Opal Trips - Bus

This dataset contains Official Bus Utilisation figures. Opal tap-on/tap-off data (representing an individual boarding and alighting a bus) is aggregated to a total monthly figure representing the estimated number of trips.

**Caution **
1. School Student travel using concessional Opal cards is included. However this may be underrepresented, due to inconsistent tap-on/tap-off behaviour by students
2. Magnetic Stripe Ticketing (MST – paper tickets) data was also available in July 2016. MST patronage data for July is available here
3. Opal data may be subject to minor revision for the two months following upload
4. Data is static at a point in time, and may not match other reports that are real time
5. All non-Opal travel is excluded, for example transport concession entitlement cards, integrated ticketing for major events, and fare non-compliance
6. An Opal Trip is defined as a tap-on/tap-off pair (including where only a single tap-on or tap-off is recorded)
7. 'Other' group under bus contract includes NightRide and Unallocated.
8. Keolis Downer Hunter took over the Newcastle Bus franchise from Newcastle Buses (State Transit Authority) effective 1 July 2017. The contract area NISC1 reflects this and Keolis Downer Hunter figures for Jul 2017 onwards are included as part of Private Bus Operator numbers. From January 2018 NISC1 includes non-Opal categories of On Demand and Other. The category ‘Other’ includes: Fare Free Zone, Integrated Ticketing, Free Travel Passes, Route 110 Newcastle City Loop, Park and Ride, and Special Events.
9. Transit Systems West took over the Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contract 6 from Sydney Buses (State Transit Authority) effective 1 July 2018. The contract area SBSC Contract 6 reflects this and Transit Systems West figures for Jul 2018 onwards are included as part of Private Bus Operator numbers.
10. Figures in Jul 2017 for Newcastle Buses reflect services operated by STA which completed post-midnight 30 June 2017.
11. NightRide services are included in Sydney Metropolitan Bus Services Contract (SMBSC) areas from 1 March 2018 onwards.

You can find the bus contract boundaries in shapefile format in the Metro / Outer Metro Bus Contract boundaries dataset