by Public transit drivers in the Montreal region can soon be able to only validate their tariffs with their smartphones, since the region’s transit authority begins a new function in the Chrono app.
This is part of an ongoing effort to improve payment systems. One day, as in other cities, users can pay their bank card when they enter the U -Bahn or the bus.
The Authorité Régionale de Transport Métropolitan (ArtM) says that the new function enables users to buy and load transit passes directly in the Chrono app, which enables the fare validation with your smartphones. This digital solution works separately from the physical opus card that continues to be used for those who are not participating in the app-based system.
Testing the digital tariff system will be used in phases from this summer and continued until autumn.
In the first phase, ARTM employee will try out the function, followed by a group of selected participants from the agency’s Mobilité panel, says The Artm in an e -mail to CBC News.
These early users can buy and load transit passes through Chrono and validate via their telephones in the network.
O’clock | Validation of transit prices with your smartphone to Montreal:
The participants are asked to share their feedback via a questionnaire. After the test phase, the ArtM says that this new system could be triggered until late autumn.
“The innovation of the smartphone-based validation aims to better meet the developing customer needs by providing new channels for buying and validating the ticket and simplifying your public transit experience,” says the email.
However, the long-term goal includes that direct payment by cell phones allow a direct payment by bank card, so Artm that this is a separate upgrade that requires a new ticketing system. A call to the tender for this overhaul is underway, with the use for 2026.
The agency emphasized that the new Chrono app function is not a digital replica of the Opus card. At this stage there is no link between app and physical cards or passes, and the Opus card remains a valid option for fare validation. Further details will be passed on in the course of the project.
Step in the right direction, says expert
Ahmed El Geneidy, professor at the School of Urban Planning at McGill University, said this was a small step, but a good step-in especially for younger generations who pay everything with their phone.
“Therefore, it can help to keep some of these drivers longer due to convenience and make them happy,” said El-Geneidy. “Off payment like London is the next step and you have to go there sooner or later. You just keep putting it on.”
It is not just London that enables contactless payments when users enter the tube or a double -decker bus. People who use the transit service in Laval, Que., Have been able to pay for some time with their banking and credit cards.
In Vancouver, the public transit, including the skytrain, can be paid by tapping a contactless card when entering the train station or the bus.
When that comes, El-Geneidy said that the Capping tariff will be important. This means that you pay a small amount with the same card every day until you reach the monthly pass price and the rest of the month are invited.
This payment plan is particularly useful for people who live from a low income that cannot afford to pay for a monthly fit in advance, he said.
Group wants punctual, reliable service 1st
Philippe Jacques, spokesman for the Public Transit Advocacy Group Trajectoire Québec, said his group would like to see that services in Montreal are more promptly and efficient before he focuses on payment methods, but every step forward is welcome.
The new system makes it easier to take the U -Bahn and the bus, but it’s not as easy as it could be, said Jacques. These systems cost money, he said, but “it is better to have a better U -Bahn system and a bus system.”
He said it was more than a year ago that users can charge their opus cards on their telephones, but efforts to facilitate access to the public transit system are not as fast as they should.
“We want it to continue and get faster,” said Jacques. “But we know that it is a bit complicated to have all the different types of payments. We know that it is not that easy.”
When the Artm presented its new service that users reloading their opus cards via the Chrono app in April last year, it is said that the Opus card system is on the brink.
The next system, which is referred to as OPUS 2.0, enables transit users to use their credit and debit cards as well as the virtual wallets in their telephones to pay for bus, U railway, train and rem access.
