The long awaited and much anticipated trial of the New South Wales Government’s smartcard, electronic ticketing system will commence on Friday with the first customer trial on the Neutral Bay Ferry Service.

The opal card is a new credit card style system that enables commuters and tourists to tap on the electronic reader at the start of the journey and tap off at the end of the journey. It is reloadable and comes with an automatic top facility, much like a toll road e-tag. The opal card system replaces the more traditional methods of payment and is designed to eliminate queues for ticketing.

The trial on the Neutral Bay service will be extended to Manly, Parramatta and other ferry services throughout 2013 before moving to trains, buses and the greater Sydney transport network. By 2015, it is expected that the opal card will be fully in use across 42 ferry wharves, 307 train stations and more than 5,000 bus and light rail stops across Sydney, the Hunter, Central Coast, the Illawarra, Southern Highlands and the Blue Mountains.

The General Manager of the Tourism Industry Council, Mr Andrew Jefferies welcomed the commencement of the trial and stated “It’s great to see our state finally catching up with cities such as Melbourne and Brisbane to introduce this system. Whilst we are about ten years behind many of our interstate and overseas counterparts, the use of smart card technology will make life easier for interstate and overseas visitors, many of whom are familiar with smart cards and are surprised to learn upon arrival to Sydney, that we have not had such a system in place to travel around Sydney and the regions.”

“To further improve ticketing integration and the growth of the visitor economy, the Tourism Industry Council NSW calls upon the NSW Government to extend the use of the Opal Card to our major attractions in the Government and Private sectors that will help contribute to a simpler and more efficient visitor experience,” Mr Jefferies said.

“In an ideal world, a perfect experience would enable a visitor to receive a topped up opal card upon arrival at Sydney Airport that enables them to catch the Airport link train to the city and includes the cost of a return ferry ticket and entry into attractions such as Taronga Zoo, Madame Tussauds, the Australian National Maritime Museum with train travel and bus connections to the Jenolan Caves, the Sydney Opera House and the Botanic Gardens.”

“The Tourism Industry Council NSW hopes that the trial and rollout of the opal card will prove to be successful and we look forward to continuing our conversation with the Government about the integration of the card for our state’s attractions that would help to deliver upon the Government’s goal of achieving a doubling of overnight visitor expenditure by the end of the decade.”