Another week, another nonsense for the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority.
Published yesterday at 7:45 p.m.
I’m talking about the ARTM, the license that oversees transportation in the Montreal region. On Thursday, ironically, I was jazzing1 on ARTM, following those two news stories where she seemed crazy last week.
New embarrassment revealed by La Presse: Journalists Henri Ouellette-Vézina and Tristan Péloquin told the surreal story of the failed transition of the ARTM to a new integrated payment method for all public transport in the Montreal region.
To summarize simply: In 2018, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) launched a project to make it easier to pay for various modes of transport in the region2. The idea: create a customer account that allows you to pay for all kinds of services, from BIXI to the subway and buses to street parking.
The idea is crazy because it is so simple: to make life easier for citizens.
You no longer need an OPUS card to top up, no more misunderstood price zones that plunge you into illegality north of Henri-Bourassa station on the orange line, no more downloading an application here and paying down there at the (broken) terminal.
But a year later, the ARTM vetoed it. Citing legal studies, she ordered the STM to stop this project. Tut, tut, tut: It’s up to us, the ARTM, to implement such a change in digital payments… WE are THE AUTHORITY.
And it was the ARTM that picked up this ball…
The problem is that nothing happened.
The ARTM was never able to carry out its own project. So much so that five years later we are now promised a single payment method for collective and active transport in 2027.
In my colleagues’ report, we can surmise that the STM project may not have been optimal. But that’s not why ARTM caused the STM project to fail, it’s a stupid question of competence.
But in 2023, citizens should be happy3: ARTM has a plan!
Topping up the OPUS card via a phone to purchase and add titles will be available in the first half of 2024.
We are targeting 2025 for payment by credit or debit card and by application. Or 2026.
A single digital payment method that combines “multiple modes of transportation” on a single platform will be available in 2027.
(If you believe these timelines, I heard that Vincent Lacroix is offering Bitcoins for sale.)
I am told that these are complex operations, that the famous “stakeholders” are numerous and that the questions of “operationalization” are literally delicate and that…
I say: bullshit.
Why am I saying nonsense?
For a very simple reason: the Netherlands.
The Netherlands (population: 17.5 million inhabitants) can count on an extremely efficient public transport network – regional trains, buses, trams and subways. Since this year you can switch from one mode of transport to another by paying with your credit card4.
For those who cannot or do not want to pay by credit card, there is a reloadable card system.
But for the average Dutch person – or lost tourist (like me) – this is how it works when taking the metro in Amsterdam.
First, when you enter a subway station, tap your credit card at the entrance. The doors open.
Second, get on a subway car.
Third, when you exit the station of your choice, tap your credit card again to exit the station.
Translation: You pay a fixed price for subway access. Then you pay for the distance traveled.
What I’m describing to you here, a customer-centric digital payment system, exists in cities (think London, Milan, Sydney and… Laval). But the Netherlands was the first country to introduce such a system at the national level.
In short, regardless of the transport agency involved (the OVpay system works in all government agencies), the system aims only to facilitate one thing: to make the customer’s life easier. The payment system is not affected by disputes between regional authorities.
Apparently the Dutch didn’t wake up one morning and say, “Hey, we’re going to introduce a simple digital payment system across the country.” » It took years to develop, in collaboration with a company that knows contactless payments… Mastercard5.
ARTM people read trade publications. You take part in conferences on public transport. They talk to their colleagues at other transport companies around the world. In short, to use the language of “governance”: ARTM employees know the “best practices” in the field of digital payments…
That’s why I ask the question: What is in the water of the Netherlands that the Dutch ARTMs were able to create a simple and efficient national payment system and…
And not our own ARTM?
I don’t know it.
I know this: If the ARTM were a horse, the vet would humanely end his suffering.