To most people, this is just a bus. The kind that will take you to work on a daily basis.
But to a select few, this rust bucket is something special. A group of about 30 public transit fans chartered this RTL bus for a day last weekend, just for fun. I tell their story in today’s paper.
Locked-out and striking workers at the Journal de Québec have asked for an arbitrator to finally help put an end to the conflict that’s been going on since April.
The seemingly unsustainable situation, where the paper has been relying on quasi-legal Canoë, Journal de Montréal, wire service and management workers to put out the paper while the unionized workers have been publishing a competing free paper five days a week, has gone on so long that union members are being offered subscriptions to the Journal, and MédiaMatin has started a classified section:
The Journal is clearly not ready to back down, and as long as the union gets support from its solidarity-bretheren (the latest is the Réseau de transport de Longueuil) as well as overwhelming moral support from the public, they’re not about to fold up shop either.
As the holidays approach fast, radio stations are switching to all-Christmas-music formats, malls are packed with desperate last-minute shoppers, and TV starts to suck really bad.
What better time to contemplate that most exciting of holiday traditions: complicated transit service schedules!
Fear not folks. Below is a day-by-day guide to what you can come to expect from the Montreal-area transit networks. Take a glance at it if you’re planning to take a bus anywhere near Christmas or New Year’s this year.
And have a bit of sympathy for that bus driver who has to spend midnight on New Year’s Eve stuck at a traffic light handing out transfers.
Following the STM/STL transit fare increases announced last week, the Agence métropolitaine de transport has put out its list. Fare increases for monthly passes range between 1.0% and 3.8%:
| Adult fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | Intermediate fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | Reduced fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | |
| TRAM 1 (Downtown Montreal) | $77.00 | $74.50 | 3.4% | $61.50 | $59.50 | 3.4% | $46.00 | $44.50 | 3.4% |
| TRAM 2 (Midwest/ mideast/ North Montreal) | $90.00 | $87.00 | 3.4% | $72.00 | $69.50 | 3.6% | $54.00 | $52.00 | 3.8% |
| TRAM 3 (Longueuil, Laval, Far West/East island) | $105.00 | $103.00 | 1.9% | $84.00 | $82.50 | 1.8% | $63.00 | $62.00 | 1.6% |
| TRAM 4 (Ile Perrot, La Prairie) | $115.00 | $113.00 | 1.8% | $92.00 | $90.50 | 1.7% | $69.00 | $68.00 | 1.5% |
| TRAM 5 (Vaudreuil/Dorion, Chateauguay, Kahnawake, north shore, Repentigny, Sainte-Julie, Saint-Constant, St. Bruno) | $133.00 | $131.00 | 1.5% | $106.00 | $105.00 | 1.0% | $80.00 | $78.50 | 1.9% |
| TRAM 6 (St. Hilaire, Mercier, Hudson/Rigaud, Blainville) | $159.00 | $156.00 | 1.9% | $127.00 | $125.00 | 1.6% | $95.50 | $93.50 | 2.1% |
| TRAM 7 (Mirabel, Oka, St. Sulpice, lower St. Jerome) | $185.00 | $182.00 | 1.6% | $148.00 | $146.00 | 1.4% | $111.00 | $109.00 | 1.8% |
| TRAM 8 (upper St. Jerome, Valleyfield, St. Hyacinthe, Sorel) | $211.00 | $207.00 | 1.9% | $169.00 | $166.00 | 1.8% | $127.00 | $124.00 | 2.4% |
STM (Montreal):
| Adult fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | Reduced fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | |
| Monthly CAM | $66.25 | $65 | 1.9% | $36 | $35 | 2.9% |
| Weekly CAM Hebdo | $19.25 | $19 | 1.3% | $11 | $10.75 | 2.3% |
| Six tickets | $12 | $11.75 | 2.1% | $6.50 | $6.25 | 4% |
| Cash fare | $2.75 | $2.75 | No change | $1.75 | $1.75 | No change |
| Tourist card (3 days) | $17.00 | $17.00 | No change | |||
| Tourist card (1 day) | $9.00 | $9.00 | No change |
STL (Laval):
| Adult fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | Intermediate fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | Reduced fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | |
| Monthly pass | $74 | $72.50 | 2.1% | $59.00 | $58.00 | 1.7% | $44.50 | $43 | 3.5% |
| Eight tickets | $18 | $21 | -14% | $12.50 | $12.25 | 2.0% | |||
| Cash fare | $2.50 | $3.00 | -17% | (None?) | $1.80 | ? |
Still no word from the RTL about Longueuil rates for 2008.
UPDATE (Dec. 18): Finally the RTL releases their 2008 rates. The increase is substantial, especially for reduced fare monthly passes.
| Adult fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | Reduced fare (Jan. 1, 2008) |
Now | Increase | |
| Monthly pass | $76 | $73 | 4.1% | $45 | $42 | 7.1% |
| Six tickets | $15.50 | $15 | 3.3% | $9.25 | $8.90 | 3.9% |
| Cash fare | $3.25 | $3.25 | No change | $2 | $2 | No change |
Midnight Poutine has a rant-post about something I’ve heard a couple of times recently: when taking a trip that spans two transit networks, it’s treated as two separate trips, and you’re charged full-price for each.
So imagine someone taking public transit from western Laval to Brossard. That person would have to take an STL bus ($3), the metro ($2.75), and an RTL bus ($3.25). Total cost: $9.
We have, thanks to the Agence métropolitaine de transport, a “zone” monthly pass, which allows unlimited travel in multiple transit networks at a price considerably below what you’d pay for the different network’s passes individually. Why can’t we do something about individual trips to save people some money?
Part of the STM’s plan as they introduce a smart card system next year will be to be able to control zoning better. This will probably mean that a trip between downtown and the West Island will cost more than a trip within the downtown area. Hopefully this might also mean it’ll cost less than $9 to cross three transit networks on a single trip.
