Opal card for visitors: how to use Sydney transport

An Opal card for visitors is a card you load with money, then tap on and off to pay for trains, buses, ferries and light rail in Sydney. An adult's fares stop at A$15 a day, or A$2.50 on a Sunday, though the airport station access fee is extra.

On 1 December 2014, the NSW Premier and the Transport Minister announced that the greater Sydney Opal rollout on trains, buses, ferries and light rail was complete. The Opal site lists an Adult card for people 16 and over who normally pay full fares. It lists a Child/Youth card for ages 4 to 15 and for some NSW and ACT school students aged 16 and over.

Sources for this section: Opal, Opal for visitors and Types of Opal cards; The Indian Sun, Opal rollout complete; Metro, Cubic completes Australia's Opal smart card system.

Where to get a card

In Sydney, get a card at one of more than 2,100 Opal retailers, at selected Transport Customer Service Centres and Shops, or at selected Service NSW locations. The Opal site says some cards are issued with no value on them, so if yours has none, add money before your first trip.

Child/Youth fares are half the adult rate, rounded down where needed. The Opal site also lists its Visitor Guide in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese.

The Opal site calls an Opal single trip ticket a back-up for when you do not have an Opal card yet or do not have it with you. Machines at selected locations sell them for trains, light rail and ferries. A ticket covers one trip on one type of transport and is valid on the day of purchase and until 4 am the next day. It costs more: an adult train trip of up to 10 km is A$4.10 on a ticket and A$3.38 on a card. A ticket gets no off-peak discount and earns no Opal card benefits.

Sources for this section: Opal, Opal for visitors, Types of Opal cards, Top up, Opal single tickets and Opal fares.

How to top up

You can add money at an Opal retailer (look out for the Opal symbol), at a top up machine at selected train and light rail stations and ferry wharves, or with the Opal Travel app. Retailers take cash or a credit or debit card. The machines take credit and debit cards. Some retailers set a minimum spend or add a fee to cover credit and debit card costs. The Opal site lists Transport Customer Service Centres at Circular Quay, opposite Wharf 5, and on the Grand Concourse at Central Station.

Adult top ups at Opal retailers come in set amounts from A$10 to A$120. Online and phone top ups can take up to 60 minutes to work, and you must tap on within 60 days to collect them. So an online or phone top up may not be ready if you travel within the hour.

Your card needs enough value for the shortest trip on the type of transport you are using before it will tap on. For an adult card that is A$3.38 on a train (A$2.36 off peak), A$2.10 on a bus or light rail, and A$5.74 on a ferry.

Sources for this section: Opal, Opal for visitors, Top up and Tap on and tap off.

Fare caps and the Sunday cap

Opal caps your fares in three ways. The Opal week runs from Monday to Sunday.

The Sunday cap covers every card type. Once your fares reach A$2.50 on a Sunday, you pay no more in fares that day. On other days an adult's cap is A$15. The caps leave out the airport station access fee.

Opal also gives these benefits. Trips on the same type of transport count as one journey with one fare if each new tap on is within 60 minutes of the last tap off. If you tap on a different type of transport within 60 minutes of tapping off, such as a bus after a train, it still counts as one journey. An Adult card also gets A$2 off for each such change, and a Child/Youth card A$1. That discount does not apply between Sydney Ferries and light rail. After eight paid journeys in a week, the Weekly Travel Reward halves fares for the rest of that week, except the airport fee. Train fares are 30% cheaper on weekends, on public holidays and outside the weekday peaks, which are 7 to 9 am and 4 to 6.30 pm on the Sydney Trains network.

Sources for this section: Opal, Opal for visitors, Benefits of travelling with Opal card and Opal fares.

Train and ferry tips

• Tap on and tap off. Hold your card on the reader until it turns green and makes a sound. If you forget, the system charges a default fare for the furthest trip on that service, though never more than the daily cap. You can also be fined if you travel without tapping on.
• Airport stations cost extra. The Domestic and International stations add a station access fee on top of the train fare. The Airport Link Company, which calls it a gate pass, listed A$13.80 for an adult and A$12.40 for a child as at January 2017. The fee sits outside the daily cap, and on a Sunday the A$2.50 cap covers the train fare but not the fee. The fee has its own weekly cap. The 60 minute rule does not apply there, so tapping off and on again within the hour counts as two journeys, with two fees. To reverse a tap on, tap the same gate again within 30 minutes to cancel the trip and get the fee back.
• Ferries. On the F1 Manly service you only tap on, because there is just one stop. On that service the 60 minute rule becomes 2 hours and 10 minutes from tap on. On other Sydney Ferries services, tap on at the wharf and tap off when you get off.

Sources for this section: Opal, Tap on and tap off, Sydney Airport station access fee and Opal for visitors; Airport Link Company, Price of train tickets. Opal's pages of December 2016 list the earlier A$13.40 and A$12.00.

Before you fly home

If you have value left on the card, the Opal site says you can keep the card for your next visit, lend it to friends or family, or get a refund. A refund needs a form returned with the card to Transport for NSW, and an Australian bank account and address. Our tip: if you lack either, add small amounts at a time.

Sources for this section: Opal, Opal for visitors.