The transport organization Exo fears sinking into a “spiral of decline” if it does not obtain the necessary sums from Quebec to improve its service offer, the car gaining ground in the suburbs of Montreal.
A little less than a month before the tabling of the next Legault government budget, Exo, which manages the five commuter train lines in the greater Montreal region as well as 226 bus lines, is launching a cry from the heart in Quebec. If the transport organization does not quickly obtain a sum of 29.8 million dollars to balance its 2023 budget, it risks having to reduce its service offer, already revised downwards in the context of the pandemic. A solution of “last resort” that wishes to avoid at all costs the general manager of Exo, Sylvain Yelle.
“It’s the last business we want, but if ever the money was not there, we should consider reducing costs, including in the service offer”, he warns in an interview with the Duty.
This year, the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) indexed by 3% the amount granted to Exo to finance its service offer. However, the organization does business with several private carriers whose contracts have been indexed by 6.8% this year, inflation obliges. “And so, the gap means that we are not able to cover the costs of the service offer,” says Mr. Yelle, who notes that the growth in fuel prices is also hurting the finances of the company. ‘Exo.
In 2020, the transport organization had reduced its service offer by an average of 10% in the north and south crowns of Montreal. This has gradually resumed since the start of the pandemic, without however ever reaching the level of 2019. “We have limited hiring, reduced casual staff and paused certain projects in order to rationalize expenses”, explains Exo. in a brief tabled as part of the pre-budget consultations in Quebec.
The organization thus considers that it has reached “the limit of the savings that can be made without slashing […] services,” the brief adds. However, users of Exo services already wait an average of 20 minutes longer between each bus trip compared to users of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM).
“We are talking about a waiting time which can be 20, 30 or 40 minutes, sometimes frequencies every hour. So, reducing the service offer when we already have frequencies like that, we risk falling into a spiral where people abandon public transport ”, apprehends the general manager of Exo.
A concern shared by the director general of the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL), Michel Veilleux, who also fears having to reduce the frequency on some of his less busy bus lines if he does not obtain additional financial support from $8 million from the Legault government. However, “people, when we cut services, they leave public transit to return to the car. And they are very difficult to recover, ”warns Mr. Veilleux.
new needs
Currently, Exo buses and trains benefit from 75% of pre-pandemic ridership, while car use has continued to gain ground in the suburbs of Montreal since the start of the pandemic.
To tackle this problem, Sylvain Yelle proposes improving local bus services within the northern and southern suburbs of the metropolis, which have experienced rapid population growth in recent years.
Exo data also show growth in recent years in work-related trips within the suburbs themselves, while those in the direction of downtown Montreal have decreased. The transport organization thus wishes to bring its service offer to a level equivalent to that of before the pandemic, but within the framework of a network of bus lines revised to respond to the changes made in the travel habits of its users. , in the era of telecommuting.
“As we can see, demand is strong within the crowns themselves. So, if we want to get back to traffic, we have to improve the service offer, in particular within the crowns themselves, with services that are not provided today because this need existed less in 2019” , explains Mr. Yelle.
In this sense, Exo is claiming a sum of 10 million dollars for the year 2023 as well as an annual sum of 15 million per year for five years, in order to initiate a “historic catch-up” which would represent a growth of 5% of its service offer per year. The organization is also calling for additional funds to facilitate the establishment of new bus services around the future Réseau express métropolitain (REM) station in Deux-Montagnes as well as on the South Shore in the Montreal region.
“We don’t want to sit on the fact that we have lost traffic. On the contrary, we should put in place services that meet new travel needs and go and gain this traffic and the income that will also come with it, ”said Sylvain Yelle.
A “worrying” situation
It’s not just Exo and the RTL that are experiencing financial problems. In Montreal, the STM announced last Tuesday a plan to reduce its spending by $18 million in order to reduce the shortfall in its budget from $78 million to $60 million.
The Société de transport de Laval (STL) for its part fears that the increase in the cost of fuel and the indexation of salaries will lead to “a significant increase in its budget for 2024, which could put the delivery of its service at risk”, she says by email. The STL is therefore asking Quebec to “significantly” increase the sums earmarked for the operation of public transit in the province.
“The situation is worrying in all transport companies. All sectors are affected by the structural problem of public transit funding,” notes the executive director of Trajectoire Québec, Sarah V. Doyon.
The ARTM estimates for its part at half a billion the shortfall of transport companies in the greater Montreal region, in 2023.