Corpus Christi Catholic High School principal Kerrie Piatek said it was good seeing students use Opal reader technology to tap on and off their school buses.
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Some 120 students from Corpus Christi and St Joseph’s high schools are part of a regional trial of "next generation ticketing that has seen the introduction of upgraded Opal technology and state of the art real-time passenger information on selected buses".
"This trial will provide new insights into how regional and rural customers use public transport and help with capacity planning," Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward said.
"Why should Sydney have this technology. Why can't we roll out this technology in regions like here in the southern Illawarra."
Ms Piatek said this was well and good but public transport was a real issue for the Oak Flats school.
"Public transport is really limited. We have students that have to travel three kilometres across a really busy road.
"They have to wait 45 minutes for a bus to arrive at school to get them home," she said.
"Our kids that go to Port Kembla, which is about 13kms away don't get home until 4.30pm. School finishes at 3.05pm.
"And we've got nearly 200 students who have to leave early from school to catch a train to Dapto because the next available option is nearly an hour after school finishes.
"So we are really challenged.
We try and work within the constraints of the bus and rail timetable but it keeps on changing and it never seems to change in favour of our school community.
"We try and work within the constraints of the bus and rail timetable but it keeps on changing and it never seems to change in favour of our school community.
"We'd like [Transport Minister Andrew Constance] to consider looking at supporting regional students and regional communities with better transport options."
Mr Ward said the "ground breaking technology" will be a huge benefit to the local community.
He said the government used Opal card data to deliver services where and when it was needed.
"The new system also allows information about Kiama Coaches to go into customer trip planning applications such as the Trip Planner on www.transportnsw.info and Trip View, which is something that was previously only available for city transport services," Mr Ward said.
"This technology will help bring our community services in line with the standards we see in the city, making it easier for both locals and tourists to travel on public transport.
"Transport for NSW is also working with Kiama Coaches on a ticketing trial for later this year that will allow customers to pay for their travel using contactless cards rather than traditional cash."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
