Free ride is over: Sydney commute gets more expensive as government scraps Opal trip incentive
Sydney commuters' trips to work are about to get more expensive, as the government scraps the free trip incentive for Opal cards.
From Monday, regular commuters will no longer be able to get trips for free, and instead will be charged half price after making eight journeys using their Opal cards.
"We’re rebalancing the Opal weekly travel reward to replace free travel after eight paid journeys, to half price fares," Transport and Infrastructure Minister Andrew Constance said.
The government is trying to give Sydney commuters an incentive to catch public transport, in an attempt to ease the battle for parking in high traffic areas.
In a statement to Yahoo7, Mr Constance said Opal Card holders who interchange between buses, trains, and ferries will be granted a $2 discount off every trip.
"The new $2 ‘transfer discount’ is now given every time an adult Opal card customer changes a mode of transport as part of the same journey," Mr Constance said.
Concession card users will also receive a transfer discount of $1 when they change mode on a journey.
Mr Constance also confirmed commuters won't see an increase in Opal card fares until July 2017.
The free travel perk changes were scrapped last Tuesday night by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).
According to a final report conducted by IPART, public transport has become costly and government hopes the "costs per trip forecast to fall by around 5% over the next three years".
"Right now, the efficient cost of providing the rail, bus, ferry and light rail services in Sydney and surrounding areas is $4.8 billion a year," the report read.
Despite the governments attempt to deter people from driving to work, the NSW Greens fear that Sydney's road congestion will get worse when the free public transport perk come to an end.
"Short-sighted revenue-raising exercise" would mean a fare increase for many commuters and result in less people using public transport, and more cars on the road," Greens spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi said.
