Soon you’ll be able to buy single trip Opal tickets from top up and ticket machines across greater Sydney at a train station, ferry wharf or light rail stop near you
You can use either card or cash to purchase a single trip ticket, or top up your opal card (though the preset amounts remain, you can’t topup your Opal card with four 50c coins for example, it’s still $10, $20 etc)
As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald back in December 2014 (and hinted in the Opal card Terms of Use since day one), more Opal card machines are being rolled out following the current ‘card only’ top up machine launch several months ago.
There are two Opal card machines that should be revealed in the next few months, one that will remain top up only but will accept cash in addition to cards, and a machine that will also ‘vend’ single use ‘Opal card’ “tickets”.
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
