Public-transit passengers with Android phones can now purchase and validate fares without carrying a physical OPUS card, following the official launch of virtual transit tickets in the Chrono application.
The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain announced the new service on September 15 after gradually making it available to Android users during August.
Passengers can purchase an eligible fare in Chrono, store it on their phone and validate it by holding the device near a fare reader when boarding. The physical OPUS card remains available and passengers are not required to switch to the new system.
For Parc-Extension residents who regularly use Acadie or Parc métro stations and neighbourhood bus services, the change provides another way to purchase a fare without visiting a ticket machine or point of sale.
The majority of regular-fare tickets are available virtually. These include All Modes A, AB, ABC and ABCD fares, bus fares, and the unlimited evening and weekend passes.
However, the virtual system is not yet a complete replacement for OPUS.
Reduced-fare tickets, including certain fares used by students and seniors, are not currently offered in virtual form. Passengers who need those fares must continue using their physical card.
Virtual All Modes and unlimited tickets can be validated aboard buses, in the métro and on the Réseau express métropolitain. At present, they cannot be validated before boarding a commuter train. Bus-only virtual fares are restricted to bus travel.
The virtual card created in Chrono is also separate from a passenger’s physical OPUS card. Tickets cannot be transferred between the two. The virtual transit card is stored inside the Chrono application rather than in the phone’s general digital wallet.
The ARTM says more than half of OPUS reloads are now completed digitally, representing more than 16 million transactions. Until now, passengers could use a compatible phone to read and reload a physical OPUS card, but the card itself was still required when travelling.
The new system removes that final step for eligible Android users: the fare remains on the phone and the phone is presented at the reader.
The service is not yet available on iPhones. The ARTM says it is continuing to work with Apple to introduce that option, but no launch date has been announced. Work is also continuing on the eventual introduction of payment by bank card across the metropolitan transit network.
For now, the change offers greater flexibility while leaving several groups—including reduced-fare passengers, iPhone users and commuter-train customers—dependent on the traditional OPUS card.
