Sydney’s smart ticketing system for public transport, the Opal card, will work at every train station across the city by the end of the month.

By April 4 it will also be extended to the South Coast and Southern Highland lines.

The Blue Mountains and Hunter lines also need to be added to the network, before work starts to have all Sydney Buses services accepting the card by the end of the year.

Opal is already operating on all ferries, across much of Sydney’s rail network and for trains up to the central coast.

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian says more than 130,000 Opal cars have been registered so far, but she expects the number to increase significantly.

“Customers want to have the confidence when they have the Opal card they can go anywhere on the rail network and use it,” she said.

“That will be the case in the very near future, so today’s announcement means all of Sydney trains will be covered by the end of next week.

“[It is] great news also for Illawarra customers and also for southern highlands and Goulburn customers.”

Currently concession card holders are not eligible to use an Opal card but work is underway.

“There will be a special card for our seniors and pensioners, there will be a special card for students, a special card for people who have other concessions,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“That is all part of the mix and that will all happen by the end of the year.

“The key thing for us is to do the roll out progressively and as I said the vast chunk of the rail network will be done by the end of April 4.”