No wait: Load your Opus at home next year
Card reader plugs into computer via USB port
Starting next year, procrastinating Montreal transit users will no longer have to wait in long métro station lineups on the first day of the month to buy a monthly pass.
By the end of 2013, the STM and other transit agencies in the region say passengers will be able to charge up their Opus cards from the comfort of their home computers.
Users taking part in a pilot project that began a year ago appreciate the convenience of paying for fares online, the Société de transport de Montréal says.
“It gives people the flexibility to buy from wherever and whenever they want,” and they don’t have to wait in line or visit a métro station or dépanneur, said Brigitte Vallée of the STM’s research department.
The STM benefits, too: online buying makes transit more attractive and reduces the need for expensive new Opus machines at métro stations, she added.
To add fares to Opus online, users will need a card reader that plugs into a computer’s USB port. The device costs about $10 but transit agencies have not decided whether they will pay for them or if passengers will be asked to defray part of the cost.
The USB card-reader system is similar to one that transit agencies in Paris are expected to launch soon.
“There has to be a connection between the Opus card and the online wicket because the fare information is on the card’s chip,” Vallée said. The best technology available will be used to protect the data online, she added.
Some transit agencies are opting for different onlinefare technology.
In London, for example, transit fares can be added without a card reader. There, a customer pays for fares online and then must activate the new fares by tapping the card at a machine at a subway or train station or at a tram stop.
The STM says the advan- tage of the having users insert their cards into a home USB card reader is that fares are immediately transferred on to a card.
December 2013 is the target launch date for online Opus transactions, said Robert Girard of the STM’s sales and fare-collecting department.
The service will be available for users of the STM, as well as other transit agencies, including those in Laval and Longueuil and the Agence métropolitaine de transport, operator of commuter trains.
One day, Montreal transit users may be able to use bank machines to load fares on to Opus cards. Using cellphones to pay transit fares is another possibility. But those options are years away, Girard said.
The system now being developed will be a “a solid base that allows secure online transactions,” Girard said. “It must be flexible so we can eventually move on to bank machines and smartphones.”
The STM would not provide its internal estimate of the online Opus project’s cost.
This month, the authority asked companies interested in providing the required technology to submit proposals. The deadline is Oct. 29.
Information gathered in that process will be used to establish the project’s budget, Girard said.
By the third year of operation, online Opus is expected to handle 3 million transactions per year, according to the STM’s call for proposals. It is expected to eventually reach 4.5 million per year.
Five hundred people have been trying the technology since last year and the STM is seeking another 1,000 volunteers.
Participants are able to consult the fares on their cards, add weekly or monthly passes and print out receipts, received as PDFs via email.