This analysis report delves into the intricacies of the existing Opal ticketing system, a smart card-based public transport ticketing system in New South Wales and Greater Sydney. The report provides an overview of Opal’s functionality, its rollout phases, and the four distinct card types catering to various passenger segments. However, it scrutinizes the limitations and complaints against the Opal system, ranging from fare calculation discrepancies to privacy concerns.
Identified issues are addressed with a set of recommended strategies, focusing on technical improvements in the top-up process, fare calculation transparency, and user data privacy. The proposed system aims to augment the current Opal system, introducing enhancements aligned with user feedback and industry best practices. The scope of the proposed system is meticulously defined, emphasizing improvements within the existing framework rather than a complete system replacement.
High-level requirements for the proposed system are outlined, encompassing user interactions, registration processes, top-up mechanisms, card validation, and fare-related functionalities. The report also highlights the potential applications of cloud computing and big data technologies, emphasizing their role in enhancing system robustness, scalability, and data-driven insights.
The Use Case Diagram illustrates user interactions with the Opal system, showcasing the diverse activities facilitated by the proposed improvements. The ER Diagram, on the other hand, delves into the relationships between entities within the Opal system’s database, offering a comprehensive view of data organization.
Testing strategies focus on implementing the proposed improvements in a controlled environment before a broader rollout. Emphasis is placed on boundary testing, ensuring accuracy in fare calculations and seamless integration with banking networks.
In conclusion, this analysis report sets the stage for designing a more efficient and user-friendly Opal system, providing a solid foundation for future enhancements in public transport ticketing.
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Table of Contents
Opal Ticketing System: Brief Introduction ................................................................................................... 3
Limitations of the Current Opal Ticketing System ....................................................................................... 4
Recommended Strategies .............................................................................................................................. 4
The Scope of the Proposed System ............................................................................................................... 5
The Proposed System: High Level Requirements ........................................................................................ 5
Applications of Technologies ....................................................................................................................... 5
Use Case Diagram ......................................................................................................................................... 8
ER Diagram .................................................................................................................................................. 9
Testing Strategies and Traceability ............................................................................................................. 10
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 10
References ................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Analysis Report
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Opal Ticketing System: Brief Introduction Opal is an online smart card based public transport ticketing system that runs in New South Wales and
Greater Sydney in Australia. Opal card works there for public transportations including rail, light rail,
government ferry service and bus service. The ferry services between Sydney to Hunter Region, Central
Coast, Southern Highlands, Blue Mountains and Illawara regions.
Passengers and travelers can purchase, keep, reuse and reload Opal cards for travelling within the
aforementioned areas. An Opal card holder needs to keep sufficient balance in the Opal card before
starting their journey by public transports in Sydney and NSW. Before boarding on to the vehicle, a user
needs to tap on the valid Opal card on a specific scanning device connected to the Opal network. After
finishing the journey and before leaving the vehicle, the user will need to tap off the same card on the
similar or the same scanning device. The fare and discounts will be calculated automatically and the Opal
card of the user will be debited with the final fare amount. If a user fails to produce the valid Opal card
during tap off or there is any discrepancy, then the card will be charged with the maximum fare amount
from the user’s Opal card (NSW Opal, 2016).
The Opal card based ticketing system claims to provide the minimum fare for the passengers. To keep the
system coherent with the different ticketing and concession schemes, the project has introduced 4 types of
Opal cards for four different segments of passengers and travelers (NSW Opal, 2016).
The four types of Opal cards are,
• School Opal card for the school students. The school students gets full concession for travelling
by public transport when they travel between the school and the home. This is applicable for the
whole Opal network.
• Gold Senior or Pensioner Opal card is applicable for the NSW pensioners, NSW war widow(ers)
and pensioner concession card holders. They get certain percentage of concession for their fares
while travelling within the Opal network.
• Concession Opal card is applicable for the tertiary students who participates in the tertiary
institutions in NSW from 2015 and onwards. The concession card is also applicable for the job
seekers, trainees and the apprentices.
• Adult Opal cards are applicable for the passengers not belonging to the above categories, and
aged more than 16 years.
• There is additional Opal called Single Trip Opal card for the users who want to use the card for
only once.
Users can top up their cards directly from the credit or debit cards or online banking. Other than that,
there are processes for manual top up from authorized sellers and automatic machines installed at
different locations.
The rollout of the Opal ticketing system was done in multiple phases. It started from December 2012 and
was completed on 1st December 2014.
Opal ticketing is not new for passengers and travelers from NSW and Sydney. Previously, there was
another automated ticketing system in Sydney. That ticketing system used to operate in only the suburb
railways during the 80’s. The updated version of the same automated ticketing system was known as
Sydney AFC or Automated Fare Collection System. The AFC used to run for the ferries and busses.
However, the main problem with the system was lack of integration among different transportation modes
and inability to work on the complex fare calculation process. It also excluded the private bus and ferry
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service providers. From April 2010, MyZone was introduced as a solution of the problems of the previous
AFC system. MyZone was a unified solution for major public transports. It was aimed to simplify the fare
system and make it easier for a smart card system to come in action. As a result, the AFC system was not
totally replaced by the MyZone. It was partially implemented. Hence, in reality, the public transport
ticketing system became more complicated and non-user friendly. Then came the TCard system based on
the previous AFC system. After that, Opal was introduced during September 2011. Opal is a short form of
Uniquely Australian and it is named after the national gemstone of Australia, Black Opal (NSW Opal,
2016).
Limitations of the Current Opal Ticketing System In reality, MyZone is still in operation in parallel to Opal. MyZone offers paper based tickets. There are
various limitations of Opal and there are various complaints against the Opal system. The limitations and
complaints are (Saulwick & Grubb, 2014), (The Daily Telegraph, 2015),
• Opal claims to offer the minimum possible fare for a trip when a traveler use a valid Opal card
successfully. In reality, there are instances, when it has been proven wrong. For example, the
single fare for bus and ferry are expensive than usual bus and ferry services without Opal.
• Opal takes penalties very high and for disputes when the users have no faults at all.
• Sometimes the scanning devices fail to communicate with the Opal network and the users pay
fine unreasonably.
• In many cases, users have top up their Opal cards. Their amounts have been debited from their
bank accounts but not confirmed on their Opal account statements.
• If the fare of the public transportation is calculated for the Opal card users and the non-Opal card
users, then it shows that Opal card holders pay more than the other group. Hence, there is a
dissatisfaction among the Opal card holders regarding this fare policy.
• There is a concern related to the privacy issues with Opal cards. The Opal travel information are
by default available to government departments without any warrant. Various authorities and
universities have shown concerns about the matter.
Recommended Strategies Based on the current working process of the Opal cards, the limitations and the concerns regarding the
card, following set of the recommended strategies have been given. The strategies are relate to the design
of the interfaces, performance, working process and improvement for the components of Opal network.
• There is an issue with the top up process of Opal cards. But the issue is technical and stems from
the lack of integration with the banking networks and the system running behind the Opal
network. The system behind the Opal network is not very competent to get updated as and when
people make top up directly from bank or manually from the authorized sellers or automatic
machines. Hence, the integration between the Opal networking system and the payment gateways
and banking networks must be improved and secured.
• The other issue with Opal cards is related to the calculations of the fare. Even though Opal claims
that it offers the minimum possible fare for a trip, customers have raised proved complains that
the paper based ticketing system offers lesser fare when compared with the Opal. It needs either
to implement Opal and a single unified system with lesser fare or the system must show the
details of the fare calculation including base fare and all calculations for extra charges, tax and so
on. Hence, the fare calculation part of the existing Opal system must be improved enough to
make it competent for the complicated Opal fare structure (Saulwick & Grubb, 2014).
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• There is a privacy concern related to the Opal cards. Users are concerned that the government
will keep an eye on their privacy related to travelling within the NSW and Sydney area. The issue
is non-technical. It can be resolved by providing an explicit policy to the users about the data
privacy and protection rules and norms followed by Opal. Further, it can state how and why it
collects, process and stores users’ information and travel information for running and
improvement of the Opal system (The Daily Telegraph, 2015).
The Scope of the Proposed System The proposed system is an improved version of the current Opal system that will follow the recommended
improvement strategies for the technical and non-technical limitations related to the system.
The scope of the proposed system is limited to the improvements of the current system only. There will
be no new system or replacement of the existing Opal system. Based on the current feedbacks and
complaints from the users, the recommended strategies have been developed. These recommended
strategies will be deployed in the existing system with the help of suitable technologies and development
strategies. These technologies and strategies will be aligned with the current system in operation and its
development strategy.
If needed, the changes will be deployed in a pilot project with limited capabilities. Later on, the changes
may be modified to accommodate the feedbacks from the users. The final version of the system will be
implemented in multiple phases then.
The scope of the analysis report is limited to the recommendation and identification of the high level
requirements of the proposed system only. Any technical implementation or deployment is out of scope
of the system.
The Proposed System: High Level Requirements The high level requirements of the proposed system are,
• User will need to review and acknowledge the acceptance or decline of the privacy policy.
• Users will need to review and acknowledge the acceptance or decline of the fare policy.
• A user can register for a suitable type of Opal card.
• A user can make top up on the card either from bank account or manually.
• A user can validate the card by tap on service available with the scanning devices.
• A user can tap off the card for getting charged with the minimum fare possible.
• A user can take detailed print out of fare calculation
• A user can check online Opal account for travel information, fare calculation, online top up,
complaints and so on.
Applications of Technologies Particularly, the cloud computing and big data technologies are seemed to be more beneficial for the
implementation of the recommended strategies for the system. The possible applications of both of the
technologies have been given as,
• Cloud computing can be implemented to make the system more robust and to strengthen the
integration with the banking network. Cloud technology will offer highly scalable and updated
services that can be utilized to maximize the performance of the current system (Hugos &
Hulitzky, 2012).
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• Before opening any registration form, the users need to check and accept the policies. The
interface designs must incorporate these changes in the designs.
• A huge amount of travel data of the users will be stored and processed by the Opal ticketing
system. Data mining technologies can be applied on these data to find out critical insights from
the data. Those insights can help in improvement of the services, management of the system and
revising the pricing structures (Hugos & Hulitzky, 2012).
• The Opal networking system must be upgraded to suitable database technologies that will help to
implement the data mining applications. For example, it will need suitable ETL process, data
warehousing and so on.
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System Design Specification Document
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Use Case Diagram The Use case diagram for the Opal ticketing system is,
In the use case diagram, it shows how a user can use the Opal ticketing system for different activities. The
use case diagram has captured different aspects of the interconnection between the system and the end
users.
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ER Diagram An ER diagram shows the relationships between the entities in a database. The database of the Opal
system is the backbone of the system. The possible entities and the relationships among the entities have
been represented in the following ER diagram.
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Testing Strategies and Traceability The ER diagram and the Use case diagrams are developed from the high level system requirements for
the proposed Opal system.
The testing strategy is,
• Implementation of the system for within a pilot and sand-box first.
• Then the system can be checked for all boundary conditions for calculations and banking
connections.
Conclusion Various aspects of the existing Opal ticketing system for the public transports in the NSW and greater
Sydney have been covered in this analysis report. An extensive study on the Opal system have been
carried out for this report. The report contains a detailed background discussion on Opal. It will help to
understand the context, the aims and objectives of the Opal system. Following that, there are discussions
on limitations of Opal system, recommended strategies for improvement of the Opal system, scope of the
proposed improvements on the Opal system, high level requirements of the system and the applications of
the technologies of the Opal system have been elaborated in this analysis report. Based on this analysis
report, the design report for the proposed Opal system will be developed.