Local claims unfair fine by AMT

The Agence Métropolitaine de Transport is currently deliberating whether or not it would retract a $250 fine slapped on a Pierrefonds/Roxboro resident yesterday around noon after he claimed he was unfairly charged of not having renewed his monthly public transit OPUS pass card during a random inspection round by employees of the transit authority. "I had proof of my OPUS card's validity in my wallet," said Coltan Cadogan, a registry clerk with the United Nations in Montreal.

When the AMT inspector in question asked for his OPUS card on his train ride home yesterday and scanned it through his portable device, Cadogan said the man told him it showed as only being filled up for the month of March, and that he would have to fine him $100.

However, Cadogan showed him his transaction bill, which he later showed The Chronicle as well. The bill, stamped as validated on March 27, 2009, is for $69.75, the amount he paid to top up his OPUS card for the month of April at downtown Montreal's central station. "This means noting," Cadogan said the inspector told him.

The inspector then asked him to show his identification papers, Cadogan said, which he did not do, upset at what he described as rude behaviour by the employee. "Are you going to comply?" Cadogan said the inspector asked him, before charging him another $150 for failing to show his identification.

Upset, Cadogan said he stepped down from the train at Roxboro, where no less than six AMT employees talked to him. He said he convinced an older employee to annul the second bill. However, once that employee walked away, Cadogan said, the man who had originally charged him both fines decided to not annul either of them.

AMT spokesperson Martine Rouette said the transit authority may take away the fines, but added inspectors do have a job to do on trains, and passengers are expected to comply. According to the AMT's report on the incident, she said Cadogan "did not want to co-operate with the agent." "In procedures to verify the validity of OPUS cards," she added, "the inspectors have to make a call to the service centre."

Rouette said showing inspectors a bill is all well and good, but it is not enough. Inspectors then have to take the bill in question, ask for valid identification from the passenger, and place a call to an AMT service centre to ensure there is no fraud involved. "What if your friend buys an OPUS card, gives you his bill, and you show it to an inspector with your own invalid OPUS card?" Asked Rouette, adding it is easy to commit fraud.

Cadogan pointed out his OPUS card's identification number appears on the bill he showed the inspector as well, showing the two are linked.

Rouette conceded it is possible that inspectors' verification devices may malfunction. "OPUS is a new procedure," she said, and all the bugs may not have been worked out. "It is important to keep the bill," she said.

Two local merchants in the area who sell the passes admit they give receipts to their customers. "We tell (our customers) to keep the bills," said Luigi Colobriale, an assistant manager at a Jean Coutu in Dollard des Ormeaux. He added this would allow the store to refill customers' cards at no cost if the latter run into trouble and may prove that they bought their cards, or refilled them, at the pharmacy.

Colobriale said this was a policy Jean Coutu initiated on its own and not something AMT recommended they do.

Simon He, who runs a depanneur called Beau-Soir in Centennial Plaza, said he just recently started offering OPUS sale or top-up services, and has had only two customers so far. "I gave them the bill, I don't know if they kept it or not," he said.