What, WHAT was wrong with the small little tickets made of recyclable paper?! now we have larger tickets which litter the ground! Before the machine TOOK your ticket, and I am HOPING the STM would recycle them, but now there is no chance of that, they just end up all over the ground! It’s so so so stupid!

OPUS is cool, but there has been so much confusion around it, no one seems to know which way is up… and that line at the McGill metro to get the student OPUS is completely insane. No way should the STM think it’s reasonable to expect a student to stand in a line up for 4 hours on a weekday between the hours of 9-6… Most students would have to skip a class to do that. It’s completely unreasonable.

Poor organisation and terrible follow through. Whoever was in charge of this whole system change really really screwed up.

So confusing!

As far as I know (and as far as I read), when you pass your Opus card in a reader, you have an hour after that to take a transfer without the system charging you another time. It’s automatic. So, if you take the bus after taking the metro, and you beep, it’s not supposed to cost you anything.

But anyway, try it one time, and look at the screen where it says how many charges you have… then you’ll be sure if it works correctly… or ask the hordes of stupidly standing there people with a big “?” on their shirts in the metro station. I think they’re there to help you with questions like this (in addition to standing there looking helpless).

The law was actually quietly changed a few years ago to allow this totally new modus operandi. Well, it’s not THAT totally new, as the system has been in use on AMT commuter trains for the last decade.

Another interesting tid-bit is that the law was also changed to give the status of “peace officer” to ticket inspectors; as a matter of fact, on the transit property (but nowhere else) they are deemed to be police officers with the same, er…, “privileges”.

The theory behind all that, of course, is to curb fraud, estimated at about $16 million per annum. But don’t worry, the new fare collection system won’t mean that fares will decrease…

* * *

In many cities where such smart cards were introduced lately, the cards have been cracked and some technically savvy people have been able to get free rides.

How long will it take for Montréal to be cracked???

If I use my OPUS card to enter the subway, no problem, I insert my card, “Bip, Bop, Beep” as they say, and I enter thr turnstile, and a fare is deducted from the card, HOWEVER, I do not recieve a transfer (apparently none is necessary?) But my question is this… After I paid my fare, what happens if I then insert my OPUS card on the bus at my destination transfer point? Does it know I already paid my fare or does it deduct a second fare?

Since I am not sure, I don’t want to loose money by paying double fares when I transfer, I always take a paper transfer from the machine before I get on the metro, but this seems pointless to me when the technology is already in place to avoid this.

Can anyone answer this?

So here’s a major flaw, you have to stand a certain distance away from the gate while you put the card into the machine. How dumb is that?!

I know the “helpers” are there to help, but they just slow down the the people “in the know”. I feel like a running back trying to avoid their tackles.

Also, someone mentioned the size of these things are like credit cards… they’re actually larger, they don’t fit into my wallet without folding. Whomever decided on the dimensions DROPPED THE BALL, BIG TIME.

stmsucks.qc.ca — please, someone register it! with a few ad sponsorships your site will be a huge success.

It may have changed since then, but at that time all the gates at metro stations were left open by default. Small plastic tokens could be bought and one should be deposited before entering the turnstile. Failure to deposit a token in the temptingly open turnstile would cause it to slam shut. Against your knees. Very Soviet, I felt.

The first time I used la Carte de Crotte in a bus, I was kinda humiliated by the driver, too, who treated me like if I was a retard or a child, overhelping me with a sarcastic voice. It’s fun when they start a new system, that the people are always so “happy” to help you understand it.

You can read it here:
http://calepinsfelix.blogspot.com/2008/07/pter-ma-bulle.html

By the way, nice work with your blog and it’s great that you follow Global Quebec’s evolution in the art of lying to their viewers.

La carte magnétique à 6 passages, je l’adorais. Grosse comme quatre anciens tickets, plus besoin de correspondance, correspondance valide pendant 120 minutes, moins de place dans mon portefeuille, génial.

Là, c’est six grosses cartes qui prennent la place de l’équivalent d’une carte de crédit en épaisseur dans mon portefeuille, c’est donc 4 fois plus de papier que les petits tickets d’autrefois, sans compter les légers désavantages du nouveau système, comme le temps de lecture plus long, particulièrement dans les autobus… Dommage!

Après avoir été à Berlin, où le transport est libre, mais où les contrôleurs à bord des trains pullullent, je me demande pourquoi on n’a pas ce genre de système ici. Avec des amendes significatives pour ceux qui n’ont pas leur titre de transport lorsque les contrôleurs passent, et en informatisant la totalité du paiement de titre de transport, on serait véritablement en business. Et y’en aurait pu, de retard aux barrières. Parce qu’il n’y aurait plus de barrières…

I’ll continue to use the traditional bus pass as long as they offer it.

I’m still waiting for the STM explaination of how the new system will stop users who don’t pay.

I had no idea the read-out out fails to inform the user what has been charged to the card or how many rides remain. This is basic info, and a central feature of New York’s simpler, superior Metrocard.

What a mess.