Mayor Valérie Plante and the president of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) united on Thursday against the financial model of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM). The latter “creates a deficit” for everyone, even though it will ultimately generate less ridership than the metro, they accuse.
“We want projects like the REM, but ideally which do not create a deficit. What we want is rather a model that will move people without taking away income,” argued the mayor on the sidelines of the Forum on collective transport of the Federation of Quebec Workers (FTQ).
At his side, the president of the STM, Éric Alan Caldwell, added that the metro moves a million people per day, while the Caisse de dépôt light train “will ultimately move 170,000 people”.
“Is it worth neglecting the million we have to put all our marbles in the basket of 170,000? Well no. We have to ensure that the network we have works,” Mr. Caldwell persisted.
As early as April, Montreal had denounced that the REM would soon monopolize a significant portion of fare revenue. In municipal documents, the City indicated “that in 2027, the REM bill will be financed to the tune of 120 million by fare revenue from users previously using other modes of public transport, creating an equivalent shortfall for the financing of other modes”.
Montreal anticipates that public transit revenues will then be almost as high as in 2019, at 965 million. This means that the REM will then monopolize 12% of tariff revenues, in total.
Profit first
The secretary general of the FTQ, Denis Bolduc, also did not fail to shoot arrows at the REM. “By creating CDPQ Infra, the Quebec government decided to privatize a major part of the planning and financing of public transportation,” he argued during a speech.
“Rather than seeking first to develop services in line with the needs of the population, CDPQ aims for the formula that allows it to make its investment profitable as quickly as possible. The logic of profit has thus taken precedence over the needs of users,” added Mr. Bolduc.
All this comes as a financing agreement seems imminent between the metropolis’s transporters and the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault. This intends to offer 200 million, or 70% of the “cyclical” deficit attributable to tariff revenues which melted during the pandemic. Faced with a shortfall of 561 million, transport companies are claiming 421 million.
“It really is a great absurdity for me,” Mayor Plante said Thursday, referring to the financial agreements concluded year after year, “at one minute to midnight.” She nevertheless expects to have financial confirmations from Quebec for 2025 “by Saint John’s Day”. Mme Guilbault had already mentioned wanting to resolve the matter before the summer.