STM Fares Increase in 2007

[bond_james_bond]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2006/11/27/qc-transitfares.html

Monthly Pass: $63 to $65
Weekly: $18.50 to $19
6 Ticket Strip: $11.50 to $11.75

No info available on tourist cards yet.

 

[joelcairo]

Hey give them a break. It's true the prices are always rising but at least the service is always getting worse! Anyway they need the extra money to grease the people at the top - it won't be the workers who profit just the fat cats.

 

[Techman]

They have to pay for their cost over-runs somehow! Maybe they should just raise the price for users of the new Laval station.

 

[Agrippa]

Major mismanagment

They have to pay for those new booths and turnstiles that are just bigger and 'better' but don't actually do a whole lot new stuff compared to the old ones. Let's not forget either that they need to pay for those metro cops to stand around in groups of three (or more). What happend to partners? Now they need three to do the job of two? They just stand there and wait for something to happen...

 

[joelcairo]

Don't complain about needing 3 to do the job of 2 - ya know it's hard to stand around doing absolutely nothing except annoying people. There's a big fat slob of a transit cop who used to be at Lionel Groulx every morning and I'm sure he can do a great job of turning other transit cops into assholes like himself.

 

[Agrippa]

STM idiots

Got my bus pass today. Aside from another fare increase, there's an ad on the bus pass. I know it's not the first time they do this, but I'm surprised they need the additional revenue from the increase and the ad.

What truly amuses me is that I do not spend time staring at my bus pass, I just show it to the bus driver. They're subjecting their own employees to these ads and not the thousands of commuters!

Can someone enlighten me on the logic?

 

[joelcairo]

STM? Logic? Sorry - ran these through a computer simulation and reply was:"These two concepts are totally incompatible with each other."

 

[Agrippa]

STM? Logic? Sorry - ran these through a computer simulation and reply was: "These two concepts are totally incompatible with each other."

LOL True... but what about the logic of the marketing people, the company itself placing the ad, the bus driver's union...

 

[MontrealAsian]

Hmmm...

I don't take the bus or metro anymore. Haven't for a while. But I don't see what's the big deal with you guys complaining about the STM raising their prices? Not like it's their first time doing that... it's done every year, just like any other company raising their prices for anything. I used to be able to get a big mac combo for less than $5.00. Now it's almost at $9.00.... so stop complaining about the STM raising their prices, they got bills to pay.

As for the ad on the card... what's wrong with extra revenue? I'm sure a lot of their revenue is spent stupidly and recklessly... but who likes to say no to extra money or maybe a good offer from the companies placing the ad? And for the ad only being shown to the bus drivers/metro ppl... funny you should say that because you seemed to have noticed the ad. I mean... common seriously. I bet you a HUGE % of the ppl before showing their card to the bus driver take a quick look at the card. For what reason they have for looking at their card? I don't know, but I just know that I used to do it. It might be a thing of habbit or it might be that I just like to look to make sure my card is there, but who takes out their card from their pocket/wallet/lil white STM envelope thingy without looking at their card?

Not dissing anyone btw. Just my opinion that ppl should stop hating on the world and complaining about every little thing...

P.S. No I do not own or work with the STM.

 

[Just-ass-weet]

I don't see the big deal for the rate increases

but what really bugs me is that sinking feeling that we are just get ripped off. I mean, with the cost of bus passes, with the amount of advertising, in the metro cars and buses, in the stations, on the bus pass, AND entire stations dedicated to advertising, ie: IPOD at Atwater, BELL at McGill, just to name a few. Not to mention the amounts kicked in by Montreal and Quebec, we should be riding in nice clean Metros, graffitti free buses, and with drivers who are polite and helpful.

It used to be that our Metro system was the pride and joy of Montreal, it was always commented on, in a good way... this is no longer the case at all. People are scared to take the Metro, you are almost always stepping into some kind of muck, graffitti all over the place... yik!

OK - out of my system

xoxox
Anik

 

[eastender]

Advertising

Got my bus pass today. Aside from another fare increase, there's an ad on the bus pass. I know it's not the first time they do this, but I'm surprised they need the additional revenue from the increase and the ad.

What truly amuses me is that I do not spend time staring at my bus pass, I just show it to the bus driver. They're subjecting their own employees to these ads and not the thousands of commuters!

Can someone enlighten me on the logic?

Simple - you noticed it so obviously it is working.Plus you posted about it and got others interested.

 

[Agrippa]

It's not like I've never heard of inflation... of course they raise their prices once in a while, but what it looks like to me is that we're getting lousier and lousier service for more and more money. The preposterous over spending on that new metro station, the grumpy employees, unreliable service (and I'm not talking about when it's out of their hands because of lousy weather).

Well, that's the thing, I do keep my bus pass on in the holder and that's it, once it's in there, I don't look at it for the rest of the month.

But Anik has eloquently elaborated on what I was subconsciously thinking. There are ads EVERYWHERE! Outside the bus, on the bus, in the bus, right down to on the bus pass... then you get into the subway station... ads in the corridors, clowns handing out free samples of some lousy product, ads on the turnstiles, ads on the landings AND the risers of the steps, ads inside the subway, on screens, ad nauseam...
I'm totally desensitized to these ads in terms of what the product they're trying to sell me is (but I'll still notice if it's a picture of an attractive woman) but seriously how much money are they making off of those ads and what are they doing with it? MontrealAsian has already anwsered: "I'm sure a lot of their revenue is spent stupidly and recklessly..."

 

[Agrippa]

Part 2

I don't know what the numbers are for Montreal, but I remember reading something 5 or 6 years ago about the NYC transit system.

Basically, the the money raised by charing fares was 10% of their operating budget... the rest was paid by the gov't.

Now this is the kicker... what does it cost them to pay for the tokens, booths, people who sit in the booths (basically everything connected to that gathering that 10%)?

That's right 10% of their operating budget!

I don't know what it entails making NYC's public transit free (overcrowding, taxis loosing money...) but why not be progressive? Why not open it up... with the prices of gas rising and peak oil looming, why not encourage people to take public transit?

My hunch is that, as Anik put it, the STM is ripping us off! But what can I (we) do about it... I'll just have to shut up and get myself to work tomorrow like everyone other day using the subway.

 

[Agrippa]

Addenda

Notice how it doesn't even have the actual price on the bus pass... it just says $AA as in $(replace this space with any number we would eventually like to have).

 

[MontrealAsian]

lol..... you're still talking about this eh? LET IT GO ALREADY!