The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) will test purchasing a ticket with your phone and a QR code to use line 747, which goes from Trudeau airport to the city center, in the hope of reducing queues waiting times and to alleviate problems accessing the course.
This was confirmed by Nathalie Clément, executive director, service delivery at the STM, during an interview. The project will be launched within six to eight weeks, the manager told the columnist of The Press Nathalie Collard.
This will be a first for the transport company, which has never before issued transport tickets on its network by telephone. The results of this pilot project, if satisfactory, could therefore allow the organization to consider implementing this measure elsewhere.
The addition of a “mobile point of sale terminal” was immediately considered by the STM, which set up a working group to propose solutions to the access problems of line 747, as a possible avenue. Among other possibilities, we had mentioned the addition of ticket distributors or the sale of titles in concessions.
Start of the week, The Press had reported that the forceful return of travelers is overloading bus line 747. Many users have notably denounced the lack of terminals or spaces to obtain a ticket, but also the fact that without a ticket, you have to pay the sum of $11 in “exact change”, bank notes not being accepted.
Quebec and Ottawa raise their voices
In addition to the bus, sometimes very laborious access by car and waiting at customs are among the many difficulties observed in recent months at the airport, we also reported in our pages this Thursday. Both the provincial and federal transport ministers spoke of the urgency of action to improve traveler access.
“The minister does not like what is currently being reported in the media. All organizations have a role to play and responsibilities to improve access to the airport. […] Quebecers expect actions to improve fluidity around the airport. We must work together,” the office of Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault declared Thursday. She is due to meet the new CEO of Aéroports de Montréal (ADM), Yves Beauchamp, soon.
On the airwaves of 98.5 FM, Federal Minister of Transport Pablo Rodriguez admitted Thursday that the situation was “complicated in Montreal.” ” Who is responsible ? I would say a little bit of everyone. Everyone has to do a little better,” argued the man who has just taken up a position in Transport. He was also due to meet ADM on Thursday.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Federal Minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez
The minister does not rule out increasing federal investments in infrastructure. “Does it take more infrastructure? I’m going to look at that too, but it’s a whole thing,” he said, maintaining that we also need “enough people at security, enough people at air controls and at the borders.”
His office recalls that Bill C-52, tabled by his predecessor Omar Alghabra, aims precisely to require players in the airline industry to “better share information” among themselves. The bill in question, which is currently being studied, aims in particular to establish service standards and require operators to disseminate performance data accordingly.