"The easier we can make it to hop on a train, ferry, bus or light rail, the more people we will get out of their cars congesting our roads," he said. Contactless payment trial: NSW Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance with Ita Buttrose. Credit:Anthony Johnson The trial will involve an upgrade of the Opal card system, which is modelled on London's Oyster card. Transport users in London still can use their Oyster cards but, from 2014, have been able to use "contactless" debit or credit card payments on public transport. If the London system was replicated in NSW, the same fare rules would apply to those using Opal cards or credit or debit cards. Commuters using payment cards would simply tap them on the Opal card readers.

Mr Constance's announcement is expected to be one of several initiatives outlined at this week's summit. The government will trial contactless payments for public transport next year. Credit:Brendan Esposito The summit, which is being headlined by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, has been billed as a way to "uncover the trends and technologies" to improve the state's transport systems. More than 92 per cent of trips - or about 2 million a day - on the state's public transport system are paid for by Opal cards. When the contract for the $1.2 billion Opal scheme was signed in 2010 with transport technology company Cubic, provisions were made for a future system upgrade to accept credit card payments.

Nevertheless, Mr Constance cautioned that a lot of work would be needed to make it a reality in NSW. "A lot of critical work needs to be undertaken in the first stage of this project, such as finalising partnerships, working with the finance and contactless payments sector, developing the software and then, in 2017, undertaking a customer trial," he said. The director of customer experience at Transport for London, Shashi Verma, told Fairfax Media last year the upgrade to contactless payments cost £68 million ($125 million). However, Mr Verma said the upgrade had paid for itself quickly through back-office savings and increased revenue from more trips. "It's taking the payment experience of transport and saying, 'Why does it need to be different from the payment experience of anything else?' " Mr Verma said.

The commitment to the trial comes a month before the pricing regulator delivers a final report into Opal fares to the Baird government. In a draft report released before Christmas, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal proposed sweeping changes to fares, including an end to free travel after eight journeys in a week and a tightening of eligibility for the Gold Opal card. A long list of community groups have taken aim at the proposals, arguing that significant fare increases will discourage people from taking public transport. Separately, commuters are also finally able to add value to their Opal cards online. A new version of the Opal travel app allows travellers to top up using the app and within an hour that value will be available.