Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance today encouraged seniors and pensioners to take up the benefits of the Gold Opal card, while announcing they would be able to get their card between now and July at major shopping centres across Sydney, the Central Coast and the Illawarra.

“We’ve had a great response to the Gold Opal card with over 320,000 customers ordering one since November last year, and we want to keep that rate going,” Mr Constance said.

“Over the next seven weeks, Opal kiosks will be open at nine major shopping centres from Blacktown to Broadway and Woy Woy to Wollongong, where seniors and pensioners can get on the Gold Opal bandwagon.”

“Eventually we will need to phase out paper tickets and we want this important group of customers to be ready for when that time comes”, Mr Constance said.

Opal staff at the kiosks will help customers apply for their Gold Opal card. All they need to bring along is their valid NSW Seniors card, Pensioner Concession card, or NSW War Widow/er card.

Seniors and pensioners can also get a Gold Opal card by calling 13 67 25 (13 OPAL) or visiting the Opal website at www.opal.com.au. It takes only minutes to apply and about one week for the card to be mailed out to the customer.

Seniors and pensioners can choose to simply link their Opal card to their credit or debit card and set it to auto top up to never queue again when travelling.

They can also choose to manually top up the Gold Opal card with a minimum of $2.50 cash at the 2,000 Opal retail stores located across Sydney and the regions.

Retail stores can be found via an easy-to-use map at www.retailers.opal.com.au or by calling the Opal Customer Care line on 13 OPAL.

Customers can also top up by calling 13 OPAL or at the website. The minimum top up online or over the phone is $10.

There are now 30 Opal top up machines at train stations and more will be rolled out during the year.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals Government completed the rollout of Opal across the network last year, with around 2.8 million cards now issued.