The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM; ) is a transportation authority that plans, finances and integrates public transport in Greater Montreal in Quebec, Canada. The organization was created by the Government of Quebec on June 1, 2017, replacing the former planning mandate of the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT). It has assumed other key initiatives including Opus card operation and multiple other projects supporting transit.
Attempts at planning, coordinating, operating and integrating regional public transit in the Greater Montreal area have been made since 1970, with the mandates from different levels of government, including: (BTM), accountable to the Montreal Urban Community; (BAREM, unrelated to the current REM); (COTREM), manated by the Quebec Ministry of Transportation (MTQ), the (CMTC), created by an Act of the National Assembly and; Divisions of the MTQ itself. Following the publishing of the Pichette Report on governance of Greater Montreal, the Quebec government takes steps to create a single agency for governing transit, reporting directly to the minister (and not the ministry) of transport.
In December 1995, the National Assembly enacts a law creating the (AMT), giving it the mission "to support, develop, coordinate and promote shared transportation, including special transportation services for the handicapped, to improve suburban train services and ensure their development, to foster the integration of the services provided by various modes of transportation and to increase the efficiency of traffic corridors." It supplants the CMTC and inherits the commuter rail operations from the Société de transport de Montréal. The AMT went on to oversee the Montreal area's transit strategy and operated commuter rail lines, express bus lines and park and ride lots.
In May 2014, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard announced in his inaugural speech his intention to review the AMT's mandate. In April 2015, Radio-Canada reported that the provincial government intended to replace the AMT with two organizations: one to plan; and one to operate trains, suburban buses and oversee the other transit operators.
On June 1, 2017, Bill 76 was implemented: the AMT was officially dissolved and replaced by two newly created organizations: the ARTM and the Réseau de transport métropolitain (RTM). The AMT's planning mandate went to the ARTM, while the operation of the various commuter rail lines across the Greater Montreal became the responsibility of the RTM (later rebranded Exo).
The ARTM plays a role of "organizing authority" in the governance model for public transit put in place by the Government of Quebec in the Montreal area:
The ARTM's board of directors consists of:
The ARTM is responsible for setting public transit fares in the Greater Montreal area, including fare collection technology and the Opus transit card system. It began work to simplify the fare structure in 2021, with the aim of reducing the number of fare zones and retiring the majority of the 700 different fare types available on the territory.
There are two primary types of fares:
You can buy fares valid for:
Reduced fares are available for children, students over 18, and people aged 65 and over. Children aged 11 and under ride for free.
The fare schedule includes more specific and less flexible fares for individual public transit operators and Exo bus sectors. Paratransit has its own fare schedule for registered users.
The ARTM has implemented a fare system with four zones across its territory, named from A (innermost) to D (outermost).
Prior to July 1, 2021, the ARTM operated 8 zones for train and monthly passes, numbered 1 to 8. Progressively since 2021, fares have been introduced for all modes of transit using combinations of A, AB, ABC and ABCD, and for buses within ABC as well as between C and D.
As of the fare schedule of July 1, 2025, most fares use zones A-D, with the exception of combination bus/REM tickets and bus-specific fares.
Exo provides passengers a Opus+ subscription which automatically debits the passenger's bank account or credit card and adds the pass to the passenger's Opus card.
The ARTM is responsible for the structure, sale, collection and validation of transit fares, and a large part of the financing of public transit on its territory.
Sources of financing include:
The majority of expenses are service contracts held with public transit authorities and with the REM. In 2025, these costs amounted to 89% of the ARTM's budget. Transit operators are paid according to their fixed costs and the distance their services have travelled. Other expenses include metropolitan-scale infrastructure such as bus terminuses, ticket offices and the fare management system, as well as service planning and operations.
In 2018, the ARTM gave the Société de transport de Montréal the mandate to develop standards for a harmonized metropolitan signage for public transit agencies to use, based on their recent revision to signage of the Montreal Metro. In July 2023, the ARTM unveiled its updated metropolitan transit network map, in time for the inauguration of the first branch of the REM.
The ARTM owns certain equipment of a metropolitan or inter-agency nature, and contracts their operation to the agency on whose territory it is. Notably, it owns and manages a few bus terminals:
The ARTM also owns and manages other assets such as:
The ARTM is undertaking several major projects: