Opal Card Puzzle

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Opal Card - NSW Government

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  amkssg on 11/11/2015 - 22:18

  I read somewhere that 4 trips equates to 1 journey on the Opal card, so the 5th trip you make will mean a new journey.

  What did you expect to happen? What exactly are you trying to ask?

  • 

    YadaYadaYada on 11/11/2015 - 22:30

    Ok so I was expecting that the train trip I took would be free if the 5th trip (ie with less than 60 minutes transfer) is free. Except I was charged for it so I'm missing something in that undocumented 4 trips = 1 journey trick. I want to know if anyone has tried it and has any more details on it.

    • 

      amkssg on 11/11/2015 - 22:50

      +1

      4 trips on ONE TYPE OF TRANSPORT = 1 journey is correct. So, your 5th trip will start a new journey.
      So, the "trick" that you are talking about is "maximising the number of trips in a day to reduce weekly fare".
      Basically, it is possible to travel unlimited trips for less than $15 a week.

      The issue here is… I don't think you completely understand what this is about.
      What people are trying to do is to increase the number of short journeys (not trips) in a day.

      • 

        YadaYadaYada on 11/11/2015 - 23:06

        Hmm so my mistake was switching between the bus and the train because all 5 trips counted towards the one journey. So if I took 5x bus rides + 1 train ride without the 60 minute window, and if the first bus ride was the start of the 8th journey for the week, I'd only be charged 2.10 total for all of those trips (incl the train)?

        I was actually trying to minimise my fare home for my last journey by getting charged for the shortest bus ride possible (ie 2.10) without waiting an hour afterwards to catch the train home (since that would be journey 9 and free) since I had no other plans and always wanted to test the 4 trips = 1 journey thing out. Otherwise I would be paying a much steeper peak fare on the train. Except I stuffed up on the bus rides and the 5th bus ride I took turned out to be a tap on reversal because the GPS wasn't working properly, and at that point I had no idea where the buses would take me (ie too far out of sydney) so I gave up and took the train home :(

      • 

        amkssg on 11/11/2015 - 23:10

        +4

        OK, I finally understand what your confusion is about.

        The issue here is, you are reading different things from different places, and thinking that they are all talking about the same thing, which is not true.

        THE OPAL SYSTEM EXPLAINED
        1) You only pay for the first 8 journeys in a week, after which everything is free.
        2) Journey = All the trip you take with less than 1 hour in-between.
        2a) So, if you take a bus and then a train, you have to pay BOTH the bus fare and train fare, BUT it only counts as ONE (1) journey.
        2b) However, if you take a bus, wait one hour then take a train, you have to pay BOTH the bus fare and train fare, BUT it counts as TWO (2) journeys.

        Now, you talked about 4 trips = 1 journey.
        What happened is, if you take Bus 1 @ 2pm, Bus 2 @ 2:30pm, Bus 3 @ 3pm, … … , Bus 10 @ 10pm, then it's not possible that they charge you only ONE bus fare for 10 trips.
        So, the "one hour rule" is broken here. How it works then is, every 4 trips count as 1 journey.
        So, 10 trips would count as 3 journeys instead of 1 journey.
        HOWEVER!!!! This 4 trip rule only applies to ONE TYPE OF TRANSPORT, so the moment you change from bus-to-train or train-to-tram, or something like this, the "4 trip rule" no longer applies.

      • 

        YadaYadaYada on 11/11/2015 - 23:14

        @bsmksg: OMG I knew I should've tried to find another bus! I knew about all the other points you made, just not the 4 trips on one type of transport! Thanks for the clarification! I'll have to try it out after work one day early next week with 5 buses somehow!

      • 

        amkssg on 11/11/2015 - 23:14

        @YadaYadaYada: Correct. Because the train would have counted as 9th Journey, which is free.

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  CyberMurning on 11/11/2015 - 22:59

  you get it wrong.
  the opal can only hold 8x taps. so after 4 sets of tap on and off (ie 4 trips) the 5th will be new trip, and you will be charged again. the one hour rules doesnt apply here. you want that 5th trip to be charged!

  is this what we all wanted? do as many trips as we can in short time, to make 8 trips as soon as possible so can travel free the rest of the week!

• 

  DarkOz on 12/11/2015 - 07:22

  You are charged maximum of 8 journeys each week. Each journey could be made up of 4 trips of the same type of transport within an hour. That's why people are doing tram runs(on foot literally!) in Ultimo for the closest tram stops which means the cheapest fee and shortest time.

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  cupcake on 12/11/2015 - 10:57

  Tap on, Tap off. Wax on, Wax off. Keep trying!

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  garmibear on 12/11/2015 - 13:02

  I think if you did 5 buses you will still pay $2.10 (journey 1) and $2.10+$2.94 (journey 2), you need to max it out that day to get the benefit! Hopefully you can find some other ways :)

  I tried to test the same thing, but I ran out of trains to get to 4 haha