IPART chairman Peter Boxall said the fare review, announced last week, would consider a range of options for improving the Opal system, with a particular focus on whether fares should be more integrated across the rail, bus, ferry and light rail networks. "With the roll-out of Opal electronic ticketing now largely complete, there is an opportunity to consider a range of fare options that were previously not practical under paper tickets and look at where improvements should be made," Dr Boxall said. "We are looking at not only how much passengers should pay, but also whether charges should be based on the type of transport used, the time a journey occurs, the distance travelled and how often it is used." Charging passengers more for using more than one type of mode in a single journey was "inequitable", and could discourage the most cost-efficient operation of the transport system, said an IPART issues paper released on Tuesday. But switching over to a fully integrated system, where fares were not dependent on the transport mode, could mean new trade-offs.

While train passengers taking short journeys would end up paying about 20 per cent less under one example of such a fare structure, most rail commuters would end up paying about 10 to 15 per cent more, the paper said. The same scenario would result in a price jump of up to 25 per cent for most bus passengers travelling during the peak. IPART is seeking public feedback to the options set out in the issues paper by August 28. Proposed fares will be released for further public comment in December, with any changes to come into effect next July. "It is too early to say what impact there will be on fares," Dr Boxall said. The overhaul has been prompted by the imminent upheaval of the inner city bus system, which will require more passengers to either walk longer distances or change modes once construction on the light rail starts in October.

"I think it is time that we recognise that this is the way to go with the advent of Opal so we now have that ability to do that work," Transport Minister Andrew Constance told reporters on Friday. Greens transport spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi welcomed the review, but criticised the state government for not undertaking it sooner. "With the introduction of Opal, the government missed an opportunity to integrate fares across modes," Dr Faruqi said. "This review provides the chance to finally get this done, in an equitable way." Labor's transport spokesman, Ryan Park, said on Monday that commuters travelling to central Sydney from western Sydney or the central coast were paying hundreds more annually under the Opal, compared to 2011 fares.

"Commuters have been stung by the small print," he said.

