Public transport | The ARTM unveils its “metropolitan” rates, indexed at 2%

Public transit fares will increase by 2% this year in Greater Montreal, despite the inflationary trend. From 1^er July, it will also be necessary to forget the transport tickets by city, to make room for “metropolitan” tickets. Any user will thus pay between $94 and $255 monthly to travel through the network, depending on the number of zones to be used daily.

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

“We are going to go gradually with the withdrawal of certain titles. We want to avoid too sudden a change for customers, ”said Michel Lemay, Public Affairs Director of the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) on Thursday. However, he admits that the arrival of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) on the South Shore this fall will cause several “changes in habits”.

Essentially, this overhaul will group together four zones in Greater Montreal: zone A (Montreal agglomeration), zone B (Laval and Longueuil agglomeration), and zones C and D (north and south crowns). Two main titles will remain: one “all modes”, which will make it possible to use the metro, the REM, the bus and the commuter trains, and another called “bus everywhere”, to use all the bus networks in the metropolitan area. “Special REM-related” bus passes will also be offered as needed.

Thus, a Montrealer who currently pays $90.50 for a monthly fare from the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) will have to switch to the “all modes A” fare to travel on the island, which will cost him $94. An “all modes AB” title will cost $150, while an “all modes ABC” title will cost $184 and $255 for an “all modes ABCD” title. Most of the new tariffs, with some exceptions, constitute a “price reduction” for the user, says the ARTM.

All the bus networks in Montreal, Laval and Longueuil will be grouped together under the same “Bus Pass”, which will cost $105 per month. This is an “average” of the prices of the three transport companies and exo, which oversees several local bus networks in the suburbs. In any case, the “unitary” title – for a single ticket – will be maintained at $3.50 in all zones. Ten tickets will cost $3.15 each, regardless of title or zone.

2% price increase

Even if it is “independent” of the tariff overhaul, price indexation will once again be on the rise this year in Greater Montreal. Prices will indeed increase by 2% in general, from 1^er July. “We must not confuse the overhaul and the adjustment of tariffs. The overhaul is not intended to increase our revenue. We want to do a redesign with constant income, ”assures Michel Lemay.

The latter recognizes, however, that the financing of public transit is in “crisis”. At the beginning of April, his group also said that it wanted to “sit down with the Government of Quebec” in order to “quickly” create a think tank on the financing of public transit, which is in a cul-de-sac after a pandemic that will continue to cost him hundreds of millions for years.

“Public transit costs are rising faster than fares. Yes, we are thinking of users, but there is also a whole project that is continuing to rethink the financing of our industry in the long term. Expenses are increasing by more than 2% these days, that’s for sure,” insisted Mr. Lemay.

Rates to be compensated

However, the prices of certain more advantageous titles will have to be increased “gradually” between 1^er next July and the arrival of the REM on the South Shore, admits the ARTM.

For example, a user of the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) currently pays between $100 and $105 monthly. However, the title that will be required to use the buses and the REM will be the “all modes AB”, which costs $150, a difference of $45. “When the REM arrives, a quarter of this difference of $45 will be added to the $105, then we will do the same thing in 2023, 2024 and 2025,” says Antoine Perron.

Despite these increases, the Authority is not afraid of losing users. “The new titles give access to more services, more flexibility, with a single transaction. And in many cases, the title will cost less”, insists Michel Lemay, for whom the tariff overhaul will allow “to gain users”.