The popular TravelTen bus ticket is likely to no longer be sold in about a year’s time, with the Transport Minister confirming it will be retired at some stage.
“Eventually,” Gladys Berejiklian said when asked if the TravelTen for buses would go the same way as the TravelTen for ferries, which will no longer be sold from September.
But Ms Berejiklian said the Opal electronic smartcard, which is available on only a third of all buses, would not take the place of the TravelTen until the Opal was well established on all buses.
“At the right time," the Transport Minister said. "Just to give you an indication the ferry Opal came out in December 2012 and it is now nearly two years on, so we’ve allowed people nearly two years to understand the system and how it works.”
Following a similar timeline, the bus TravelTen would be scrapped from September next year.
Individual trips are cheaper under the TravelTen than using an Opal card, though someone using an Opal would start to be better off they took more than 10 journeys a week.
“I can assure you that I'm a TravelTen user and I can't wait to get rid of the thing because it takes too long when I'm getting on the bus in the morning and it drives me mad waiting for everybody else to dip their TravelTen,” Ms Berejiklian told ABC Radio this week.
Ms Berejiklian is promoting the benefits of the Opal card before the closure of 14 types of paper tickets from next month.
She confirmed for the first time this week that the Opal would never be sold from ticket windows at train stations, prompting criticism from the opposition and unions that she was wasting money on a dual ticketing system.
The minister eventually said there would be machines to allow people to top up their Opal cards at some – but not all – train stations.
The number of top-up machines the government will install appears to be limited by the contract for the Opal card, signed in 2010.
“There are some things in the contract we inherited, and some things which we’re a bit more flexible on,” Ms Berejiklian said. “Obviously we decide where they go,” she said of the top-up machines, which are yet to be unveiled.
The minister also foreshadowed an announcement in coming months over the use of supermarkets to allow people to top up or possibly buy their Opal cards, as well as the announcement of a possible Opal card for tourists.