You Will Soon Be Unable to Travel with a Negative Opal Card Balance on Some Sydney Trains

Time is up for anyone who's been taking advantage of an Opal system loophole at Sydney Airport, following a technology upgrade designed to catch out those travelling with insufficient funds of their card.

In an effort to curb the number of passengers travelling with negative balances on their Opal cards, new top-up machines have been installed inside stations at both the international and domestic terminals, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Where punters have previously been able to cruise through to their final destination without sufficient funds on their card, from January 7, they'll now be forced to add credit before they can pass through these gates to their flight. The machines will let you pay with either contactless payment via credit or debit card — but, still, this could be a real hassle if you're in a hurry to catch your flight.

The upgrades will save Transport for NSW a lot of cash, given recent figures from the state's Audit Office revealed a whopping $7.8 million revenue has been lost from negative balance Opal cards. As much as $3.8 million of that was during the 2017-18 financial year alone. Most of the passengers turfing Opal cards with negative balances are doing so at the airport stations.

Getting to the airport via public transport is already a pretty costly exercise, with hefty station access fees pushing up the total — an adult trip from central Sydney clocks in at $18.70 during peak times.

You'll be happy to know that the upgrades are yet to arrive elsewhere on Sydney's public transport system — passengers will still be able to access other train stations with a minimum balance of $3.46 during peak periods, or $2.42 at other times.

Via The Sydney Morning Herald.