People in greater Sydney, Newcastle and the Hunter Region will be able to ride public transport for free for 12 days, starting Thursday.
Commuters will be able to access buses, ferries, trams, trains and Metro services by tapping their Opal or debit cards.
Manly Fast Ferries will also be included, the NSW Transport Minister said.
While no fare will be charged, transport officials hope to collect data on how many people use the free services.
The free fares will apply across the Opal network, meaning Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, the Hunter and the Illawarra.
Riding NSW TrainLink regional trains and coaches, including XPT and Xplorer services, will still cost money.
Travellers will also have to pay the access fee at Sydney’s airport, which is $15.13 for adults and $13.54 for children, pensioners and concession card holders.
Parking at Transport Park & Ride car parks will continue to be free for up to 18 hours at a time.
People using debit cards or contactless payments will see a $1 pre-authorisation charge appear on their bank statements, but the transaction will be reversed at the end of the day, Transport for NSW said.
Transport officials estimated the free rides would cost taxpayers between $8 million and $20 million, but were hopeful the wider economy would be stimulated enough to make it worth the cost.
The fare-free period has been billed as an apology for the chaos caused in February when the NSW government shut down Sydney’s rail network for a day.
It’s also meant to boost businesses by encouraging people to explore the region during school holidays, the state’s Transport Minister said.
“It’s both. I’ve been speaking to business communities since January, since I became Minister, and there were a number of people who thought that free public transport was the easiest trigger to get people out and about,” David Elliott said.
The rail network was shut down in response to impending industrial action from unionised transport workers.
In the aftermath of the shutdown, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union called for fare-free Fridays, prompting Mr Elliott to offer fare concessions in exchange for a commitment to withhold further industrial action on the rail network.
Enterprise agreement negotiations between the RTBU and the government continue, and Tuesday’s announcement came after a daylong strike by bus drivers associated with the union.
