The ARTM’s new transit fare system goes into effect Friday. It’s supposed to streamline and simplify what used to be a diabolically complicated fare structure, but CBC radio just had someone on talking about how complicated and confusing the new system is, so who knows.
Updates from June, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Police are putting out feelers to help identify a suspect in the April murder of Steven Marques at the corner of St‑Laurent and Jean‑Talon. One suspect has already been charged, but is clearly not talking about who his accomplice was.
A second man has been arrested and charged in the shooting of Meriem Boundaoui.
Frederick Silva, jailed for 25 years for three killings in 2018, has received police protection after two of his friends were recently killed in the Montreal area. Daniel Renaud says here that if Silva turns informant, it may shake up the local gangster world.
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Kate
Metro notes that the Falaise Saint-Jacques path is open but without suggesting how to access it. This piece from Urbanature suggests accessing it via the old Rose Bowl site.
Daniel D
I visited a few weeks ago and its pretty accessible.
To find the path from Vendome, follow directions for the Montreal Children’s Hospital and come out on Declarie Boulevard. Head South and cross over Saint-Jacques street to find the cycle path zig-zagging down the escarpment.
From Montreal West station, head south on leafy Brock Street and follow it until it intersects with Sainte-Anne de Bellevue Boulevard.
There also seemed to be a mid-way access point which leads up to Benny Farm, but I didn’t go and explore it. Got to leave something unknown for the next visit 😉
(I wrote about it on my blog if anyone wants to see another perspective on it: https://heliomass.com/posts/088-exploring-the-saint-jacques-escarpment)
Kevin
I was going to say the western point doesn’t seem accessible at all, being located in the middle of a commercial/industrial area that only got sidewalks as part of the Turcot rebuild. I used to live 2 blocks from Brock St. and didn’t realize that it now connects to Ste. Anne de Bellevue Blvd.
Kate
Daniel D, thanks for that link. Very useful descriptions! I was thinking of going to have a look, but you know, with Covid rising again, I’m not sure I want to take public transit that far from Villeray right now if I don’t have to. Maybe later this summer, or in the fall.
James
@Daniel D: The 3rd entrance is not really official but is here:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.4624851,-73.6213194,3a,75y,149.48h,90.66t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sUTeKXO6_pnY_2lAmHI3Xxg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DUTeKXO6_pnY_2lAmHI3Xxg%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D240.42012%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192
Not exactly Benny farm…
There are some home-made items as you descend from this access point : many bird feeders and a skate-board park.
The city has recently purchased the land adjacent to this entrance (the car repair shop) and intends to make it the 3rd official entrance to the park.
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Kate
City hall will be holding a public consultation at the end of the summer on why so few people vote in municipal elections.
I have some ideas. The root problem is that people generally have a poor grasp of what the different levels of government do. A couple of municipal elections ago, a friend was running for council in my area, and asked me to go around my block with him and help introduce him to my neighbours.
It was a real eye‑opener for me, as people asked him about many matters not covered by municipal services, and yet seemed to have no real idea how much influence the powers of the city and borough have on the quality of life in their immediate surroundings – the streets, the parks, the general tone and conduct of city life. Except for the mayor, the politicians involved don’t tend to be well recognized unless there’s a scandal. So people can dismiss municipal politics as unimportant: they don’t understand what it does.
I used to work with a guy who lived in Rosemont. He had some complaints about his neighbourhood and I asked him who his councillor was and why he didn’t send them an email. He didn’t know, but he’d already given up fatalistically on the idea that the councillor – whoever they were – might respond to his concerns. He hadn’t voted in the municipal election either – I asked. This man was a property owner and an otherwise competent person, too. It was a real delineation of the disconnect that people feel. Is it the city’s fault? Or is it that we’re not properly taught civics so we don’t understand the mechanisms of government?
I recently stopped following a Facebook group called “Montreal Then and Now” where people posted occasionally interesting old photos. But it became a general kvetch fest in which it became clear that a lot of older anglos still think city hall is the same nest of vipers it was under Tremblay (and, in some cases, that nothing in the city has been any good since Drapeau was mayor, since the PQ was first elected, etc.). I don’t know how city hall can demonstrate to these bitter codgers that it is no longer corrupt from top to bottom, but a lot of people still think it is and therefore it’s futile to vote in city elections. In their world, no matter who you elect, city hall will remain deeply corrupt.
A footnote that crosses my mind: the borough system doesn’t help. That people don’t know what the borough does vs. what the city does, adds an extra layer of confusion. I’ve worked in municipal elections and people can be perturbed by the fact that they get three ballots, because the structure of the city government is not apparent to them and when people feel confused often they will just turn away.
So that’s what I know. Better education would help. Since most of us are already out of school, it’ll be on the city to inform us what they do, and how we can contribute. How you get people to take enough interest, I don’t know. Their focus is elsewhere, even if they complain every week on Facebook about the potholes on their street.
Kevin
I fully agree with you. Canada needs a few widespread education campaigns about how basic stuff works because most of our population hasn’t got a clue.
But politicians and bureaucrats like when nobody knows how things work because it allows them to shift the blame to somebody else.
I don’t know if governments will ever do this, but one place to start would be including something eyecatching and informative with the annual school and municipal tax bills.
Dominic
This seems like a good-as-any moment to unsubscribe from that same Facebook group. Its trash.
Daniel D
Imagine being a resident of nearly 10 years who doesn’t yet have the vote, and realising how many people don’t exercise their democratic rights to vote, speak to their representatives or educate themselves.
dhomas
Many people I know will complain about things in the city and do absolutely zero to change it.
For example, the last time I went to my sister’s house, she and her husband’s family (who live on the next street over) complained about a pothole and how “the city does nothing to fix it”. I pulled out my phone and opened my trusty Montreal app to report the pothole. It was fixed within 48 hours.
These same people complain about tons of things relating to city politics (most of which I disagree with, like how “the city is ‘ruining’ streets with bike paths” or other such nonsense). Yet they don’t vote in municipal elections, or make their voices heard in other ways. It’s probably for the best that they don’t vote, just like the “bitter codgers” from that Facebook group, or they might prevent more streets from being “ruined”.
Meezly
In BC, I remember learning in high school how the federal level works and a bit about provincial government, but never the municipal level. I only learned more about municipal level stuff only when I took an interest in voting and becoming informed over time. It was quite a gradual process as my parents were totally apolitical and uninterested in politics.
I wonder if it has to do with public schools being under provincial jurisdiction so I can kind of see how municipal politics is “beneath” the curriculum or they see this as something that should be left to the local community or individual to go about on their own.
Joey
I dunno, your Rosemont colleague sounds like someone who has a poor grasp of civics but a decent grasp of politics.
Kate
A blanket undiscerning cynicism is a dead end, civically speaking.
Joey, I had counter-examples for him. Several times I’ve emailed my councillor over issues in the neighbourhood – stuff about roads and sidewalks and safety mostly. And she has always responded and usually acted on them. That doesn’t necessarily mean that my colleague’s councillor would have been so responsive, but he never bothered to find out, did he?
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Kate
It was announced in early April that there would be no Canada Day parade here because of the pandemic. Now they’re saying it’s because it costs too much.
Nobody’s saying there’s not a lot of demand for a Canada Day parade here, but I think it’s a fair guess.
The long weekend is expected to be a hot one; notes on what’s open and closed.
dhomas
Just a note (it’s mentioned in the article): the PARADE is cancelled but the festivities at the Old Port are still taking place.
https://www.oldportofmontreal.com/event/canada-day-2022Kate
Here’s a Daily Hive piece on things to do around town this long weekend.
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Kate
As presaged by La Presse last week, NATO will be placing its “centre of excellence” for climate change and security in Montreal.
When I posted about this last week, regular reader Su commented: “This has to do with the Arctic. As it is warming (many times faster than anywhere else) to the delight of many. The vast resources (oil, gas, “green” rare metals) and brand new shipping routes are open to exploitation.”
But even the phrasing of Thursday’s piece makes it clear that the purpose of this “centre of excellence” (why the bogus management-speak when you can just say “headquarters”?) is concerned with the effects of climate change on the national security of NATO countries, and not on efforts to counter climate change in itself.
No news yet about the scale of this installation or where it will be located in town.
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Kate
Without getting too specific, Daniel Renaud tells how the SPVM went all out to round up suspects in the shooting death of Meriem Boundaoui last year. At least one of them is expected in court Thursday.
Blork 16:28 on 2022-06-30 Permalink
The new integrated and “simplified” rates are indeed simpler for people who cross systems (e.g., from Zone B — Longueuil or Laval — into the Montreal Metro) AND who use the system only occasionally, via individual tickets instead of monthly passes. However, there’s a hitch: the cost has gone way up. It’s now $5.25 a ticket for any ride — even rides within the island of Montreal if you’re a “Zone B” user. (Although if you buy tickets 10 at a time it’s $4.50.)
HOW IT IS SIMPLER:
Previously, for occasional use you had to buy three different kinds of ticket (or more precisely, load three different kinds of “passages” onto your OPUS card):
1. Longueuil or Laval bus tickets
2. Metro tickets for entering the system from Longueuil or Laval
3. Tickets for use on the island of Montreal.
Worse, you had to go to THREE DIFFERENT PLACES to get the tickets, because each location only sold one kind of ticket.
All that is gone. Now you can only load one kind of ticket on your OPUS card:
A = bus and Metro on the island of Montreal. ($3.50 a ride.)
OR:
AB = bus in Longueuil or Laval, plus entry into the Metro, plus any on-island transit. ($5.25 a ride.)
(There are also tickets for the farther-out regions, but for this discussion let’s keep it to Zone B, which is Laval or Longueuil into Montreal.)
This means you now only need to know HOW MANY TICKETS are on your card, not HOW MANY OF EACH KIND of ticket, which was previously next to impossible to determine.
HOW IT IS MORE EXPENSIVE:
The kicker is that you can only load one kind of ticket onto your OPUS card. You can’t load “AB” tickets for entering at Longueuil and also load “A” tickets for on-island use only. After all, how would that work?
If you have both “A” and “AB” tickets on your OPUS, how does the system know which one to deduct when you get on the Metro at Peel or McGill or whatever? It cannot know if you plan to go all the way to Longueuil or Laval and then take a bus. It will assume you’re just riding from one Metro station to another and deduct an “A” ticket.
But if you are going to Longueuil or Laval, and you plan to take a bus from there, the bus has no way of knowing that you just got off the Metro, so it will grab an “AB” ticket for your ride. So your ride home has cost you both an “A” ticket ($3.50) and an “AB” ticket ($5.25). For a total of $8.75.
For people who only use the system to occasionally commute to work from Zone B and back, it’s no big deal. Your ride is going to cost $5.25 each way, full stop. But for people who occasionally commute to work from Zone B and back, and also want to occasionally ride the Metro within the island, those on-island rides will cost you $5.25, while the people around you only paid $3.50.
Also note that your entry ticket into the Metro in Laval or Longueuil must be an AB ticket at $5.25, whether or not you come by bus. So people who live walking distance from those Metro stations pay the same as people who live farther out and combine bus and Metro.
One workaround is to have TWO OPUS CARDS, and to load “AB” tickets on one, for your commute, and load “A” tickets on the other for hopping around on the island. Annoying, but you’ll save almost two dollars a ride, which may or may not be worth the inconvenience (only you can decide).
DISCLAIMER: It’s really hard to get precise information on how this works, so the above is based on a bunch of reading and a a certain amount of conjecture. There might actually be some kind of intelligence built into the system, such that you can load both A and AB tickets onto the same card, and it deducts an A ticket when you get on at Peel, and when you get on a bus in Laval or Longueuil it returns the A ticket and deducts an AB ticket. I can see you all rolling on the floor laughing and wailing “AS IF!” and I’m with you on that. Very highly unlikely that such intelligence is built-in.
Blork 16:29 on 2022-06-30 Permalink
One other thing, and this is nice: you can use an AB ticket to take the river shuttle from the old port to the Longueuil marina (or the other way). Sweeeet!
Kate 17:04 on 2022-06-30 Permalink
I think we need a type O, universal donors.
Thanks for the extended explanation. I fear somehow ending up by mistake in Laval or Brossard and never getting home because I’m Type A.
Joey 23:11 on 2022-06-30 Permalink
New York has recently introduced a system called Omny. You tap your phone (or credit card) without doing anything – double-clicking a button, unlocking your phone, even turning the screen on – and your account is billed one fare. Once you’ve paid for 12 fares during any Monday to Sunday period (using the same device), your subsequent rides are free until the end of the week. Too bad we’re still figuring out how to implement Opus.
Tee Owe 08:04 on 2022-07-01 Permalink
London ha a similar system to NY, makes it so easy, especially for visitors
dhomas 08:30 on 2022-07-01 Permalink
What’s missing in Montreal, other than the cumulative trip calculations mentioned above, is exit scans. In many cities, you tap your card to get into the metro and again to get out. That way, you get charged for an interzone trip only when you make that trip.