Charge cards are here!

Card readers have been recently inserted into the new fare boxes installed in 2006 on the Société de transport de Laval (STL) buses.

"After June, we'll create a report of the experiment. We'll see where the program works, where there are problems, and how the program is being received," said Alain Mongrain, from the STL communications department.

"We've created a brigade composed of retired STL employees," said Marie-Céline Bourgault, director of communications and marketing with the STL. This team will help with the transition by visiting senior's homes, schools, commercial centres and bus terminals. "We want to really accompany the clientele," said Pierre Giard, STL director.

Without a doubt, it will also permit the reduction of fraud. The arrival of new, more reliable card readers were already a step in the right direction," said Martin Boileau, a driver with the STL for eight years. "With the card, there will be even less room for error," he said.

For example, it will be impossible for a user to lend their bus pass to a rider standing behind them in line after having used it. A delay of 20 minutes will be installed to prevent the same card from being used twice on the same line.

The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) has evaluated losses linked to fraud on the bus and metro at $20 million per year. With the Opus card, the loss will be reduced by 50%.

These networks have been working together since 2001 on the elaboration of this project. In Canada, only the Société de transport de l'Outaouais has progressed into the era of the charge card at this point.

The technology being adopted here, elaborated by the company ACS, was already implemented in Lyon, Toulouse, Nice and Warsaw. The necessary global investment for its implementation in Montreal and Quebec City is $217 million, $169 million to the STM and $8 million to the STL.