THE rollout of the Opal card electronic ticketing system in Lake Macquarie had been "baffling" and "mismanaged", local MP Greg Piper has told state parliament.
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"My electorate office has been inundated with complaints about the rollout," Mr Piper said.
The lack of retail outlets selling Opal cards was a major concern.
"When the phasing out of paper tickets began at the beginning of September there was only one Opal card outlet in the entire electorate. That outlet was at Boolaroo, which is not convenient to the most heavily used stations," Mr Piper said.
Retail outlets did not offer the Opal cards at or near the busy Morisset or Fassifern stations.
Nor were pop-up kiosks provided for the sale of Opal cards at these stations.
Mr Piper said commuters had good reason to expect the Opal cards to be available at train stations, rather than at retail outlets.
"It might be common to sell tickets at newsagencies but generally commuters expect to buy things such as newspapers at newsagents and rail tickets at station ticket booths," he said.
"I ask the Minister to expedite the provision of additional retail outlets in Lake Macquarie and to reverse the ill-advised decision to treat route 273 [between Toronto and Fassifern] as a separate bus trip."