Tag Archives: Opal card

My Opal becomes the first app to directly read Opal cards

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‘My Opal‘ by Toastedmint has become the first app (that I know of!) that now actually reads the data directly off an Opal card using NFC

All you need is an Android phone with NFC support, and can be ‘unlocked’ with a 99c in-app purchase.

This isn’t exactly ‘brand new’, the ability to read a balance off a transit card, as it has been previously possible using apps like FareBot for the Clipper, EZ-Link and Suica cards. Or Hong Kong’s Octopus card with NFCard. The ability to read Opal card data is the unique thing here.

While there’s no shortage of ‘Opal’ apps that will scrape your account information and show you your balance and history, there’s a delay of anywhere from 10 minutes, to 1 hour, to even longer in some cases.  This also involves handing over your username and password (which is against the Opal website terms of use)

Due to the stored value nature of the Opal card and the way the system is architected, the card itself stores basic information so that it can operate without a need to ‘phone home’.

Transport officers already do this – the Samsung handheld devices can read the balance and other information off an Opal card (and submit an infringement notice from the same device), so that everything is there and ready to read and access. However, the Samsung devices that Transport Officers have, naturally have ‘officially sanctioned’ apps, including decryption keys to read more information than what My Opal exposes. For example, cards also store their concession/entitlement value, a list of transactions, etc – this isn’t exposed in the unencrypted area that My Opal uses.

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However, now ‘My Opal’ is able to read and decode the information available in the unencrypted area of your Opal card.

You’re able to see your card number, balance, total transactions, the number of journeys you’ve made this week, the last mode you took, whether your journey is in progress, what your previous tap was, and your last transaction (which is currently listed as your last journey date).

This information is considered up to date, as it is the information that the Opal card readers at barriers, stations, wharves and on buses will be using to calculate your fares.

The other benefit over relying on the website is that your last transaction date is listed – the website doesn’t list the tap off time, which can be important when it comes to the 60 minute transfer window. If you tap on at 10:00, tap off at 11:00, the only time shown online would be the tap on time. If you want to then start a new journey, you’ll have to remember exactly when you tapped off, whether it’s 10:57, 11:00, or 11:02. Now, My Opal can tell you.

Use of My Opal could also be a little bit iffy under the Opal terms of use. Use at your own risk, naturally – TfNSW would not be responsible for any loss or issues that occur from use.

My Opal is available on Google Play now.

Daily Telegraph: Opal is a nice little earner for operator →

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ALICIA WOOD, The Daily Telegraph, 20th May 2015

Millions of Opal card users are un­wit­tingly con­tribut­ing to a $10 mil­lion state gov­ern­ment fund, with the money sit­ting in their au­to­matic “top-up’’ ac­counts ac­cru­ing in­ter­est for gov­ern­ment cof­fers.

Opal card users who choose to au­to­mat­i­cally “top up” their cards are charged as soon as their bal­ance reaches $10 — and with at least half of the state’s two mil­lion users choos­ing the “auto top-up” sys­tem — the gov­ern­ment is hold­ing on to more than $10 mil­lion, on which it earned $176,000 in­ter­est in the last fi­nan­cial year.

Op­po­si­tion trans­port spokesman Ryan Park said there was no rea­son com­muters should be barred from us­ing all the funds on their card: “Not only is the gov­ern­ment pock­et­ing the funds, they are mak­ing in­ter­est off money that isn’t theirs, it is ab­so­lutely out­ra­geous. Opal card users who have ac­ti­vated the ‘auto top up’ op­tion are es­sen­tially be­ing charged a hid­den $10 fee for the priv­i­lege of catch­ing their train, bus or ferry.”

A Trans­port for NSW spokesman said the $10 amount was cho­sen be­cause it cov­ers the max­i­mum sin­gle adult train fare of $8.30 to the Cen­tral Coast, Illawarra and Blue Moun­tains.

The spokesman said any in­ter­est earned on the held funds would pay for the op­er­a­tion of the Opal card sys­tem.

“When a cus­tomer tops up their Opal card, whether by auto top up or other means, the funds are se­curely held by the Com­mon­wealth Bank who are part of the con­sor­tium work­ing with TfNSW to de­liver Opal,” the spokesman said.

“Any in­ter­est earned on the funds is used to con­trib­ute to the costs of op­er­at­ing Opal.’

The Opal Card gets a top up machine

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Today the first of over 300 Opal card top up machines was switched on, providing yet another option for customers to top up their cards.

Initially, these cards accept Visa/MasterCard/EFTPOS for top ups only, with machines accept cash to follow, and finally there will be machines that dispense ‘disposable’ Opal card tickets.

To start with, the machines are rather simple – you can only use them to check your balance, and top up with preset amounts. There’s no option to show a transaction history (e.g., the last 10 transactions as stored on the card), or top up a custom amount.
They also require you to insert your card – there’s no fancy PayPass or payWave support here.

The receipt printed by the machine is a standard EFTPOS receipt, but also has your (unobfuscated!) card number on the bottom.
It’s also missing your card balance which does appear on the ePay receipts from a retailer.

The first two machines have been installed at Leppington and Edmondson Park stations, with Penrith, Parramatta, Strathfield, Central, Bondi Junction, Chatswood and Olympic Park stations next on the list.

More information is available on the Opal.com.au website

Nine News Sydney: Opal Card users could be overcharged →

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Tonight’s Nine News Sydney had a segment on the number of Opal card users and their default fares.

Between August 2014 and October 2014, customers were ‘overcharged’ 1,205,556 times, with fares worth $6,228,928. By ‘overcharged’, they mean copped a default fare.

In October 2014, customers incurred 508,067 default fares.

From this, than 6% of default fares become enquiries for refunds.

According to the Transport Minister, more than 135 million trips have been taken with the Opal card, with the percentage of default fares across all modes being 1-2%.

Nine News Sydney reports that the default fare percentage on buses can be up to 5%.

And then you have people like this…. tapping on at the gate next to you.

Opal Card Wrong Gate

Meanwhile, tonight’s story explains the post on the Transport for NSW Facebook page about what to do if you forget to tap off..

TfNSW/ePay denying new Opal card retailer applications →

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According to the Newsagents Association of NSW & ACT, ePay are now denying new applicants who wish to become Opal card retailers. There are currently just over 1,800 retailers, including every 7Eleven, a handful of Woolworths stores, and an assortment of newsagents and other outlets,

Newsagents across NSW who have recently submitted applications to become Opal Card Retailers via Epay Australia have been denied and/or placed on a waiting list.

Epay Australia have confirmed that they have reached their quota and will work with Transport NSW to assess applications on a case by case basis.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out, with the announcement of separate Opal vending machines this year (starting with top up only machines).

Hopefully this is only a minor break before continuing with bringing more retailers onboard, as 1800 sure seems like an arbitrary number…

Reddit: Opal and discontiguous train journeys →

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The idea is to increase the number of journeys on your Opal card as close to the max as possible in a short time. This can save a lot of money if you have a longer commute, want to use a lot of ferries, etc.

  • Take a train to Ersko or Mac’town, tap off as normal
  • Walk to the other station, tap on
  • Walk back, tap off
  • Repeat until you have enough journeys!
  • My return journeys took about 10 minutes each as you can see in my history, but this could be a lot faster with a bicycle.

Notes:

  • You can’t do this in the City, as transfers between city stations don’t count as a new journey
  • You can’t ride the train when tapped off, hence why you must walk between stations (which is a lot faster in this case anyway) . If you wanted to do something similar actually riding the trains, it would take two cards.
  • You have to stop once the daily cap of $15 is reached, which means you can only get 7 journeys this way in a single go.
  • The above stations are picked since they are close to each other and have Opal readers (without barriers) near the footpath.

It might be a good business opportunity for a student or bicycle courier – collect people’s Opal cards on Monday, rack up the journeys and return the cards for a small fee. You could tap on multiple cards at once I suppose. I’m not sure how many times you could do this before the station staff might notice and start asking questions 🙂

(via SilverStar9192 on Reddit)

TfNSW: Opal bus rollout reaches halfway mark as more buses in Western Sydney go live →

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Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian today announced Opal will go live on another 720 buses in Western Sydney, North Sydney and Sutherland in the next week, as the rollout of Opal on buses passes the halfway mark.

Next Tuesday 26 August 330 buses across Western Sydney and the Sutherland Shire will go live with Opal, giving thousands more customers access to cheaper fares and more convenient travel. Opal will also expand onto all State Transit buses in North Sydney from today.

Ms Berejiklian said these latest milestones mean customers can now tap on and tap off all suburban and intercity trains, all Sydney Ferries, and from next week, 2,890 buses across Sydney.

Take the train to Sydney Airport for $10 with Opal

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Updated 6/3/2015 for new 2015 fares

Due to the way Opal implements minimum required balances for travel, it’s possible for your Opal card to fall into having a negative balance.

To travel with Opal, all that’s required is the minimum balance at time of tap on.

The minimum value to tap on with Opal depends on the time of tap on and the mode of transport. For trains, the minimum balance is $2.36 during off-peak and $3.38 during peak hours. For ferries it is $5.74 and for buses or light rail, $2.10.

Of course, you will need to top up again in order to use the card, but once you’ve tapped on, you can travel anywhere and tap off.

With the announcement that now you can purchase an unregistered opal card from a retailer with as little as $10 cash, this makes this option slightly more feasible.

Continue reading →

Sydney’s Opal Card: Now available from retailers

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The availability of Opal cards from retailers is imminent, with many retailers already receiving stock and some already selling the cards.
As of August 1st, there are just under 1,000 Opal card retailers across greater Sydney.

Opal card - save time, save money

The Opal card itself is ‘free’, however you are required to top it up at the same time. Continue reading →