The service offer will continue to be lower than it was before the pandemic in 2022 for users of the buses and metro of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), which is suffering from a drop in ridership. extended throughout its network.
To balance its budget of $ 1.576 billion, the STM will have to unearth $ 43 million through “new sources of revenue” that it has not yet identified, indicates the organization’s 2022 budget, unveiled on Wednesday in margin of that of the City of Montreal.
“It’s a big challenge,” admits in an interview to the Duty the chairman of the board of directors of the STM, Éric Alan Caldwell, who claims to be “on a mission” to find a solution to this financial issue.
The impacts of the pandemic
The STM will therefore begin this new year by tightening its belt. Moreover, to save money, the organization “has revised down its service offer” in 2022 compared to that which was in effect in 2019, that is to say before the pandemic, indicates the budget. This reduction will be of the order of 3.5% for the bus network and 5% for the metro network. The STM will thus achieve savings of $ 21.3 million in 2022, its budget indicates.
The STM’s offer will nonetheless remain at a level “comparable” to that delivered in 2021, assures the organization, which has seen the ridership of its network fall again in the last days in the wake of the return to Telecommuting of many employees and the rise of the Omicron variant of the virus causing COVID-19.
“I hope we will have a more robust recovery in traffic. […] But in the current context, the 2022 budget reflects the 2021 service offer, ”said Mr. Caldwell. Thus, “in the field, we will not see any difference in relation to the level of service” next year, he assures us.
However, an improvement in the frequency of public transport is necessary for it to resume ridership at the end of the pandemic, analyzes the president of the organization Trajectoire Québec, François Pepin.
“It won’t have major impacts [l’ajustement du service] because there are not many people in public transport, but that jeopardizes the relaunch of public transport at the end of the pandemic, ”he said in an interview.
The tabling of this budget comes almost a month after the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain collected additional assistance of $ 100 million from Quebec to financially support transport companies in the greater region of Quebec. Montreal. “Government aid should be redistributed quickly to meet the needs of the four transport companies [de la région] », Presses Mr. Pepin.
By email, the ARTM for its part argued that it sees “a shortfall in 2022, despite the additional aid announced” by Quebec. The organization is therefore striving, with its partners, to find “solutions” to deal with the pandemic.