The Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) unveiled its new price list on Wednesday. Basically, rates will increase by 3%.
Now is not the time to ask public transport users for more money. The last thing they want to hear about – especially STM users – is a fare increase, however modest. The poor quality of the customer experience for a few months does not justify it.
Each week, the list of irritants grows longer. The most recent tile to fall on the heads of users: cracks in the vault of the tunnel that connects the Berri-UQAM and Saint-Laurent stations, a warning sign of the long maintenance work, work that could result in more interruptions and less service. Nothing to attract customers!
This is in addition to the drop in the frequency of buses and subways, justified by the deficit of 78 million dollars of the STM, which had to reduce its expenses by 18 million dollars this year. Result: buses and subways that pass less often.
On bus routes as critical as 24 Sherbrooke or 55 Saint-Laurent, users wait long minutes since the “10 minutes max” service was abolished. In the metro, it is not uncommon to have to squeeze into a packed car on the orange line or the green line, even on weekends. However, despite this shortfall, the City of Montreal still introduced free access for users aged 65, regardless of their income. A questionable decision that will cost 40 million per year…
To the decrease in frequency, we must add the deterioration of the feeling of security. The STM acknowledged that there was an increase in incidents in its network. Some evenings, the entrances to the Berri-UQAM station look like shooting galleries. The surroundings of the Place d’Armes, Lucien-L’Allier, Lionel-Groulx or Papineau metro stations, to name a few, are far from always welcoming.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Homelessness, people in crisis, waste: the feeling of security has deteriorated in the ARTM network.
Inside, more and more benches are occupied by homeless people who have come to rest or warm up. The idea is not to stigmatize them, but they should have access to a more comfortable and intimate place to lie down.
Add to this the increasing number of episodes of people in a state of crisis, or at least agitated, which accentuates the feeling of insecurity.
The increase in violent incidents on public transport is not unique to Montreal: transport companies across Canada are grappling with the same problem, which has become more acute since the pandemic. On Monday, the Urban Transit Association unveiled a list of 27 recommendations, among which it calls for the hiring of peace officers, constables and police to restore the feeling of security.
That’s not all. Cleanliness also leaves something to be desired in the corridors and on the metro platforms. On the yellow line, for example, train cars covered in graffiti and sticky floors covered in rubbish were repeatedly observed. yuck!
This week, a group of employers from the metropolis signed a letter in favor of sustainable mobility. Among their demands: “to support and increase the public transport network in the greater Montreal area, to restore, maintain and maintain an attractive level of service, such as a frequency of passage every 10 minutes maximum on the critical bus lines, during peak hours. »
It’s a minimum.
Last week it was the turn of the director of the Montréal centre-ville organization to worry about the impact of the drop in public transport service on the vitality of the heart of the metropolis. He is right.
It’s time to raise the bar before it’s too late.