You tap on at the station, the board flips to "cancelled", and twenty minutes later you give up and get an Uber. Then you check the Opal app and there's a charge sitting there for a trip you never took.
A Sydney commuter posted exactly this on r/sydney: charged $4.33 for a train that never came. The post passed 300 upvotes, so plenty of people have been through it too.
Here's how to get an Opal refund when your train is cancelled or disrupted: what Transport for NSW (TfNSW) will adjust, what it won't, where the claim form actually is, and exactly what to write in the form.
The quick answer
- Standing on the platform and giving up? Reverse your tap on for free right away. Tap the same card or device at a reader at the same station, wharf or stop within 30 minutes for metro, train and ferry, or 15 minutes for light rail. It doesn't work on a bus that has already left the stop.
- If you were charged a default fare because of a service disruption, you can apply for a fare adjustment. Opal card users have 90 days from the date of the charge. Contactless (credit card, phone or watch) users can only claim for trips in the past 80 days.
- If a reader wasn't working, or you couldn't tap off because of an evacuation or a power or equipment outage, those are also adjustable.
- If you simply forgot to tap off, TfNSW's adjustment rules don't cover it.
Why a cancelled train costs you money in the first place
Opal works out your fare from where you tap on and where you tap off. If the system never sees a tap off, it has no idea how far you went, so it charges the default fare. TfNSW describes this as "the maximum possible fare for that service, based on your Opal card type".
So when a disruption pushes you off the network halfway through a trip (onto a replacement bus with no reader, into a rideshare, or out through gates left open), you can end up paying the most expensive fare for that mode instead of the short trip you actually made.
Here's what that means in dollars. Adult peak train fares currently run from $4.33 (0–10 km) to $10.66 (65+ km). A short hop like Redfern to Central should be in the $4.33 band, but if it ends in a default fare you can be charged up to $10.66 peak ($7.46 off-peak). On buses the adult peak range is $3.30 to $5.77, and on light rail it's the same.
The one protection is that default fares never push you past the Daily Travel Cap, which is currently $19.30 for adults Monday to Thursday and $9.65 Friday to Sunday and on public holidays.
About that $4.33: it's exactly the shortest adult peak train fare, so it may not have been a default fare at all. See the grey area below.
What TfNSW says you can claim
Taken from the TfNSW Opal refunds and fare adjustments page , you can apply for a fare adjustment if you were:
- Charged an incorrect fare amount because of an issue with an Opal card reader.
- Unable to tap off because of an emergency evacuation, or a power or equipment outage.
- Charged a default fare because of a service disruption.
The third one is the "train never came" situation. If the cancellation or disruption is the reason your trip ended without a proper tap off, you can claim.
Replacement buses: TfNSW says most train replacement buses are Opal enabled, so tap on and tap off on the bus as you normally would. Fines apply if you travel without a valid ticket. If a bus had no working reader and you ended up with a default fare, that's an issue with an Opal card reader, so include it in your claim ( About trackwork ).
Deadline: requests "must be made within 90 days from when the fare was charged". If it's approved, the adjustment is loaded onto your Opal card and you collect it on your next trip. If you can't travel within 60 days, contact Opal Customer Care.
What TfNSW won't refund
The Opal card page lists only those three grounds. TfNSW's contactless reimbursements page is more explicit. It says you can't get a refund if you:
- tapped on or off incorrectly
- didn't separate your cards or devices before tapping (card clash)
- tapped off with a different card or device from the one you tapped on with.
The last one catches lots of people: if you tap on with your phone and tap off with your watch, the system sees two incomplete trips.
One grey area: if you tapped on, waited longer than the reversal window, then tapped off at the same station, the charge you see may not be a "default fare" at all. TfNSW's published criteria don't explicitly cover it. It's still worth asking Opal Customer Care and explaining that the service was cancelled, but approval isn't guaranteed.
How to claim an Opal refund for a cancelled train
If you use an Opal card
- Find the trip. Open the Opal Travel app or log in at opal.com.au and look for a trip with no tap off, or a fare much higher than that trip normally costs. (Not sure where your history lives? Our guide to downloading your Opal trip history walks you through it.)
- Write down the details: date, time, the station or stop you tapped on at, where you actually got off, and what happened ("T8 service cancelled, no replacement bus reader").
- Lodge it in the right place. Don't use the Opal Card Refund Form. TfNSW says fare adjustments go through the Opal enquiry process instead:
- Registered card: log in to your account at opal.com.au, go to Opal account enquiries, select Complaint - Opal fares, then fill in the form.
- Unregistered card: use the enquiries and feedback form on the Opal website and choose Complaint - Opal fares as the enquiry type.
- Do it within 90 days of the charge. Set a reminder if you can't do it today.
- Collect the adjustment by tapping on for your next trip.
Copy-paste template:
On [date] I tapped on at [station] at [time]. The [line] service was cancelled/disrupted ([alert or screenshot]). I [left the station / took a replacement bus with no working Opal reader] and was charged $[amount]. Please adjust this fare: it was a default fare charged due to a service disruption.
If you pay by card, phone or watch
- Sign in to (or create) a [Transport Connect](https://transportnsw.info/tickets-fares/fares/transport-connect) account, register the card or device you tapped with, and open your travel history. Contactless trips show on your bank statement as one total per day, from 4am to 3:59am.
- Find the trip and click "Fare not right". If you don't have an account, the self-service portal shows your last 10 trips and you can apply from there (see TfNSW's contactless reimbursements page ). Approved reimbursements are credited against your next fare, or back to your card if you don't travel on it within 7 days.
- Remember the 80-day limit. It's shorter than the Opal card window because of card issuer restrictions.
- Approved reimbursements won't show in your contactless activity, so check your bank statement. Card issuer fees aren't reimbursed.
TfNSW says to allow about 20 business days for a contactless request to be processed.
Tips that make approval more likely
- Be specific. "T1 service cancelled at Strathfield, 8:12am, 1 October, replacement bus reader not working" gets further than "I was overcharged".
- Screenshot the disruption. A shot of the Trip Planner alert or a TfNSW post on X from that morning is good evidence.
- One request per incident. If a disruption hit you twice in a week, list each trip clearly.
How big is this problem?
TfNSW's own Opal dashboard showed default fares on about 3.4–3.6% of journeys in Q3 2025, up from roughly 2% in 2018. Back in 2018, 9News reported that over 12 months Opal charged default fares about 8.9 million times, worth $40.2 million, while only about $201,000 was refunded.
Some of those were genuine forgotten tap offs. Some will be disruptions, broken readers or outages, and those are claimable.
Find the trips you can claim
Going through months of Opal history by hand is tedious, which is why we built FareClaim . It's a free tool, run by volunteers, that reads your exported Opal trip history and flags likely default fares, failed tap offs, missed transfers and duplicate charges. It then lays out the trip details so you can paste them straight into the TfNSW form.
Your file is checked in your browser and never uploaded. There are no ads, no fees and no cut of your refund, and we're not affiliated with Transport for NSW. FareClaim doesn't submit claims for you: you stay in control and claim directly with TfNSW.
Check your Opal history free on FareClaim
FareClaim reads Opal card exports (plus go card and myki). Contactless (card, phone and watch) isn't supported yet.
Related guides
- How to download your Opal, go card or myki trip history
- Why your 50-cent Brisbane trip might be costing you more, and how to get it back
- How I almost quit before bringing FareClaim to Sydney
- More FareClaim guides on the blog
FAQ
Can I get a refund on Opal if my train was cancelled?
If the cancellation meant you were charged a default fare, yes. Apply for a fare adjustment within 90 days (or within 80 days for contactless). If you haven't travelled yet, reverse your tap on at the same station within 30 minutes and you won't be charged at all.
How long does an Opal fare adjustment take?
TfNSW doesn't publish a processing time for Opal card fare adjustments. Once one is approved, you collect it on your next trip. Contactless reimbursements take about 20 business days.
Can I claim if I forgot to tap off?
No. TfNSW only adjusts fares that were wrong because of a faulty reader, an evacuation or outage, or a service disruption. A plain forgotten tap off isn't covered.
What is the Opal default fare?
It's the maximum possible fare for that service and your card type. TfNSW charges it when a trip is incomplete (no matching tap on or tap off with the same card or device), capped at the Daily Travel Cap.
Sources: Transport for NSW, [Opal refunds and fare adjustments](https://transportnsw.info/tickets-fares/opal/manage-your-card/opal-refunds-fare-adjustments), [Tapping on and tapping off](https://transportnsw.info/tickets-fares/fares/tapping-on-tapping-off), [Contactless reimbursements](https://transportnsw.info/tickets-fares/contactless-payments/contactless-reimbursements) and [Adult Opal fares](https://transportnsw.info/tickets-fares/fares/adult-opal-fares), checked 7 October 2026. TfNSW Opal Dashboard Q3 2025. 9News, July 2018.