{"id":768,"date":"2008-04-07T08:35:55","date_gmt":"2008-04-07T13:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/2008\/04\/07\/why-smart-cards-will-be-good-for-montreal\/"},"modified":"2008-04-07T08:35:55","modified_gmt":"2008-04-07T13:35:55","slug":"why-smart-cards-will-be-good-for-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/04\/07\/why-smart-cards-will-be-good-for-montreal\/","title":{"rendered":"Why smart cards will be good for Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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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<\/a>, explaining why it will be a big step ahead for public transit in Greater Montreal. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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<\/a>, “It’s another step in knitting the agglomeration into a metropolis, psychologically if not politically.”<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, 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<\/i> envelope<\/a> I received during last year’s Chinese New Year can attest. Will Montreal embrace its smart card in the same way?<\/p>\n

Photo by Cedric Sam<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.)Continue reading “Why smart cards will be good for Montreal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[336,1066,333,2150,497,2149,272,125,275,2148,406,273,419,805,1158,420,2147,1071,302],"class_list":["post-768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transit","tag-asia","tag-boston","tag-cedric-sam","tag-chinese-new-year","tag-europe","tag-james-mennie","tag-kate-mcdonnell","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-city","tag-odile-paradis","tag-provincial-government","tag-quebec-city","tag-rtl","tag-smart-card","tag-spokesperson","tag-stm","tag-train-systems","tag-transit-systems","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy smart cards will be good for Montreal - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/04\/07\/why-smart-cards-will-be-good-for-montreal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why smart cards will be good for Montreal - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Montreal’s public transit agencies will be introducing the new smart card this month after nearly six years of preparing for its arrival. 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