The sharp increase in the number of complaints is confirmed at the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), especially in paratransit and in the metro, where the feeling of insecurity is prompting denunciations. In total, their number increased by 24% compared to 2021, a situation attributed in particular to the increase in traffic.
Nearly 6,250 complaints were made to the STM for its metro network in 2022, compared to around 4,500 the previous year, reveals the organization’s 2022 activity report published Thursday.
Philippe Déry, spokesperson for the company, however, said “that traffic has increased by 43%” while complaints have increased by 24%. “Another important data to consider is the number of complaints per million trips. From this point of view, we see that we are lower than in 2021, namely 39 in 2022 versus 36 in 2021 in the metro, and 132 in 2022 versus 160 in 2023 for buses,” he indicates.
However, their number is higher. The transport company attributes this increase, among other things, to “fears related to vulnerable people, drug and alcohol consumption and the problematic behavior of certain customers”, as well as to the “desired presence of more inspectors to make respect sanitary measures”, even the “cleanliness of the facilities”. About sixty people have just been added to the workforce to address these issues in the métro.
Note: in the métro, the number of incidents of 5 minutes or more causing service interruptions is on the rise, when we look at this figure per million kilometres. In 2022, it was 10.4, compared to 9.4 in 2021.
Clear dissatisfaction with paratransit
Paratransit, on the other hand, is causing more dissatisfaction than ever: in 2022, there were 3,392 complaints, compared to only 1,641 the year before, a marked increase of 107%. This significant increase is mainly explained “by the shortage of taxi drivers that occurred at the end of summer 2022”, a situation that has now been resolved.
In the bus network, the situation is more stable, even if the number of citizen complaints is also up by 11%, i.e. 16,108 in 2022 compared to 14,524 in 2021. Nearly a third of these complaints (31%) concern the service provided, in other words the frequency of buses, the feeling of overcrowding and the punctuality of buses, which was approximately 81% in 2022, compared to 82% in 2021. At the start of the school year, in September, this rate was however in down, hovering around 76.8%.
Another important data: the proportion of the number of buses immobilized for maintenance was 17% in 2022, compared to 16% the previous year.
Complaints also increased by 22% in what the STM calls its “other sectors of activity”. For example, the ARTM tariff overhaul of July 2022, but also the waiting times deemed higher than before or the application of health measures such as the obligation to wear a face covering.
In total, the STM received 34,358 complaints in 2022, compared to 27,708 in 2021. “With a return in traffic, we can expect a return in complaints from our customers and that is completely normal. We want our customers to communicate their dissatisfaction to us as they help us to improve our service,” says Philippe Déry. To date, 67% of users say they are satisfied with the general quality of service. In 2021, this figure was 75%. For the rest, around 30% of commuters say they are “neutral”, and 4% dissatisfied.
The busiest metro stations
In its 2022 report, the STM also reveals the five busiest métro stations in the métro network. In first place, unsurprisingly, comes Berri-UQAM with 7.2 million trips last year, compared to 4.2 million in 2021.
Then follow Guy-Concordia (5.9 million), McGill (5.9 million), Côte-Vertu (5.5 million) and Atwater (5 million). In all four cases, these are significant increases of approximately or more than 1.5 million annual trips.
To date, 26 of the 68 stations have lifts and 42 are not yet “universally accessible”. Five other projects are underway in the Berri-UQAM, Édouard-Montpetit, D’Iberville, Outremont and Place-Saint-Henri stations.