FOAM - Ferry Opal Assignment Model

This dataset provides an indicator of historic ferry occupancy for individual ferry services from November 2019.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://opendata.transport.nsw.gov.au/dataset/foam-ferry-opal-assignment-model

We’re starting to roll out the “OAM” data (Opal Assignment Model) – this can provide you the ability to predict occupancy levels for the modes where real time occupancy data is unavailable.

FOAM is the data for Ferries and is a companion to the ROAM, LOAM and BOAM data.

hi @yvonne.lee thanks for this update. We’ve looked quite a lot at this previously and have found accuracy issues where multiple routes serve a single wharf - without the live arrival times it is hard to accurately associate Opal check-ins with a specific vessel (for example, Cockatoo Island to Circular Quay - there are several options for the route or vessel depending on the live arrival times). Is there any documentation about how FOAM has addressed that? The FOAM documentation as published just seem to have field names, not methodology. Thanks!

Good idea @mattm – we’re looking into this.

We have been advised that the data from 18 October 2020 onwards at this point is unreliable due to upstream systems. Please use the data with caution.

We will update here when we hear further about the data updates/fixes.

There are ongoing issues so extracts to FOAM, BOAM and ROAM have stopped. A catch up set of data will be produced once upstream issues are resolved.

The data is coming back through now for the FOAM, BOAM and ROAM data.

I have previously notified the Open Data team that the Ferry Opal Assignment Model data is not correctly picking up Opal counts. All the values in the occupancy range field are “0-20”, even on heavily loaded F1 Manly trips. This problem has still not been fixed. Also, as the Manly Fast Ferry services are now fully Opal enabled, can these please be include in the FOAM data?