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Crossing the river in one direction for $1.96, in the other for $2.75

Costs of single rides on Laval Metro differ

par Nathalie Villeneuve
Voir tous les articles de Nathalie Villeneuve
Article mis en ligne le 2 juin 2007 à 10:00
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Crossing the river in one direction for $1.96, in the other for $2.75
This $1.96 metro ticket, sold in packs of six for $11.75 throughout the metro system, including the three Laval stations, cannot be used at these stations where it costs $2.75 to get through the gate. (Photo: Martin Alarie Courrier Laval)
Crossing the river in one direction for $1.96, in the other for $2.75
Costs of single rides on Laval Metro differ
The $1.96 single ride metro ticket is a privilege only Montrealers can enjoy. These tickets, despite their availability at the Cartier, Montmorency, and Concorde stations in Laval, cannot be used on this side of the river. Riders can only access the metro in Laval with tickets costing $2.75, and you’re out of luck if you would like to make up the 79-cent difference because the ticket takers simply won’t accept it.
For occasional Laval metro users who do not buy the TRAM 3 pass, the rates in effect at Laval metro stations are confusing.

“I’ve worked for the STM (Montreal Transit Corporation) for 26 years ... It’s useless trying to understand,” answers a ticket agent at Montmorency Station, when asked why the $1.96 ticket is not accepted. “You can use it on the return trip! (from Montreal),” he noted.
Not unfair, says STL
The $1.96 single ride tickets are sold in packs of six at $11.75, at ticket counters in both Montreal and Laval, but can only be used in turnstiles or counters in Montreal stations. Single-ride tickets of $2.75, obligatory when getting on in Laval, can also be bought in Montreal.
Riders boarding at Cartier on their way to Montreal have to buy a yellow ticket at $2.75, but can make the return trip for $1.96. It is the opposite for someone heading for Laval from Montreal ($1.96 coming into Laval, $2.75 returning to Montreal).

Which prompted Laval Transit Corporation (STL) spokesperson Marc Laforge to say that there’s no inequality in this scenario. “But we must admit that it’s a bit complicated for the customer,” he adds.

The ticket scenario is further muddled by the situation that prevails in Longueuil, where the metro can be accessed with Montreal tickets, including the CAM monthly pass.

The STM has little to say about this. “That’s the way it is. If there are changes, we’ll let everyone know,” was all that Isabelle Tremblay of the corporation’s public affairs department would say.

Speaking on an FM radio station last week, Sylvain Gonthier, executive director for finance at the STM, explained that ticket takers did not accept riders adding the 79 cents needed to bring the $1.96 ticket to $2.75 (for use out of Laval) because the corporation wants to avoid having to handle pennies. Mr. Gonthier did concede, however, that the preferential rates in effect in Longueuil are presently under study.
Passes
The ticket rates for the Laval metro were developed by the STL and the Metropolitan Transit Agency (AMT). “We wanted to maintain the status-quo. 90% of our customers who use our system to get to Montreal buy a TRAM 3 pass,” explains the STL’s Marc Laforge. “It would have been very unrealistic to negotiate a rate reduction after users had paid for the TRAM 3 pass for so many years, and considering the costs of the project (metro construction).”

The problem rests in the two ways the rates are set: local and metropolitan. Since its birth in 1996, the AMT has issued TRAM cards that give universal access, at a set price, to trains, busses, and transit systems in a particular region. “You pay according to the place you leave from. (The rate is fixed) according to the region, and not according to the transit systems,” notes AMT spokesperson Mélanie Nadeau.

“The problem with tickets is that they are not incorporated in the rates set for regions. That’s what we want to do,” affirms Mr. Laforge. “The situation will change with the 'carte a puce' (smart card).”

Projected for 2008, the new card will be introduced simultaneously in all Montreal metropolitan transit systems.

Sliding the card into the optical scanner at the start and end of a trip, “it will be very clear

that a rider leaving from Montreal to come to Laval will have to pay the fixed cost of $2.75,” explains Marc Laforge.
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