St George Area School Students To Tap Into Opal Next Year

School students across the St George area will be provided with an Opal card at the start of the 2016 school year so they can travel for free between home and school with ease.

Mr Mark Coure said today that parents and students will be able to apply for a School Opal card and get information about the card from next week.

“More than 4 million Opal cards are already in use across NSW and now we’re expanding Opal to give local school students the same kind of convenience from the start of the 2016 school year,” Mr Coure said.

“This is a win for our local school kids and families and is part of the NSW Government’s $550 million program funding the 80 million school trips taken by students each year in NSW.

“School travel assistance gets our local students, from Kindergarten to year 12, to and from home safely and keeps cars off the road at busy peak periods,” Mr Coure said.

“Students from Public, Catholic and Independent schools in the St George area will be able to use the School Opal card to travel on trains and buses to get from home to school using the simple and efficient Opal electronic ticketing system.

“To make it easier for families, students who have a paper school pass this year will automatically be issued with an Opal card at their school from the start of term in 2016.”

Some parents and students will need to apply online for their School Opal card, which will be mailed to their home in early 2016.

Those who need to apply online are parents who have children starting at kindergarten, moving from Year 2 to 3, starting high school, changing school or changing their address next year.

Parents and students who need to apply for a School Opal card can go to the website transportnsw.info/school-students from Monday 2 November.