New transit fare system starts Friday
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.
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.