The Société de transport de Montréal (STM), Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT), Société de transport de Laval (STL), Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) and the Association québécoise du transport intermunicipal et municipal (aqtim) are introducing a new online fare purchasing service, Opus en ligne, throughout the greater Montréal area.
Transit users can buy their transit fares and review the content of their card online using their personal computer and a card reader.
Eventually, most of the fares that can be used with Opus will be available.
For some transit service providers, only the weekly and monthly passes will be carried when the service is launched.
For the CITs, CRTs and OMITs that use a wide variety of fares, only the most frequently used ones will be offered.
Two transaction sites are available to reload Opus cards. Visa and MasterCard are the accepted forms of payment.
Sold for $14.49 plus taxes, including shipping and handling fees, the card reader can also be purchased online.
"With this service, we are striving to improve the customer experience by making it as easy as possible for them: with a few clicks, you can now reload your card and use that fare immediately, a first in North America. A simple, yet very convenient solution," declared Philippe Schnobb, chair of the STM board of directors.
"With OPUS en ligne, you no longer need to schedule a stop at the ticket counter, either for yourself or your close ones. Avoid the headache and remotely reload your Opus card – it’s easy You’ll save time when purchasing your fares, and using public transit will only be more pleasant as a result. The RTL is proud to be an Opus en ligne partner," emphasized Colette Éthier, chair of the RTL board of directors.
"Giving our customers the opportunity to reload their OPUS card from home really helps matters and makes public transit use even easier. We are very pleased that this service is finally ready – it’s a project that we were very interested in being involved. Yet another example of our common purpose," added David De Cotis, chair of the STL board of directors.
"This fare reload platform will become an easily-accessed and efficient solution for transit users who are far from points of sale and for people with limited mobility. This result marks an important step in the Opus card’s accessibility, and members of aqtim are proud to be a part of this project," added Normand Dyotte, vice-chair representing the South Shore with the Association québécoise du transport intermunicipal et municipal (aqtim).
"This new tool offers flexibility with regards to purchasing Tram and Train fares, and adds to the range of services already available to our customers at the ticket counter, in over one hundred local sales outlets and with subscriptions to Opus+ and Opus+Entreprise ," concluded Nicolas Girard, AMT chief executive officer.
At a cost of $7.6 M, the new online service is funded by the Federal Gas Tax Fund, by the Government of Québec and the participating cities and transit operators.