|
the Gazette 报道华人违法出租月票
'Renting' transit passes is latest scam
If you're caught, the fine is $200. Clients and pushers are hooking up online
ANNE SUTHERLAND, The Gazette
Published: Sunday, September 09
With Montreal bus and métro passes costing $65 a month for adults and $35 a month for students, some consumers are finding ways to rent their passes out to other public transit users.
If you find yourself tempted, however, be very careful.
It's against the bylaws of the Montreal Transit Corp., and if you are caught renting out your pass there's a $200 fine.
"Under the rules of the MTC, Item R-037, Article 69, it is spelled out that you are not allowed to make money or profit from your bus pass," said Odile Paradis, spokesperson for the transit corporation.
Some websites, such as sinoquebec.com, have had postings from people either wanting to rent out or to borrow a bus pass, usually on the weekend.
The going rate seems to be $2 a day or $5 for the weekend, Friday afternoon to Sunday night.
Information between lessor and lessee is exchanged on the website, as is a time and place to make the swap.
At $2.75 for a single cash ride, that's a substantial saving for anyone who has a weekend job or needs to ride the bus or métro for things like shopping.
It is also a way for the person who shelled out $65 for commuting to their weekday job a means to recoup some of that cash outlay.
But it's totally against MTC rules, and the transit corporation is onto the Chinese-language sinoquebec website.
Helen Zhou, who works in advertising and the web at the Sino Quebec media company, said that free postings are hard to control and that the company's webmaster will be advised of the problem.
"We will ask the webmaster if a warning could be posted that this is illegal, that's the best we can do," Zhou said. In fact, the rental offers now appear to have vanished from the site.
Bus passes are not personalized, but there are limits as to how many people can use one pass, Paradis said. For one thing, the card "knows" when it's recently been swiped.
"No, you cannot pass the bus pass to the person behind you in line, but it can be loaned to family members and friends," Paradis said.
"Just not for money." |
|