Remember back when I suggested that the new Opus smart-card transit pass was working well (at least relative to the disastrous magnetic card)?
Well, now that the STM is forcing all students to get Opus cards, it seems problems are arising with those as well, as this post suggests. And lineups and delays are leading (indirectly) to kids getting ticketed for not having the passes on them.
On the plus side, if you have the newfangled tickets and the reader on the bus is broken, you ride for free. :D
Totally agree with the assessment. I had to use tickets I had bought for friends and relatives visiting because for 2 days straight I couldn’t wait in line with over 100 person in front of me to get my opus recharged.
Once again, the problem lies not so much the card (although it too has its issues), but mostly the planning behind its implementation.
I called the STM about this since I was buying a reduced card for a Grade 7 student (who woudl never have needed the student card before). STM told me that they are tolerating it until October.
I waited 2 hours in line at Berri-UQAM to take my picture for the student Opus card. Not only there was only one photograph working on September 2nd between noon and 2 (the first day of class !) but when it was my turn to pay, I found out that the stupid card will be delivered by mail in 2 weeks and I cannot buy a student monthly pass before that because I don’t have the proper student id (I just move to Montreal last month). Instead, I have to buy weekly pass until my Opus card is delivered at 19,25$/week (student pass cost 36$/month). When, my Opus card is going to be delivered, I have to go to a Opus counter and get a refund. None of this was on the website. A complete lack of organization and communication from the STM.
It has happened to me on several occasions that the interac/credit card terminal is non-functional; however, they don’t “grey-out” the option of payment by debit/credit, so it’s still selectable. Once you select it, however, you get an error message, and the machine prints out an “incompleted” receipt. A waste of paper, and frustrating because it’s never clear that that is what the problem is, unless you look closely at the screen on the terminal itself, which more likely than not is blank instead of saying “Bienvenue”, indicating that there is a problem. One more thing for them to take care of!
I have 2 complaints about the Opus card. I pay cash to refill my Opus card ($66.25), sometimes the machine doesn’t like the 20’s I feed it and I was there for almost 15 minutes once. The other complaint is that the new turnstiles are slow. I put the Opus card on the sensor, the little light turns green and I start to go through, but I can’t and I get the bar of the turnstile in my gut. Well a little lower than my gut but it still hurts. This happens about a third of the time. So now every time the light turns green after the turnstile finishes reading the Opus card, I push on the bar and if it doesn’t turn, I start hitting it with my hand to try and force it to turn. Usually I can hit about 3 times before I can get through. Once one of those guys in the booth tapped on the the glass when he saw what I was doing. He opened his door and told me not to break the machine. And I told him that when the green light went on I pushed on the turnstile, if it doesn’t let me through, of course I’m going to bang on it.
Here’s a helpful hint for anyone reading this. Get the plastic case that accompanies the smart card. I currently use my old CAM holder as an OPUS case and the damn thing managed to crack a little, which affects the acceptance of the card (more so on the bus than in the metro). I am not happy that somebody is making money off a case but it appears to be a good investment: to replace my card (eventually) I’ll have to shell out 3.50 for a new card on top of 10 dollars for getting my Carte Privilege… again!
I don’t understand why buss no longer exists. As of June I have to ask does that mean we don’t use cash fare anymore
Cash fares will always exist, as will single-use tickets. The only thing that happens in June is that magnetic strip monthly passes are being phased out and everyone using them will need Opus cards.
Today, at $BIG_PHARMACY, I had a glimpse at the “new, improved” OPUS-loading machines at work.
The woman in front of me reloaded her pass for May, and the cashier held it on the top of the machine. But instead of laying it down, she held it down on the flat surface, while still holding it AND bending it (at least ½ inch) at the same time.
/meesa wonder how the cards are gonna last if the clerks bend them like that.
(The machine certainly doesn’t look like a low-production hack-job; it has a nice rounded plastic case and translucent backlit keys, making it look more like a mass-produced desktop calculator).
No, I did not have her reload my pass, I had that done days ago «to avoid the rush».