply, but I wouldn't hold ours nor your breath sadly.

Opal Man - Transport for NSW latest campaign to make you fall in love with the new Opal Card

Transport for NSW and the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, yesterday launched their new campaign to make Sydney commuters, either regular or irregular,  to take up and love the new ticketing smart card, Opal.

However the more disturbing is that the ad, which features a gentleman dressed up in lycra (I mean come on - that's for going to gym or bike riding at best) with his head popping out from a massive black adult Opal Card. Even later on within the TV Ad which is hitting the airwaves in Sydney and regional areas, features two children in green lycra with little green Opal cards surrounding their heads for the children's Opal Card.

I am sorry but not only should the fashion police be called, the Minister herself should be charged with fashion horrors of the extreme to the public!

Now whilst the campaign won't win any awards for creativity (as you can tell it wasn't a big budget nor even thoughts out properly), it does go to help someway highlight the strengths of the Opal card versus current queuing issues for paper tickets.

Instead it does however highlight a huge issue, mainly relating to the still non-existing Gold Pensioner/Concessioner Card, which is slated to still come "later this year" whatever that may mean but highlights that such a TV should not be placed up as the full rollout has not yet been completed, with the remaining bus network still yet to be completed along with Light Rail service which won't happen until early 2015 at this stage.

For example, a family may have a disabled child who is of a pension age, but the parents may have the adult Opal Card, however because of this they will still have to line up, queuing to still get a paper ticket for their child.

The same could be said for grandparents. Where their grandchild might have the children's concessioner green opal card, but the grandparents don't, meaning they too would need to line up and queue to obtain their paper tickets before continuing on their way.

We here at Transport for All NSW have sent enquiries to both the Opal Card Centre, Transport for NSW and the Transport Ministers office, the last stating that enquiries can take up to one month to at least 2 months for a response (which is quite poor for a ministers office).

If you haven't yet seen the Opal Man TV ads, here they are for you below:

We are hoping the current incumbent NSW Government comes to their senses and announce the Gold Concessioner/Pensioner Opal Card soon, but sadly we doubt this will occur.

What do you think of the new TV campaign? Do you think Opal & TfNSW should have waited till the full roll out of all opal cards to the whole transport network is completed? We would like to hear your thoughts and suggestions

Rumour: Wheelchair passengers to get holders to place their Opal Card in - UPDATE!

After we reported earlier last month (June that is) that the Transport Minister would be set to announce the availability of the gold opal card for pensioners and concessioners, this morning after having a discussion per say with Opal card info people at Blacktown, I asked them what would happen for someone who is in a wheelchair who is unable to physically tap on and tap off their opal card and their reply was an interesting one.

The reply which I received was that they would be getting able to get a plastic holder which would ensure they could tap on and tap off. Now this got my intrigued and I asked how it would work to which the reply was probably the most typical of anything which was they couldn't exactly explain how such a device would work.

So I ditched the opal ladies and hopped aboard my train to work and thought I would ask my sources what they may have to say about this quite startling revelation. Unfortunately my sources didn't really have much to say and would not confirm NOR deny that such a device is going to be made available to people in wheelchairs who are not able to physically tap on or tap off at stations, buses, ferries or light rail stops.

So I have placed the question directly to OPAL directly who are yet to respond and it also got me wondering if the device would be made available freely to people with disabilities or whether a fee or certain restrictions be placed to get this device?

It also made me wonder what the device would physically look like and how it would work given wheelchair come in an array of various builds and sizes, so how could this impact how the device is being able to be used or placed on a wheelchair?

I am awaiting to see what Opal or the Transport for NSW will reply with and will inform everyone once a reply comes into the Transport for All NSW inbox.

Until then what would your thoughts be about this card holding device? What do you think it would like like? What will it be built from and how would it fit onto any and all wheelchairs available to us all?

 

****UPDATE****

 

according to other Opal Card sellers and sources, there are several prototypes being made however Cubic Sydney Australia (aka Opal) are still in the trial process. We are hoping to get some pictures or at least diagrams of these prototypes so stay tuned!

Sydney Rapid Transit - our concerns

The NSW Liberal/National Government announced last week that they will be extending the currently under construction North-West Rail Link (NWRL) from the end of the line at Chatswood to the city and onwards to Bankstown.

Of course all this hinges on the Liberal?National government winning the general election next March with the mandate to lease 49% of the poles, wires and remaining electricity generators.

Now whilst we don’t want to call the result for the Election next year, because lets be honest here, even 24 hours can seem like a lifetime, but it would seem on this basis the Liberal/National Government will get back into office albeit with probably a minority.

But to get the to the nitty gritty, there are issues with this plan for the second harbour train tunnel because it would seem they have announced this without doing any ground work to see if the route is viable or not.

So what are the issues with this proposal? Well the issues namely relate to the new link taking in the existing Bankstown line and converting it to rapid transit. The issues are:

• between Redfern and Sydenham the Bankstown line utilises the East Hill line tracks which are used for express purposes. The issues namely relate to how this will effect the East Hills, South-west and Cambelltown/Macarthur line and whether the government is planning to build new track between Redfern & Sydenham to seperate the East Hills line Express services and the rapid transit lines. This would also have an impact on a number of properties between Sydenham and Erskineville, as they would have to be brought and demolished for this to occur.
• How will the Rapid Transit utilise the current Bankstown Line stations. 
• What modifications would need to be done to the stations to allow the trains to fit into the platforms given they are smaller than the current double decker rolling stock.
• How long would the Bankstown line be out of action for the conversion from heavy rail to rapid transit
•  When is the upgrades due to occur and how lone will it take in total
• Would the Government need to build a bigger interchange station at Bankstown to allow people to interchange between the rapid transit line to the heavy rail suburban Sydney Trains service?
• With the new stations to be built in the city, how will the interchange be possible between the current Town Hall Station and the to be built Pitt St Station, being they will be on top of one another (according to the fact sheets released by the Government).
• Would the rapid transit be extended to Hurstville like it was originally planned to do so?

Of course these concerns are on top of the current issues surrounding how people with disabilities or requiring assistance will be able to get aboard the rapid transit trains being they will be driverless and not have any guards on board. It is also believed that there will be little if not no Public Service Attendant (also known as station staff) at stations according to various reports also released by the current incumbent government.

We have sought comment for these issues but are yet to receive any word back.

Rumour: Gold Concessioner/Pensioner Card to be Available either lateAugust or September

We here at TfANSW have heard rumors from people close to the Opal Card project, that the Transport Minister will be finally announcing the availability of the Gold Concessioner/Pensioner Opal Card either in late August or September.

The announcement which will be scheduled to happen a couple of days if not a week before the rollout of the Gold Opal card, is a welcomed move, however TfANSW still have concerns and so far to no avail been able to confirm how people with severe disabilities or mobility issues will be able to simply tap on or off at their destinations respectfully.

For example, there is a current policy for State Transit operated Sydney Buses to simply allow people with disabilities who are unable to dip their ticket in and out of a machine, can simply "hop aboard" without requiring to do this.

However there is no such policy for Sydney Trains or NSW TrainLink operated services and this certainly raises the questions, what should they do to fix this major loophole?

One option TfANSW has floated for the last 2 years has been the option of an e-tag system, where a tag can be permanently fixed to ones wheelchair (or walker, which ever is the case) and an e-tag reader be placed above the wide gates. When the e-tag reader reads the e-tag, a simple beep will be heard and the gates open.

This would allow users more freedom and ensure that they are being able to pay their fare without hassle.

We have reached out to the transport Minister, Glayds Berejiklian, for comment, but at time of publish of this post, we still haven't heard back.

New Opal cards for students & kids launched, but still no Pensioner/Concession Opal card availability

The NSW Transport Minister earlier this week launched the availability of Opal cards for Students & Kids, which can now be used as of yesterday (Friday 10th April 2014), but the question remained, what about the Pensioner/Concessioner Opal Card?

Well thats where a totally seperate press release was made a few hours later from Transport for NSW, in which the Transport Minister, (who in our own opinion is totally incompetent) Gladys Berejiklian stated that:

“I am pleased to confirm the Gold Opal Senior/Pensioner card will be available before the end of the year and fares for seniors and pensioners will remain capped at $2.50 for the day. I want seniors and pensioners to know that they will never pay more with a Gold Opal Senior/Pensioner card. They will have the same entitlements as the current $2.50 Pensioner Excursion Ticket.”

But it gets more interesting, the Minister then states this:

Customers will need to buy their Pensioner Excursion Tickets before they travel on buses from more than 1,600 ticket sellers across Sydney, including news agencies, 7-11 convenience stores, Australia Post and selected Woolworths stores.

It certainly seems that the Transport Minister doesn't live in Western Sydney or South Western Sydney, where most of these shops are far away from most bus stops and in deed most people with disabilities. Currently Pensioner Excursion tickets are valid from the day they are purchased and run out at 2am that night. Therefore the idea of pre-purchasing bus tickets is ludicrous and utter major stuff up from her office & Transport for NSW to say the most!

This certainly seems that little has been done to really think how this may impact and have operational issues for people who require and are entitled to the Pensioner Excursion Ticket/Fare, especially people with disabilities or the elderly who cannot walk or travel great distances to get these pre-pay tickets before trying to even board their bus service.

TfANSW has sought comment from the Ministers office and still awaiting any feedback regarding this matter, but also if the Pensioner Excursion ticket maybe be effected for all train travel on both Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink Intercity services.

You can read the full press release regarding the pensioner/concession Opal card availability here. You can also read about the Student & Kids Opal Card press release here.

Do you think the Transport Minister has through this out properly or do you think she should consult the disability and mature aged community regarding this change? Do you think the Concessioner/Pensioner Opal card should have been rolled out before now?

Opal card now active on all Sydney Trains lines - NSW TrainLink by the end of next week but not ETA for Concession or Students cards

Opal Card certainly has been successful in its rollout, with the new ticketing system now available and operational on all Sydney Ferry routes and all Sydney Trains suburban lines, with NSW Trainlink availability to become fully operational by the end of next week (11 April 2014). However one question yet remains to be answered - when will concession card holders and students get their own cards?

Now whilst most people might see this as a petty move, it actually isn't. For example, since October last year, the Sydney Trains, NSW TrainLink, Transport for NSW and the Transport Minister, Gladys Berijiklian announced that anyone needing to get concessional fares from the stations ticket windows after 9am, on weekends and public holidays, this caused major frustration and anger within the disability community, as this would make things a little more harder for people with disabilities.

For example, someone in a wheelchair, walker, or using walking sticks has to travel from Blacktown to Richmond or to Cambelltown cannot get a ticket from the Richmond line concourse, they need to head over to the main concourse to get their ticket, then travel all the way back to Richmond Line concourse to get on their services.

Now whilst Blacktown is only one "minor" case according to the Transport for NSW, there are similar issues at NSW TrainLink Stations such at Tuggerah, Wyong, Morisset on the Newcastle & Central Coast line, Mt Victoria on the Blue Mountains Line, Mittagong, Moss Vale, Bowral, Bundanoon on the Southern Highlands Line with Dapto, Albion Park, Dunmore, & Thirroul on the South Coast/Illawarra Line having similar issues.


Transport for All NSW has sought comment from TfNSW and the Transport Ministers office along with Cubic who run the Opal Card system on behalf of the NSW Government and we are so far still awaiting to hear or be given a reply in regards to this matter.