Tag Archives: RTL

| Montreal, Public transit

Your guide to holiday transit service

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.

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| Montreal, Public transit

AMT fares going up too

$TM

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
| Blogosphere, Montreal, Public transit

It shouldn’t cost $9 to get from one shore to the other

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.