The Réseau de transport de la capital (RTC) expects to find 84% of pre-pandemic ridership on its buses in 2023. Despite a difficult context marked by inflation, the organization tabled a balanced budget on Wednesday of 256 million, among other things thanks to government aid.
“Our collaboration with the various levels will be essential for the future,” mentioned the president of the transport network, Maude Mercier Larouche, on the sidelines of the presentation of the budget. She was thus referring to the fact that government aid from the Public Transit Emergency Assistance Program are offered for a final year to transport companies.
However, this year, the RTC’s budget is balanced thanks to government assistance of $12.6 million from Quebec and Ottawa. Added to this are more marginal cuts, of the order of 2 million, made by the organization. Without support from the upper levels, the challenge is therefore great for the next year.
With its budget of 256.3 million, limited to an increase of 2.5% “despite a context of mobility”, the operator of Quebec believes to have done the best. “Uncertainty related to the impact of inflation, particularly on the cost of parts, will become clearer during the year. These elements are closely monitored to ensure that the financial framework is balanced,” he explains.
300 more electric bikes
Among the main projects in sight, there is the early establishment of the “Flexibus” service, in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures and L’Ancienne-Lorette. We also plan to add 300 electric bikes for the launch of the third season of à Vélo, the equivalent of BIXI in Quebec.
The RTC will also continue the “planning of the deployment of the transition network as part of the work for the Quebec tramway” and its work related to the electrification of its entire bus fleet, which it wants to have completed by 2027. The garages for maintaining the buses will also be electrified within five years.
Over the next 10 years, the transport network plans to spend 609 million on the electrification of its two Newton and Métrobus operating centers, 739 million on maintaining its rolling stock and infrastructure, then 230 million on developing systems. In total, the operator’s 2023-2032 capital program reaches 1.6 billion.
84% traffic… without exceeding 90%
While the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) expects to reach between 75 and 80% of its pre-pandemic ridership in the next year, the RTC intends to reach 84% of this threshold in 2023.
With a level of service of around 99% compared to 2019, the RTC does not hide, however, that it will have to “find a new balance”, evoking possible adjustments. With the current service, we do not expect to exceed 90% traffic compared to 2019, due to teleworking.
Last week, the STM had clearly recognized last week that the level of service would once again be down on certain bus and metro lines in 2023, even if the objective is to “maintain” the pace.
“For traffic, the 84% represents an estimate based on our projections. For your information, for 2022, we ended the year with 80% of our 2019 traffic, which was the targeted objective when we tabled our 2022 operating budget,” said the spokesperson for the Network. of transport in the capital, Raphaëlle Savard.