This has created an incentive for people to take cheap - and potentially useless - trips early in the week to make significant savings later on.
"I want people to beat the system,"Gladys Berejiklian said."I want people to find the savings because they are there to be had,"she said.
For instance,an Opal user who catches the train daily from Penrith or Cronulla to the city would spend $50.40 a week if they travelled at peak hour,based on eight trips at $6.30 each.
But if they caught a bus for one stop during the middle of the day on Monday and Tuesday,ate lunch and returned on another bus an hour later,four of their eight trips would be charged at $2.10.
They would be then travelling for free from Wednesday,having spent just $30 a week on transport. (On both Monday and Tuesday they would hit the $15 daily Opal cap,but still have four trips added to their tally.)
It appears these potential savings for those with the time or the inclination to make them are becoming more widely understood.
When Rowan Barker,the director of media and communications at the Tourism and Transport Forum,asked a room of industry executives at a summit last week if they took short trips in the middle of the day to make the most of their Opal travel,a scatter of hands went up.