Montreal’s public transit agencies will be introducing the new smart card this month after nearly six years of preparing for its arrival. (The decision to switch to a smart card came with the STM first decided to replace its antiquated fare boxes and metro turnstiles, most of which were decades old and prone to malfunction.) Over the past several months, the impending introduction of the new payment system has raised questions from public transit users, some of whom feel that the $169 million used to implement it could have been better used for other things. In today’s Gazette, though, James Mennie comes to the defense of the smart card, explaining why it will be a big step ahead for public transit in Greater Montreal.
For transit agencies, including the STM, and transit users, the smart card’s advantage is security and flexibility. Fare evasion will become virtually impossible—a big deal, since it costs the STM more than $20 million annually—and transit agencies will be able to more effectively collect the money they so desperately needs to operate the bus, metro and train systems. In the future, different bus and metro routes could charge different fares, and fares could be adjusted by time of day to reduce congestion. (The STM has already said that it will probably give discounts to people who travel at off-peak hours.) A loyalty program could be easily implemented to attract new users and reward frequent ones.
Transit users will benefit from a more secure payment method—if you lose your card or it is stolen, the value would be protected simply by reporting the loss—and one that is far more flexible, allowing frequent users to put a monthly pass on the card and occasional users to put cash value (or “virtual tickets”) on it. Most importantly, the card will allow users to effortlessly pass through all of Montreal’s transit systems: you will be able to travel on STM buses and metro, AMT trains, RTL buses and STL buses using the same card, which eliminates the hassle of having to buy additional tickets if you use a transit system for which you do not have a pass. While this won’t mean much for TRAM card holders, who already enjoy similar cross-system flexibility, albeit for a very hefty price, it will make life much easier for those transit users who only occasionally need to use other systems. The smart card will even work in Quebec City, which might not mean much for most Montreal commuters but could be pretty convenient if you find yourself making the trip north fairly often. As Kate McDonnell noted on Montreal City, “It’s another step in knitting the agglomeration into a metropolis, psychologically if not politically.”
The introduction of the smart card will be coupled, in both the short and the long term, with better transit service and more transit options. It’s just one part of a plan to boost transit ridership in order to gain an extra $100 million in funding from the provincial government. “For us, the smart card is part of a larger mix of things to attract people to public transit,” STM spokesperson Odile Paradis told the Gazette. “There’s no single method – the more easy we make it, the more interesting we make it for our clientele, the more people will start using our network.”
Smart cards have already become the standard in Europe and Asia and even American cities have had a head start on getting them. Last November, I reported on Boston’s CharlieCard, which has made transit use on that city’s notoriously inefficient bus and subway system much simpler. I just returned from five weeks in Hong Kong, a city that pioneered the use of smart cards in 1997 with its Octopus card, which can be used to pay for buses, trains, ferries, parking, vending machines and even at many shops and restaurants. People there absolutely love the thing: the ease of which transit can be used in Hong Kong has become a point of civic pride. The Octopus card has even worked its way into Hong Kong’s popular culture, as the Octopus Card-themed lai see envelope I received during last year’s Chinese New Year can attest. Will Montreal embrace its smart card in the same way?
Photo by Cedric Sam
18 comments
From the Gazette:
“…opportunity for transit authorities to better control their revenues (fraud and theft whittle away an estimated five to six per cent of the MTC’s revenue, about $20 million annually).
But all that convenience doesn’t come cheap. The system is costing the MTC $169 million – about 18 per cent of its annual budget – while Laval and Longueuil are ponying up $8 million apiece.”
“The MTC stands to enjoy a $100-million bump in provincial funding if it reaches its target”
If I understand this correctly (and assume that they will reach their target), this seems to mean that it will take about four years (at least) for the combined investors just to break even on the investment, from recovered additional revenue and additional funding from the province.
Not saying that thinking long-term is a bad thing, just wondering if there are other costs or glitches in the transition process that haven’t been anticipated. (Given previous municipal institutional underestimations.)
The only other criticism of smart cards I’ve heard is the standard Big Brother one – that now they can track you wherever you go…
Yeah, I’ve heard of the “Big Brother” criticism, but I don’t think there’s anything to it. Unless you register your smart card, they’re anonymous, so there’s no way for anyone to actively track your movements. In any case, debit card and credit card use already reveals your behaviour and movement, and if you have a cell phone it’s even possible to pinpoint your exact location. The metro is already filled with CCTV cameras in any case, so worrying about smart cards seems kind of pointless.
If someone is so concerned about their movement being tracked they could just pay their fare in cash.
I’m curious about the AMT train thing. The Montreal-Two Mountains line (and perhaps all of them) expressly forbids the use of the currently monthly STM bus pass to offset ay part of the higher fare. Oddly, an STM bus transfer DOES allow one to deduct the cost of a bus trip from the purchase of an AMT train ticket, but not the pass, which is the for the same damn thing: a ride on a bus.
Why would AMT suddenly start accepting STM passes for discounted fares, just because they’ve changed card technologies? They could have done this years ago.
Nevermind, I got my answer in the Gaz article. They’d be add-ons, i.e., not part of the basic monthly STM pass. BTW, I fully expect another round of pass and fare increases, to pay for all this.
I attended the AMT presentation about the smart cards on Dec 5th.
There will be several types of cards: anonymous and registered. the registered version will allow you to get the full value of the card back if it is lost or stolen and will also allow the STM to establish loyalty programs like Airmiles et…
The cards will have the capability to have 4 cards registered. for example, one card can have an STM monthly pass, 6 individual STM tickets, and STL monthly pass, and tickets for AMT trains loaded onto the card. The smart card readers will be ‘smart’ and know which one to deduct.
The system will only know where you enter the network – not where you leave. Howver, having said that, they will be able to generate a travel pattern of individual users very easily by just looking at where you enter in the morning and where you enter in the afternoon (commuting model). This actually is a very good thing in my opinion because for the first time, the AMT/STM will have a very detailed Origin/Destination model for planning service adjustments.
Practical advantages:
– Tou will be able to keep the card in your wallet/purse and just glide the thing over the reader.
– No more de-magnetized cards (happened to me twice in one year)
– No more forgetting the card in the pocket of a different pair of pants! (just don’t forget your wallet).
Now we just have to hope the smart card won’t be cracked on a large scale. Not that we will know since I’m sure they’ll try to cover up that fact.
Fraude with the current system is also possible (it’s easy to photocopy a month pass and use it on busses only) but it stayed on a small scale. Once you have hacked a smartcard you can use it forever to travel for free, undetected.
Hacking the pass still requires quite some knowledge, but it will happen eventually.
I’m not buying the smart cards thing. First of all, I understand upgrading the turnstiles. That’s been an issue for way too long. The STM can’t even get parts for them anymore. What I don’t understand is knocking down all the ticket booths and building new ones. What exactly does that do for the ridership? Also, I don’t see any particular advantage to smart cards over magnetic cards. Fare evasion on the metro is usually in the form of turnstile-hopping, something new passes don’t really do anything about. I also don’t buy that smart cards are more durable than magnetic cards. Sure they won’t be demagnetized, but electronics are known to be easily fried by static electricity. If the STM intends to eliminate fraudulently laser printed passes by using electronic readers on the buses, I can’t wait for the day when my legit pass stops working and I’m denied a ride on a bus because my pass is “fake”. Another legit concern is the anonymity one. Believe you me, if the STM could manage to collect personal data on every metro rider, they would. They can’t do this right off the bat because this is Quebec and we have way too many young militants to just do away with anonymity in one fell swoop, but I predict in the coming years a slow phase-out of the anonymous pass. Reducing over and over the capabilities of the anonymous pass until staying anonymous is no longer practical. I further predict targeted advertising on the projectors and LCD screens based on who is on the platform at that moment and other borderline big-brother concepts. The advertisers are going to eat this stuff up, and advertising (see the projectors, LCD screens, replacement of mom-and-pop businesses in the metro with corporate chains, the introduction of the Metro newspaper) is, at this point, one of the the STM’s main concerns. Everything is about perception and the metro “modernization” is a case in point. It’s an excuse to charge more, it lets them sell all kinds of spooky demographic information to advertisers, and it makes them look good without having to do any of the truly difficult and nitty-gritty work of upgrading the stations that fill with water every rainfall, replacing the 40 year old trains and acquiring a fleet of buses that don’t inexplicably break down and/or catch fire. I think our money, of which they take more and more every single year with apparently no thought to the fact that they are basically taxing Montreal’s poorest residents, could be better spent.
You will not be able to use the cards in Laval or Longueuil immediately because since the AMT has no actual power, these two agencies bought different systems then the STM and all 3 are still not integrated. It has actually cost about 3 millions dollars extra to design a program to network the different systems together since the AMT couldnt force everyone to buy the same one.
Tux, the kind of situation you describe hasn’t occured anywhere else in the world, even in places with privately-operated public transit like Hong Kong. I don’t see why Montreal would be any different.
Besides, the STM can’t even manage its current advertising effectively; I doubt it is capable or diabolical enough to start a world-leading data-mining and commercial-surveillance operation.
In any case, the “truly difficult and nitty-gritty work” is being done. New metro cars and buses are on their way.
I have more question: with all these high-tech options, does this spell the end of being able to conveniently buy my monthly passes at the corner depanneur?
Shawn, I’ve wondered the same thing. When I spoke STM officials last year they mentioned depanneurs as one of the places where cards could be refilled. Technically, it wouldn’t be much of a deal, since deps would only need to have a card scanner attached to the cash register. Give them $50, swipe your card and the cash value will be added.
That’s how it works in Hong Kong, where smart cards can be reloaded at any convenience store and where they also be used to pay for things at those stores. Of course, every city is different. I believe Paris has imposed a very rigid and bureaucratic method of obtaining/refilling smart cards, but that’s probably just Paris. It’s a hassle even to get a weekly pass there.
In response to Gavin: “these two agencies bought different systems then the STM and all 3 are still not integrated”
This is not correct. This is an AMT project that is being managed by the STM (since they are by far the largest). All the operators in the AMT territory will use this system.
In response to Shawn: I don’t think its that convenient to have to go to a bank to get cash and then have to go to a depaneur to get the new card.
In the west Island there are not that many outlets that sell the cards (not everyone takes the metro) and if you wait until the 1st often the store won’t have any left! Then you are really out of luck because 1) the next store that sells them is far away, 2) you have to walk, 3) might not be open yet, 4) might also be sold out.
It happened to me in Kirkland last year. I had to walk 1km along St. Charles over Hwy 40 to arrive at a pharmacy that only opened at 9am (1 hr wait outside the store in January). Luckly the store had the cards!
Well, I guess one other good thing is that those of us who have credit cards, and prefer to use them to accumulate Air Miles or Aeroplan, can now pay for their passes that way. Up to now, it’s been cash- or debit-only.
In Response to James: You have no idea what you are talking about. I didn’t just post for the sake of posting like you did with your response. The STM went with a system from France modified with software from the Chicago. RTL bought a Swiss system which was compatible with nothing but they have been testing it for several years and refused to scrap their project and Laval went with a system used in Los Angeles. The AMT has yet to even purchase any equipement.
Gavin:
According to the information on the STM’s web site:
http://www.stm.info/info/carteapuce2008-QR.htm
Ce projet est réalisé de concert avec le Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL), la Société de transport de Laval (STL), l’Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT), le Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC) et des Conseils intermunicipaux de transport desservant la région de Montréal. La STM et ses partenaires communiqueront davantage de détails sur les nouveautés et les avantages de ces changements en 2008
Q.8 Est-ce que les autres sociétés de transport seront munies de ce type de carte?
R. Oui, la même carte à puce sera utilisée dans les sociétés de transport suivantes : STM, AMT, RTL, STL et RTC
Is this information incorrect?
Does anyone know what the STM smart card will be called? I’m guessing each transit authority will have a different name for their smart cards.
James -> that is exactly what I was saying. They all bought different systems and then spent over 3 million dollars trying to get the systems to work with each other. Money that could have been saved if they were forced to buy the same system from the beginning. The integration is nowhere near complete and the STM hasn’t even issued their RFP for the cards as yet. You are looking at atleast another year before the cards will work on the entire AMT system.