Several cities could inspire Montreal when it comes to paying with your cell phone to take the bus or the metro. Here are five major urban centers that introduced technology well before the metropolis.
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Montreal finally launched, last April and not without technical problems, the recharging of the OPUS card on mobile. The metropolis “has been lagging behind Toronto and Vancouver for several years,” notes the lecturer in transportation planning at the University of Montreal, Pierre Barrieau.
How can we explain this slowness in introducing automated payment? “What we have before us is a mix of governance issues and technological choices with the OPUS card,” replies Catherine Morency, holder of the Mobility Chair at Polytechnique.
In Toronto, users have been able to pay for their transit fare with their phone for several years now. The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) began planning in the mid-2010s for the deployment and modernization of the PRESTO card, which is the equivalent of the OPUS card in Montreal.
“In 2018, [la TTC] announced that it was going to deploy applications that allow transportation tickets to be paid using a smartphone, explains Ms. Barrieau.
“In 2019 the first Android and iOS applications for Apple arrived. And last year it launched the Google app. It is present on the main platforms,” he adds.
The system allows users to pay for their fare by holding their phone to fare readers on Toronto buses, streetcars and subway stations.
Same story on the Vancouver side. Since May 2018, TransLink’s “tap to pay” feature allows customers to pay their adult fare by tapping a contactless Visa or Mastercard credit card or mobile wallet at fare gates and on buses.
Unlike in Montreal, customers no longer need a Compass card to go through the turnstile in metro stations or take the bus.
Ahead also on the other side of the border
“The vast majority of major cities around the world have technologies that allow direct charging by telephone and with a virtual wallet in major networks,” explains Pierre Barrieau.
New York City, for example, introduced contactless smartphone or credit card payments to its transportation network in 2019 with the launch of the OMNY (One Metro New York) system.
Since 2021, it is also possible to pay your fare directly in Dallas metro stations and buses with your phone or smart watch.
Moving away from the American continent, in London, contactless payment of transport tickets was introduced on buses in December 2012 and was extended to metro and train services in September 2014.
In Paris, users can use their smartphones to directly validate their entry onto public transport since 2022.
The only downside in Paris is that you need to have version 8 or higher of Android. The feature will be available on iPhone by the end of spring.
