Montreal-area transit fares to rise by 3% in July
The majority of public transit fares in the Montreal metropolitan area will increase by an average of three per cent starting July 1, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) announced on Wednesday.
The transit authority said the limited indexation is a 'responsible and necessary choice' in the current economic context, intended to balance financial sustainability with affordability for passengers.
A single trip in Zone A (the Montreal agglomeration) will remain at $3.75, but a monthly pass will go up to $104.50 from $100. A Zone AB ticket (covering the STM, STL and RTL service areas) will cost $5, up from $4.75, and a monthly pass will be $164.50, up from $160.
'In the current economic context, the ARTM is making the responsible and necessary choice to maintain the indexation of the fare grid for public transit tickets in the Montreal metropolitan area at three per cent,' said director general Benoît Gendron. 'This measure helps limit the financial impact on customers, while ensuring that we can continue to offer a reliable and efficient service.'
Special fares for RTL and REM users will see the biggest jump — 12 per cent — as the ARTM moves toward phasing them out in favour of Zone AB fares.
Legacy train-only passes and TRAM passes for the former Zones 4 and 6 will no longer be offered as of July 1.
Full details of the updated fare schedule, including specific pricing for various ticket types, are available at artm.quebec.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
18-07-2025
- CTV News
ARTM awards $146M contract to UK company to replace OPUS system
A screenshot of a video of Masabi's Justride digital fare system being used by the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in Denver, CO. The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) has announced it will use the same platform. (Source: The Montreal regional transit authority has awarded a $146-million contract to a U.K. company to modernize the ticketing system across the metropolis. The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) announced that London-based Masabi has been asked to develop the digital ticketing transformation project. The company is behind the cloud-based Software-as-a-Service platform Justride, already used by more than 200 transit agencies around the world, including in Los Angeles, Calgary, New York, and Valencia, Spain. Masabi is partnering with WSP, a global engineering and professional services firm, to integrate the fare system in the Greater Montreal area after winning the bid. More than five other companies put forward bids for the project. It will require updating more than 12,000 pieces of equipment in five territories and involving partners like the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL), the Société de transport de Laval (STL) and the exo commuter train network. Masabi says 'riders will be able to tap to travel using contactless bank cards, mobile wallets, smartcards, and more' with Justride, which will replace the OPUS card system that has been in place for 20 years. The plastic OPUS cards, however, will be compatible with Justride and can still be used to validate fares. The ARTM says the project is within its $146-million budget, which includes contingency funds to mitigate any unforeseen hiccups, and is expected to launch sometime in 2026. The agency adds that the approach allows for the new ticketing system to evolve and add new features without needing a complete replacement of the system. Android testing comes first, iOS in 2026 The multimillion-dollar project is part of the ARTM's ongoing Concerto project, a major transformation of the ticketing system used by public transit agencies across the region. 'The cost of the Concerto project compares very favourably with similar initiatives worldwide,' the ARTM said in a news release on Wednesday. 'This is due in particular to the reuse of existing equipment, limiting infrastructure costs; a rigorous negotiation approach, which reduced costs by $95 million between the two calls for tenders; and the choice of a more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective cloud-based solution.' 'Concerto is much more than a tech project: it's a profound transformation of the public transit customer experience,' said ARTM executive director Benoit Gendron in the release. 'Let's be clear: the project is well-managed, with solid governance, rigorous monitoring, and testing before each deployment. We deeply believe in Concerto because it reflects our commitment to even more efficient and attractive public transit.' In May, the ARTM announced that it would be testing the ability to validate transit fares on users' smartphones during the summer. This involves a small sample of users, who are part of the 'alpha' version of the test phase, allowing passengers to load their transit tickets or fares directly onto their smartphones and then scan them over a reader using near-field communication (NFC) technology when passing through the turnstiles. Only users of Android smartphones will be able to participate in the testing in 2025. Testing of the function is being done in waves as the number increases over time, with a batch of 600 users now underway, followed by 1,000, then 2,000, and a large beta phase with 10,000 users by the fall. People with iPhones will have to wait a bit longer. Testing with iOS devices will only take place in 2026. Teams will collect feedback on the tests and make the necessary adjustments. As of April 2024, transit users have been able to load fares onto their OPUS cards, also via NFC, by using the Chrono mobile app for iOS and Android devices.
CTV News
18-07-2025
- CTV News
ARTM awards $146M contract to UK company to replace OPUS card
A screenshot of a video of Masabi's Justride digital fare system being used by the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in Denver, CO. The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) has announced it will use the same platform. (Source: The Montreal regional transit authority has awarded a $146-million contract to a U.K. company to modernize the ticketing system across the metropolis. The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) announced that London-based Masabi has been asked to develop the digital ticketing transformation project. The company is behind the cloud-based Software-as-a-Service platform Justride, already used by more than 200 transit agencies around the world, including in Los Angeles, Calgary, New York, and Valencia, Spain. Masabi is partnering with WSP, a global engineering and professional services firm, to integrate the fare system in the Greater Montreal area. It will require updating more than 12,000 pieces of equipment in five territories and involving partners like the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL), the Société de transport de Laval (STL) and the exo commuter train network. Masabi says 'riders will be able to tap to travel using contactless bank cards, mobile wallets, smartcards, and more' with Justride, which will replace the OPUS card system that has been in place for 20 years. The ARTM says the project is within its $146-million budget, which includes contingency funds to mitigate any unforeseen hiccups. The agency adds that the approach allows for the new ticketing system to evolve and add new features without needing a complete replacement of the system. The multimillion-dollar project is part of the ARTM's Concerto project, a major transformation of the ticketing system used by public transit agencies across the region. 'The cost of the Concerto project compares very favourably with similar initiatives worldwide,' the ARTM said in a news release on Wednesday. 'This is due in particular to the reuse of existing equipment, limiting infrastructure costs; a rigorous negotiation approach, which reduced costs by $95 million between the two calls for tenders; and the choice of a more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective cloud-based solution.' 'Concerto is much more than a tech project: it's a profound transformation of the public transit customer experience,' said ARTM executive director Benoit Gendron in the release. 'Let's be clear: the project is well-managed, with solid governance, rigorous monitoring, and testing before each deployment. We deeply believe in Concerto because it reflects our commitment to even more efficient and attractive public transit.' In May, the ARTM announced that it would be testing the ability to validate transit fares on users' smartphones during the summer. This involves a small sample of users, who are part of the 'alpha' version of the test phase, allowing passengers to load their transit tickets or fares directly onto their smartphones and then scan them over a reader using near-field communication (NFC) technology when passing through the turnstiles. Testing of the function is being done in waves as the number increases over time. Teams will collect feedback on the tests and make the necessary adjustments. If all goes well, the function will be rolled out to the rest of customers by the end of fall 2025. As of April 2024, transit users have been able to load fares onto their OPUS cards, also via NFC, by using the Chrono mobile app for iOS and Android devices.
Montreal Gazette
18-07-2025
- Montreal Gazette
‘Technical reasons' delay launch of Opus card app for commuters with iPhones
News Montreal commuters will be able to trade their Opus cards for an app this fall, the regional transit authority says — as long as they have an Android. iPhone users will have to wait until 2026. The virtual Opus card is the latest in a broader bid to modernize payment options for Montreal-area transit. In April 2024, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) launched an app allowing transit users to load their Opus card by tapping it to their phone. This latest project will allow riders to ditch the physical card for an app. After that, the agency plans to allow users to tap their credit or debit cards directly to the fare reader, a technology it has already deployed in Laval. Digital payment options have been slower to get off the ground in Montreal than elsewhere, admitted Sylvain Perras, ARTM executive director of digital transformation. 'We probably started later,' he said. 'We're now working on catching up.' Commuters in cities including Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa can already board transit with a tap of a credit or debit card. Testing is underway for the virtual Opus card, Perras said. Fewer than 200 employees have been using the app in a trial since June, he said, and the agency invited 600 commuters to download the app Thursday. Android users will have access to the app sometime this fall, Perras said, without providing an exact date. 'It could be October, November.' The iPhone app has been slower to get off the ground, Perras said, citing 'technical reasons,' without offering specifics. About 61 per cent of Canadian smartphone users have an iPhone, while about 39 per cent use Android, according to web traffic analysis website StatCounter. Perras wouldn't provide a detailed timeline for the app's rollout, insisting he didn't want to make promises that might not be kept. But he said all commuters should be able to download virtual Opus cards at some point in 2026. New payment options should help improve ridership numbers, Perras said, adding some people avoid public transit when it seems too complicated. This story was originally published July 18, 2025 at 12:31 PM.
