New metro turnstiles will take bank cards
The STM has begun installing a new kind of metro turnstile that will read bank cards.
I can’t help wondering whether this will eventually cause the phasing out of deals on ten tickets, or even passes, if every trip costs you the same, no matter how often you need to use the metro.
Jim 17:45 on 2022-07-25 Permalink
I was happily surprised when I was in NYC last week, where they offered tap and go on the subway turnstiles. I was only there for a couple of days with very few trips, so single fares worked fine, but it seems they are eventually having a way to combine fare payments (https://new.mta.info/fares/omny)
Bob R 18:26 on 2022-07-25 Permalink
This doesn’t work for everyone, obviously: but in NYC, if you have a smart phone or apple watch, you can use those for single-pay at the turnstyle. If you use it enough to pay for a full weekly pass, it then stops charging you for the remainder of the 7 days.
walkerp 18:37 on 2022-07-25 Permalink
In Vancouver, you can pay for the bus with your credit card, just a quick swipe. It’s really great for tourists.
Ephraim 21:38 on 2022-07-25 Permalink
It’s really weird what Americans can and can’t tap for… They don’t have the $100/$200 limits that we do… but sometimes even on a small tap… it puts up the signature line and you have to make them sign the receipt.
Blork 22:14 on 2022-07-25 Permalink
Ok, so how are they going to screw this up?
You swipe your card, but then you have to go to the STM website, register, and then confirm your purchase. The good news is that once you’re registered, next time you only need to go to the website, enter a PIN, then confirm your purchase. Although you’ll be hit with a survey every third time, and you won’t be able to confirm your purchase until you complete the survey.
Or…
You first have to download an app. Then, when you swipe your card you wait for a confirmation prompt to appear in the app. But before you can “OK” it you have to sit through two 30-second video ads.
Or… (?)
Dominic 08:57 on 2022-07-26 Permalink
@Blork: Also if you click in ENGLISH it brings you to a 404 page
Daniel D 09:13 on 2022-07-26 Permalink
How will this work with buses? A lot of Metro journeys start or end with a bus trip, so if they’re not adding these readers to buses as well, it seems like the number of people whom would benefit is quite low. Also, what about trips out into other zones, for example starting Downtown and ending somewhere in exo land? It seems this could only work if the system requires “tapping out” at the end of a journey so it can calculate the correct fare.
I remain hopeful they’ll do a good job with the implementation, but this sounds like a hack to me so they can claim they’re up there with the systems of London, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
MarcG 09:41 on 2022-07-26 Permalink
The project was started 7 years ago, don’t expect it to be cutting edge. I understand that it’s important to keep money in Quebec by hiring local companies to do stuff but if a product already exists, sometimes it makes sense just to buy it and install it rather than reinvent the wheel.
Uatu 10:41 on 2022-07-26 Permalink
I saw them installing the new turnstiles at Vendome. It took them about 10 days and workers were there at 8am and still there when I left work around 4pm all 10 days. I’m not optimistic about the system if it takes that long to install and program