Public transit was already facing major financial challenges before the pandemic, which has only exacerbated them, to the point where the specter of a reduction in service looms over several cities, including Montreal. However, there are documented solutions to prevent such a “catastrophic” scenario, note the experts joined by The duty.
Quebec announced last week its intention to absorb 20% of the deficit of transport companies by 2028 with aid of just over $500 million. In this scenario, which will be revised in the coming days, cities should assume the remainder of the cumulative deficit of the province’s transportation companies, which should reach $2.5 billion within 5 years.
This prospect worries many municipalities, who say they do not have the means to assume such a large part of this shortfall. In this context, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is evaluating the possibility of closing its metro at 11 p.m. and reducing its service offering on certain bus lines.
“We have no wish to implement these hypothetical scenarios,” assures the STM’s corporate advisor for public affairs, Isabelle A. Tremblay. But if Quebec does not improve its offer, the transport company’s recourse is limited, it having already reduced its expenses by $18 million last year thanks to “optimization initiatives”. “In 2023, we will be able to absorb more than 50 million,” notes Mme Tremblay.
The Société de transport de l’Outaouais (STO) for its part adopted its budget for 2024 on Thursday, which plans to increase its monthly rate from $105 to $110. The price of a single ticket will also increase from $4.25 to $4.50.
“Fare increases are part of the sources of revenue necessary to cover the shortfall and are also part of the government’s expectations,” explains STO communications advisor Anne-Marie Charron by email. The transport company also does not rule out the possibility of accompanying these fare increases with a reduction in the service offered to residents of Gatineau and the surrounding area, if financial support from Quebec is insufficient.
A known issue
The financial problems of the province’s transportation companies are not new. In 2019, the government launched a vast project on the financing of sustainable mobility at the end of which worrying observations were raised concerning the drop in revenues from the tax on fuels, which is used to finance public transport, including expenses operating rates were already on the rise.
“We knew we were heading into a wall,” notes the general director of Trajectoire Québec, Sarah V. Doyon.
Since then, transit companies have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused public transit ridership in the province to plummet for several years — which has since recovered to 80% of what it was before. the pandemic. The rise in wages, fuel prices and maintenance costs meanwhile increases the expenses of transport companies from year to year, which no longer know how to absorb them.
“And now we are heading towards a catastrophic situation with what the government is proposing,” warns Transit Alliance spokesperson Samuel Pagé-Plouffe, who fears a vicious circle for public transport. “If services deteriorate, it will harm ridership. »
Funding
Friday, at a press briefing in Montreal, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, argued that the government’s financial resources are not unlimited and that an increase in funding for public transport could imply a reduction in the funds available for hospitals and police forces, for example.
Mileage pricing, of the Higher registration rates and toll methods on certain road infrastructures are nevertheless all options mentioned within the framework of the project on the financing of sustainable mobility from which Quebec could draw inspiration to increase the financing of public transport without cutting in other expenditure items, report several experts. Such measures have already been put in place in several cities in Europe and the United States, in particular.
“Does the financing policy still reflect today’s reality? No doubt not,” conceded Friday Mme Guilbault, who said she was “very open” to revising it.
With Jeanne Corriveau