Issues Paper - Maximum Opal fares until July 2028 - January 2024

What is this review about?

The Minister for Transport has asked IPART to determine appropriate maximum fares for Opal public transport services until 30 June 2028. These are the fares for most train, metro, bus light rail, ferry and on-demand services in Sydney, the Blue mountains, Central Coast, Newcastle, Illawarra, the South Coast and some of the surrounding areas.

How will we conduct our review?

Since our previous review, there have been large changes in the use of public transport, and new services have commenced or are about to commence. When we set maximum fares, we will investigate how Transport for NSW operates its Opal services, how much these services cost the Government to run and how they fit within the bigger transport system of Sydney and surrounding areas.

We will investigate how people use and want to use these services now and into the future. This will help us understand how ticket prices, discounts and other fare options can be set to get the most out of our infrastructure and services. Our determination will set maximum fares. We may also provide recommendations for Transport for NSW to consider when setting discounts, caps or other fare options, below the maximum level.

This Issues Paper presents key issues for this review and outlines our proposed approach to setting maximum fares.

We want to hear from you

We would like to hear from both users of the Opal network and those who don’t use it, industry organisations, contracted service providers, government agencies and other interested parties on their experiences with Opal services.