Category Archives: Public transit

| Public transit

AMT rebate: mission accomplished

AMT rebate math

Today, as the Agence métropolitaine de transport handed out its rebate “compensation” coupons, I decided to put my game-the-system idea to the test. And it worked flawlessly.

You’ll recall I pointed out that the AMT “compensation” system was billed as a refund but wasn’t being organized in that way. Instead of asking people for their January passes and giving people half-refunds based on those passes (as the STM did in 2007), the AMT has instead discounted the price of its March, April and May monthly passes for anyone who can procure a coupon.

Normally, AMT multi-zone TRAM passes are more expensive than passes from individual transit agencies for obvious, logical reasons. But with this 50% rebate, that math is broken, and it’s cheaper to get a discounted AMT pass (which allows access to the entire STM network) than a regular STM-only pass.

The AMT’s way of controlling who got rebates was particularly stupid: Hand out coupons at train stations and assume that anyone there regularly takes that train and is entitled to a refund.

AMT employee hands out coupons at Central Station, complete with reflective vest (coupon disbursement is dangerous, don't you know?)

AMT employee hands out coupons at Central Station, complete with reflective vest (coupon disbursement is dangerous, don't you know?)

In my previous post, I suggested that you might need to pay for a train ticket if the coupons are being given out in a fare-paid area. As you can see, that isn’t necessary as the coupons are being handed out in front of the gates. Just go up and ask for one and you will receive.

And that’s what I did.

AMT Deux Montagnes rebate coupon

AMT Deux Montagnes rebate coupon

At the Lucien L’Allier station, it was similarly easy to procure a coupon. Only the one there was red. As far as I can tell, the only differences between the two coupons were the colour and the name of the line. Both were for 50% discounts for March, so I’m not quite sure why they bothered.

Just to be sure I wasn’t breaking any laws or anything, I read the fine print:

AMT Dorion/Rigaud coupon front and back

AMT Dorion/Rigaud coupon front and back

Well, that’s interesting. There really isn’t much fine print, other than a prohibition against using photocopies. Most of one side is instructions on how to get the rebate, and the other side is a simple form.

I filled it out while I was waiting in line. Even though it was only the 24th of the month, and 2:30 p.m., the line was pretty long:

Lineup at AMT service counter at Central Station

Lineup at AMT service counter at Central Station

When I got to buy my pass, I noticed two anti-fraud measures being used, though neither stopped me from saving on my pass. The first is that the serial number of the pass is written onto the coupon. This would be useful if any verification was made to the name on the coupon, but it isn’t. I could have put Patrick Lagacé’s name on there and they wouldn’t have known the difference. The second is that the pass given out has a star-shaped hole punched out of it, to denote the fact that it was sold with the rebate. This prevents someone from using the pass to try to get the second half of the rebate after the fact. (The procedure is obviously different for those using Opus.)

Though I could have checked the TRAM 1 box and gotten a pass for only $39.75, I decided I wouldn’t go that far. Instead, I opted for the TRAM 3 pass, which would not only allow me to take the train to the West Island, but use the Laval and Longueuil transit networks as well. It was only $15 more expensive than the TRAM 1, and still $14 cheaper than what I would have paid for an STM pass.

So next month I’ll do some travelling to Laval and Longueuil and see what’s going on over there.

Either way, mission accomplished. Any ideas what I should do with that extra $14?

The last day of coupon distribution is Thursday. The schedule is as follows:

  • 5:45-10am at all stations on the Deux Montagnes and Dorion/Rigaud lines
  • 10:30am to 3pm at Central Station
  • 12:15pm to 3:15pm at Lucien L’Allier
  • 5:45pm to 9:15pm at Lucien L’Allier
  • 7:30pm to 12:30am at Central Station

Discounted passes are on sale only at Lucien L’Allier, Central Station and Vendôme.  You can also buy passes or charge up Opus cards at the full fare and then bring your pass or receipt with the coupon to these stations after the fact to get a refund.

UPDATE (Feb. 26): The AMT is extending hours of its service centres to handle rebate requests, including being open Saturdays and Sundays. This won’t add chances to get coupons, but will make it a bit easier to get refunds once you have them.

UPDATE (Feb. 27): The Gazette’s Andy Riga reports that the AMT has given away more tickets than the two train lines have regular users. He theorizes this could be because of three reasons:

  1. People mistakenly taking two coupons, to give one to a friend or family member who already has one
  2. People who don’t normally buy passes are taking advantage of the huge discount
  3. Some people have read this post: “Some non-AMT users may also be using the coupons to get cut-rate access to buses and the métro. For example, a coupon bearer can buy a March TRAM pass – good on trains, buses and the métro – for $39.75 in Zone 1. That’s less than the $68.50 charged for a Société de transport de Montréal bus-and-métro pass.”
| Canadiens, Public transit, West Island

STM to add Habs West Island shuttle bus

Thanks to Linda Gyulai’s most excellent CityHallReport Twitter account for tipping me off to the fact that starting Tuesday, the STM will be offering a shuttle service for Canadiens fans in the West Island as part of a partnership with the team and its The Goal is Green campaign.

It’s a one-way shuttle, leaving the Bell Centre 15 minutes after home games, and dropping off at “three specific locations”: Dorval, Pointe-Claire and Fairview.

Regular STM fares apply.

Speaking of the Canadiens, they’re looking for an in-game animator. Must be pretty photogenic and of a “pleasant appearance” and be fluently bilingual.

| Media, Montreal, Public transit

Gazette launches transit webpage

The Gazette, Feb. 17, Page A1

The Gazette, Feb. 17, Page A1

My beloved paper today made a pretty big deal of their new Daily Commuter “one-stop guide” website. Really, it’s just a page with links to transit stories that have appeared in the paper (including Max Harrold’s Squeaky Wheels weekly column), Transport Quebec traffic cameras, and public transit agencies.

Of course, with the stories we’ve been seeing lately from the local news media (ahem), calling it the “Daily Complainer” might be more accurate.

What’s more interesting is that this isn’t the last topic page you’ll be seeing on news websites. Not only does this make it easier to find articles of a certain type, it makes it look like there’s an entirely new section even if it’s just a grouping of articles that have already been written (some even going back a few years).

| Montreal, Public transit

How to save $25 off your next transit pass

The AMT has just announced that it is adding even more days to its coupon distribution for that 50% rebate off next month’s train passes for people who were inconvenienced by train problems over the past month and a half.

As I said previously, the AMT has no way of distinguishing those who were inconvenienced or delayed by train breakdowns from any other form of transit user. They are simply assuming that anyone who takes the train does so on a monthly pass and will continue to do so over the next two months.

So why not take advantage of that? Here’s how you can save $25 off your next STM transit pass, even if you’ve never taken the train and never plan to:

  1. Go to Central Station during coupon distribution times and pick up a coupon (if the coupons are given in the fare-paid area, you’ll have to buy a $4 single-use Zone 1 train ticket*)
  2. Between Feb. 20 and Feb. 28, go to Central Station again and buy a TRAM 1 monthly pass with the coupon. The price will be $79.50/2 = $39.75
  3. Use that instead of your $68.50 monthly STM pass

With those steps, you not only save $24.75 ($28.75 if you can get the coupon without taking the train) on your next monthly pass, but you can use the train all you want in Zone 1 (to Montpellier on the Deux Montagnes line and to Lachine on the Dorion line) during the month of March.

Better still, this scheme will also save you money with the 25% discounts in April and May.

If the AMT wants to throw money away, why not grab some?

Coupon distribution starts Wednesday during the morning rush hour. It continues Thursday and Friday, and Feb. 24 and 26 (where coupons will be given out during the day and evenings as well). People can also call 514 287-TRAM to find out where/when/how to get coupons.

*You can also grab a paper metro transfer and buy a “combined” train ticket for a smaller price.

| Montreal, Opinion, Public transit

AMT gives back … with coupons

The AMT today announced that they are going to be compensating users who have been inconvenienced by all the delays caused by train breakdowns and other issues over the past month.

Well, kind of, anyway.

What they’re actually doing is discounting the price of March, April and May TRAM passes for people who take the Deux Montagnes and Dorion/Rigaud lines. (The discounts are steep too, 50% for March, and 25% for the other months – though those are just for Deux Montagnes users.)

And how are they going to determine who uses these lines? Well, the brilliant strategists at the AMT have come up with this:

Un coupon de compensation sera distribué le mercredi 18 février en pointe du matin à l’embarquement dans toutes les gares des lignes Montréal/Deux-Montagnes et Montréal/Dorion-Rigaud.

In other words, they’re handing out coupons to people taking the train the morning of the 18th, and anyone who has the coupon can get the discount (but only if they get their passes at Central Station, Lucien L’Allier station or Vendôme station). There is no way to get the coupon other than using the train during morning rush hour on Feb. 18 (and then you have to repeat the process on March 18 and April 16 for the April and May passes).

UPDATE: The AMT has added Feb. 19 and 20 after complaints from transit users.

I can’t begin to describe how stupid this is. But I’ll take my best shot:

  • Not everyone who was inconvenienced is going to take the train on these days, and are going to get really pissed off that they can’t get a coupon any other way
  • Not everyone taking the train on these mornings will have been inconvenienced by the train breakdowns. And considering that a 50% reduction of the cost of a pass is a huge savings for people living far away (up to $100), some will probably go out of their way to take the morning train that day, making that particular morning commute even more unbearable.
  • This system offers no compensation for those who use tickets instead of a pass, or who don’t plan on using the train in March, April or May.
  • Most importantly, the people who were inconvenienced by the train breakdowns don’t care as much about compensation as they do fixing the problem and getting to work on time. This doesn’t do anything to fix that.

AMT’s train solution: Take the bus

Among the other things contained in the announcement, the AMT is reducing the capacity of trains on the Deux Montagnes line during rush hour, going from 10 cars to eight, so that repairs can be made. Since these cars are already overfilled, they’re setting up special buses to shuttle people between train stations and metro stations near the Deux Montagnes line. The STL is also increasing service to bus #26, which goes between the Ste. Dorothée station and Montmorency metro.

Back from the future

Another measure being taken is reversing schedule changes that were made earlier in the year on the Deux Montagnes line. The morning rush hour schedule, which involved more trains departing from Deux Montagnes, will be reverted to the 2008 schedule starting Feb. 16, since the rolling stock will be unable to handle the increased number of passengers and the increased hours of service.

No information available

Finally, the AMT put on its website a page which gives real-time information about train service.

| Public transit

Metro to run all night during Nuit Blanche

The metro ... after dark?

The metro ... after dark?

According to Metro (the newspaper), the STM is announcing Wednesday that it will keep the metro (the subway) running all night during the Nuit Blanche Feb. 28.

The STM has only done this twice before, once during a snowstorm in 1971, and again on New Year’s Eve 1999. The overnight hours are when maintenance is performed on the tracks, cashes are emptied and other similar stuff is done.

The Metro article is so far the only source that confirms this story (Midnight Poutine surely uses it as a source without credit and Montreal City Weblog picks the story up from there), and its wording isn’t very clear, making me suspect they might have gotten the story wrong.

UPDATE: It’s true. The STM confirmed it today. The metro will run all night long (presumably all lines), in addition to the regular night bus service. (Though considering most of the Nuit Blanche activities are in the Old Port, the Plateau and the Quartier des Spectacles, the metro might not be the most convenient method of transportation between them – it’s more useful for getting home afterward.)

In the past, the STM has opened up the Place des Arts metro station during the Nuit Blanche for performances in the metro, though it confines it to the mezzanine and doesn’t have actual trains running.

Kudos STM, but would it kill you to do the same on New Year’s Eve once a year too?

UPDATE (Jan. 29): The STM is focusing on art in the metro, including a 15-station art rally quiz thing.

| Business, Montreal, Public transit

STM approves deal with maintenance workers

The STM’s board of directors has approved a five-year deal with its maintenance workers union retroactive to 2007, when the union went on strike and caused a four-day service disruption (for which we were compensated with pocket change).

The deal means four of the STM’s six unions have contracts. The two remaining ones are smaller professional unions representing about 400 employees in total. Presumably a disruption in either of those won’t affect regular service as severely.

| Fun, Media, Montreal, Public transit

No Pants Metro Ride revealed

You might recall last week Montreal attempted its first No Pants Metro Ride. Only there were more journalists than participants and the organizer decided to cancel it.

Here’s the thing:

No Pants participants (that's me on the left)

No Pants participants (that's me on the left)

Don’t believe everything you hear. There was a No Pants ride, it just wasn’t covered. Until now.

Everything I told you in last week’s post actually happened. There weren’t enough participants, and the organizer did yell “It’s cancelled” prompting people to take off in different directions.

But before that, she whispered to participants that they would regroup elsewhere, away from the prying eyes of the media, so they could perform this stunt properly.

Surely, I thought, that wouldn’t actually work. The TV people would just follow everyone into the metro. But it did. Everyone left in small groups, some walked to Mont Royal metro from St. Louis Square (a long, cold trek I might add).

From there, the plan was to regroup at Jean-Talon, near the last car on the Snowdon-bound platform.

Unfortunately, along with the media, the group lost all but eight of its members, including the five above (others didn’t want to be photographed pantsless).

Pantsless on the metro after all

Pantsless on the metro after all

They decided to proceed. A single car, with eight pantsless participants spread around, pretending not to notice each other. The media was represented by a single person, The Gazette’s Amy Luft (who went through the trouble of actually talking to organizers beforehand and didn’t come with a photographer). She writes about the event in today’s paper.

Since Amy was already covering it, I decided to go as a participant instead of a journalist. When the time came, I removed my pants, and placed them in my bag. As you can see from the photo above, I had shorts on. This I considered a public service, as nobody wants to see me walking around in my underwear, even as a stunt.

During the event itself, what seemed to disturb me most was how little the crowd reacted. Some giggled, some looked twice, but most just sat there, thinking either nothing was strange with people pantsless in January, or that it wasn’t worthy of their attention.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any photographers present (beyond my really crappy cellphone). The top photo was taken at Berri-UQAM, after we had finished, just in case someone needed proof that people had indeed taken their pants off.

Although the event ended up happening, there’s still a lot to learn for next time. How to deal with the media, how to photograph the event without people noticing, and how to get more participants to show up.

Elsewhere

Reports from other No Pants events have come in. Improv Everywhere has a summary of what happened in New York, with links to similar events around the world. Improv in Toronto has a report about their event (the second-largest behind New York).

| Public transit

STM on new schedule today

I was going to have my usual quarterly post analyzing changes to the STM’s bus schedules, which take effect today, but:

  1. I didn’t have time
  2. There aren’t many changes, besides already-announced service improvements
  3. The Gazette’s Linda Gyulai Max Harrold writes about those in this morning’s paper

At the top of the list (PDF) is the 105 Sherbrooke, which gets a much-needed 26% increase in service during rush hour.

| Montreal, Public transit, TV, Video

More retro STCUM ads: “Vous connaissez pas Telbus?”

I actually remember this ad from 1994, when the then-STCUM introduced and publicized its seemingly revolutionary system where you could call a phone number and get the arrival time of the next bus.

The Telbus system (in which each stop for each route had a phone number attached to it) was eventually replaced with the current AUTOBUS, which has a single phone number and a five-digit code for each stop.

A second ad returns to a dry, if accurate, talking point for public transit: It’s cheaper and more reliable than a car in the long run.

Plenty of other (non-transit-related) retro Quebec ads uploaded recently too, including some related to the 1994 Quebec election, a station ID for Musique Plus and a French ad for CHOM FM.

| Montreal, Opinion, Public transit

The 515 bus can be saved

Spacing Montreal has a post about the “inevitable failure” of the STM’s 515 bus to Old Montreal. It discusses many of the problems I first brought up in June when it first started.

While I agree that the line is wrought with problems (most of them predictable), I still think there should be a bus serving Old Montreal (there’s an argument that Old Montreal is served by two metro stations, but the walk is pretty far, especially for kids – 600m from the Jacques Cartier pier to Champ-de-Mars and over a kilometre from the bottom of McGill St. to Square-Victoria).

Besides, the Spacing article (and the Journal story it’s based on) cite ridership numbers in the summer and fall, which is when people are more likely to walk than take a bus. When the temperature is 30 below and the roads are slippery with ice, bus use is likely to increase in this area.

So I’d like to offer some suggestions to the STM on ways to improve service on this so-far unpopular route:

  • Dump the yellow signs. They’re confusing and unnecessary. They give Montreal transit users (not to mention tourists) the idea that they’re temporary or special in some unknown way.
  • Drop the route between Berri and Peel. It’s the most underused part of this underused line, and it’s completely unnecessary. This would also have the advantage of simplifying the line, which could then use the usual East/West directions instead of its confusing current circular system.
  • Increase service intervals slightly. Putting a bus every 10 minutes does make it more metro-like in that people will just go to a stop and wait for the next bus, but the ridership (even if improved) simply doesn’t warrant it. A 20-minute predictable interval would make more sense.
  • Put detailed information at every Old Montreal stop. Schedule, fares, places of interest along the route, points of transfer, etc. should be at every stop for the benefit of tourists. If they can learn about the system as they wait for the bus, they’re more likely to take it.
  • Improve traffic flow. Certain parts of the route (like near St. Laurent and Notre Dame) are always clogged, slowing service to a crawl. New ways should be considered to improve traffic in the area, including banning all car traffic on De la Commune during the summer if necessary.

Did I miss anything? Should the route be saved?

| Montreal, Public transit

Fagstein’s Guide to Holiday Transit

Last year’s guide seems to have been well received, so I’m doing it again.

Here’s what to expect from the Montreal-area transit authorities for service this holiday season, including special holiday service schedules and free service days.

Once again, I ask that you have some sympathy for the bus or metro driver who has to work during the holidays getting whiny vomiting drunk people from A to B in thick snow.

Continue reading →

| Public transit

STM fare vulnerability is bigger than you think

La Presse on Wednesday had a story that discussed an apparent flaw in the new smart-card fare system being used by the STM and other transit agencies in Quebec. The story concluded (with Journal-de-Montréal-style undercover anecdotal investigation) that people could make use of this flaw to get free transit rides. The Gazette matched the story within hours.

Here’s how it works: Users take the paper/magnetic cards that are distributed as tickets, transfers and proof of payment on buses and in the metro, and bend them to make the magnetic strip unreadable. When the cards are placed into magnetic readers, it produces an error. The STM personnel are instructed to let the people through, even though no fare has been deducted from their card.

Of course, there’s nothing new here. We’ve known about how easily the magnetic strip can be rendered unreadable for months now, among all the other problems inherent in this card. And people have been attacking the fare payment system through its most vulnerable part – the employees – for a long time now. The computerized fare system just makes this easier.

What this story shows are the two major problems with the way the STM (and other transit networks) deal with fares. One is new, the other is old.

1. The new fare systems are not human-readable. The previous modes of fare payment all could be verified by a human employee simply looking at them. Even the punch-card transfers given out by bus drivers had a timestamp printed on them.

The new magnetic card has information printed on the back about how many fares have been deducted and how many are remaining, but there is no way for a driver to manually deduct a fare from them (this will become an issue if and when multiple-use disposable cards come back – The Gazette’s article says these cards will be phased out in June, but I think the writer is confusing them with the old system which is being phased out).

The Opus card is even worse. There is no way to tell without a card reader how many fares remain on the card. There is no way to manually deduct a fare. And a bus driver can’t simply throw away a bad Opus card and issue a new one.

2. No one forces you to pay your fare. This problem, which has existed since the beginning, really leads to all the others. Bus drivers are specifically instructed never to leave their seat while a bus is in service. If people get on and refuse to pay, they’re just let through. The alternative – a potentially physical confrontation between a bus driver and a hostile passenger – is to be avoided at all costs.

The metro is a bit better, with physical barriers in place, but jumping a turnstile is only going to get you in trouble if the cops are nearby.

Sure, there are fines of hundreds of dollars for people who refuse to pay their fares, but bus drivers and metro ticket-takers aren’t empowered to give them. Only when a security agent or police officer is present do these tickets get issued (and nobody’s stupid enough to refuse to pay a fare when a uniformed agent is around).

Some transit systems such as the AMT get around this with a proof-of-payment system. In these systems, fares are checked at random by officers with the power to issue tickets. You can take the train for free, but eventually you’ll get caught and face a hefty fine. The STM is moving to this system with the new cards, but won’t be able to implement it until June when the old system has finished being phased out. They’ve also promised to post agents on buses, but the ratio of agents to buses needed to seriously cut down on fraud is far higher than would be financially feasible.

Sure, the fare system is flawed, but it has nothing to do with bending a magnetic strip.