Investment of 338 million | Exo will acquire a new fleet of 100% electric buses

Quebec and Ottawa will extend 338 million to “transform the business model” of exo, which oversees several local bus lines in the suburbs of Montreal. The organization will thus become the owner of a new fully electric fleet.

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

“All of exo’s bus service activities are currently contracted out to private carriers. Each of them owns their own fleet,” the Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel, said straightaway during a speech on the sidelines of a Trajectoire Québec dinner-conference on Monday afternoon.

He says the situation “greatly complicated the electrification of buses”, since it involved private investment, which very few companies can support. “It was a barrier to entry. A solution was needed and that was to support exo in becoming the owner of its bus fleet and its garages, while entrusting the private sector with the operation and maintenance of the buses,” said Mr. Bonnardel.

In total, exo aims to acquire more than 135 electric buses over the next five years. A first phase of work will take place until 2027, with an investment of 338 million, “of which the majority of the funds come from the Government of Quebec for the purchase of a hundred electric buses and the construction of two garages of interview, “says the minister’s office. The latter specifies that the final financial package “will depend on the choices of exo”, but also on “the availability of federal funds”.

“Within 20 years, we want to own the entire bus fleet, which could be up to 1,000 electric buses,” confirmed exo’s general manager, Sylvain Yelle. He says the first acquisitions will begin in 2024. His group, which currently owns 600 buses, also aims to build 10 garages within 20 years. The first two will be located on the south crown.

Three years ago, in 2019, exo had concluded in an opportunity analysis that its business model would be “more advantageous” if it became the owner of its own fleet of buses, as well as garages to maintain them. this.

Until now, the exo networks were mainly made up of local lines that fall back on incentive parking lots. From there, express routes to the city center then depart. It is now largely from the Brossard station that the buses will leave, with the difference that the routes will mainly serve the suburbs between them. The REM will take care of bringing people who want it to the city center.

A new financial framework

Minister Bonnardel also announced on Monday the upcoming establishment of a 2023-2028 “financial framework” to fund public transit. This was a request from the municipal sector. Quebec thus wants to give “more predictability” to the industry, whose finances and traffic have been hit hard by the pandemic.

“The government is well aware that public transit needs constant funding,” said the elected official, reiterating however that Quebec “cannot be alone” in this file, inviting “all levels” of government and companies transport to follow suit.

At the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM), director general Benoît Gendron applauded the news. “The future is now. Predictable and consistent funding for public transit is an investment for the development of people’s quality of life, productivity growth, the fight against congestion and urban sprawl… priority that we continue to put forward,” he wrote in writing.

“It seems like a step in the right direction. Obviously, we will have to find new sources of funding, but we are satisfied that there is a desire to work on this, ”said the director general of Trajectoire Québec, Sarah V Doyon. In particular, it calls for a “rebalancing” of investments in public and road transport, which “would not require new sources of financing”.