REM starts offering 25 per cent rebates on April transit passes

A REM station at Gare Centrale/Central Station in Montreal, Thursday, November 14, 2024. (Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press)

Some REM users can start getting a rebate on a new monthly transit pass due to the disruptions with the light-rail line in February.

The Montreal regional transit authority is offering credits of 25 per cent on the purchase of a monthly pass for April. The discount is available to users who used the REM or one of the shuttle buses 720, 721, 722, and 568 and held a monthly pass for February.

Here is a breakdown of the rebate roll-out and where users can get a discounted pass according to the transit fare:

• From March 11: All modes AB, All modes ABC, All modes ABCD and TRAM 4, at the Brossard and Panama station ticket offices
• From March 11: Transit RTL/REM, CRC-SJU-VR-REM, CRC Marieville-REM, LR-ROUS-REM, VR Saint-Hyacinthe-REM, at the usual points of sale
• From March 20: All modes A, at the ticket machine at the REM station on Nuns' Island

For users of the OPUS+, OPUS+ entreprise, OPUS à l’année and OPUS & Cie cards, the monthly credit will be automatically deducted.

The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) offered the rebates to make up for the interruptions, which plagued the network in February when two winter storms struck the region.

Users who held single-trip tickets on the REM during the month are not entitled to the rebate in April.

The REM returned to near-normal operations this week after crews spent the last two weeks repairing about 30 switches, which got stuck during the winter storms, according to REM spokesperson Francis Labbé.

As of Monday, the REM is running at four-minute intervals during morning and afternoon rush hours. The light-rail service will continue throughout the day at eight minute intervals until 8:20 p.m. on weekdays for Central Station-bound trains and until 8:40 p.m. for Brossard-bound trains.

For the last two weeks, trains only ran during morning and evening rush hours.

Free shuttle buses will keep running for at least the rest of this week.

With files from CTV News Montreal’s Erika Morris