More than 420,000 school students will be provided with an Opal card at the start of the 2016 school year so they can travel for free between home and school while accessing the ease and simplicity of the Opal electronic ticketing system.

Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance and Minister for Education Adrian Piccoli announced today that parents and students will be able to apply for a School Opal card and get information about the card from next week.

“More than 4 million Opal cards are already in use and now we’re expanding Opal to give school students the same kind of convenience from the start of the 2016 school year,” Mr Constance said.