‘Technical reasons' delay launch of Opus card app for commuters with iPhones
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.
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