Chief Minister Andrew Barr said on Friday the government would seek an "off-the-shelf" transport ticketing system for buses and trams, and any replacement for MyWay cards should come with a demonstrated record of success for passengers.

He raised possible licensing of the $1.2 billion Opal system with NSW Premier Mike Baird in a meeting in Sydney on Thursday, as the state moves to phase out some remaining paper tickets from January 1.

Mr Barr said a cross-border ticketing system would benefit Canberrans travelling to Sydney and visitors coming to the capital. It could also help promote co-operation for the possible extension of light rail to Queanbeyan in future decades.

The proposal won applause from public transport advocates.

ACT Light Rail group chairman Damien Haas said Canberra had a good record of buying existing, proven ticketing technology after MyWay was adapted from Western Australia.

"I can't see any major technical problems for using the Opal card here. I think in terms of the technology upgrades, it would be fairly straightforward," he said.

"If a passenger had credit on their Opal card in Sydney, there's no reason why that couldn't be transferred to the ACT government as revenue. It would be good if you could tell people in Sydney that if you come to Canberra you could use your Opal card here."

The Opal card rollout brought complaints about access to top-up stations and confusion for travellers, but has been smoother than years of complication for Melbourne's public transport commuters caused by the problematic Myki smartcard.

Victoria Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said reliability of readers and response times were critical to the success of any new ticketing system.

"Off the shelf is the way to go," Mr Bowen said. "The experience with Myki shows the problems you can get into if you go and build your own system or develop from scratch."

He said adapting Opal for Canberra could save money and put a new ticketing system in place more quickly. Light rail is due to become operation from 2019 or 2020.

"From what I've seen, Opal seems to work quite well. There were a few problems when it was being phased in, such as a lack of places top up your card but they are being addressed and the readers are very usable and reliable."

The government's Capital Metro Agency has previously announced passengers will touch on their card at tram stops, not on board vehicles.

Fix NSW Transport spokesman Jim Donovan spokesman said Sydney's experience showed fare structures should be simplified before the transition takes place. He said passengers should not be required to "touch off" at the end of their journey.

"I don't think people have found Opal too difficult to use. You can buy one, register it with your name on it so you can get the credit back if you lose it," he said. "Tourists being able to use their existing card is a very good idea."

"A smartcard can also be used to purchase all kinds of other things if there's enough credit on it. Some cities do that already and it has been hinted in Sydney we might do that soon, and Canberra could consider the same," Mr Donovan said.

Ticketing will be an early priority for the government's new Transport Canberra agency, set to be created on July 1, 2016.