North America's first contactless system was installed in Gatineau, a city of 220,000 souls in 1997. It has increased bus use by 50% in two years, and helped to stall the decline of public transport on a continent where the car is king of the road.

Gatineau is a city with a population of 220,000, located in the Canadian province of Quebec, on the banks of the Ottawa River. And it is living proof, if proof were needed, that an innovative and well-operated ticketing system can help boost use of a network. In 1997, the STO (the Ottawa River Valley Transport Company), which operates the city's 220 buses, launched Canada's first contactless system. Since then, the number of users just keeps going up: "Our passenger revenues have increased by 57% and our clientele by 48%", says managing director, Georges O. Gratton.
The system developed by Ascom, based on a reloadable Mifare smart card, has been progressively extended to all STO subscriptions: monthly, annual, route-based, employer programmes, etc. This evolution has been extensively financed by the increase in passenger revenues – which represents 45% of STO's total revenues – without any change in fare levels!
The people of Quebec soon saw the advantages of contactless systems. No more queues to get on the bus: you just stand in front of the terminal – beep! – and show your card, photo-side up, to the driver. In Gatineau, nobody has heard of ticket inspectors! Giving change is now "Almost a thing of the past," as Georges O. Gratton puts it, "which means we have not had to modernise our old coin suction system!"

A development tool
Once perception was stable, the marketing team kept coming up with ways of analysing the statistics, segmenting targets and refining its offers. The "employer programme", monthly bank debits, the Cam-Puce card, or set price tickets for students

Georges O. Gratton,
STO managing director