I did explain this once before in this PAD but it was a while ago now.

With the Opal ticketing system you have an electronic swipe card. You top up the card with value. You tap on at a station entrance (or on a bus) to begin a "journey" and tap off at your destination and the cost of the fare is deducted from the card's balance. If you switch to another mode of transport (say train to bus) within an hour, that's another leg of the same journey and an adjusting amount is deducted when you next tap off.

The maximum fare per day is $15. The maximum number of journeys you're charged for in a week is 8 so if you work 5 days per week (2 "journeys" per day) you get Friday and the weekend free, if one were sufficiently insane to use public transport in the Illawarra on a weekend.

Because of the distance I travel I pay the full $15 every day, which equates to $60 per week over 4 days.

Ahem, however. If I take a trip, any trip at lunch time on Monday, that is three journeys in one day because lunch is well over an hour after I get in and well over an hour before I leave. It doesn't cost me any extra because I pay the full $15 per day anyway; the additional fare at lunch time simply reduces my fare home. Same on Tuesday, which gives me 6 "journeys" in 2 days. If I do the same on Wednesday... the lunchtime journey is the 8th "journey" of the week. I don't pay for the fare home on Wednesday. Or the fares on Thursday. I save roughly 20 bucks per week.

Of course that's not enough to warrant doing that sort of thing in itself unless... one is doing a PAD project and starts to become familiar with the light rail running times, which opens up the chance to hop a trip up and/or down the line to new locations in search of PADs.

Two birds, one money saving stone. In this case though I didn't go far; l just one stop up the line to take a shot of the tram line crossing at John Street Square. But later I plan to follow that arrow down the line a bit further.

Last Year