The more time advances, the more “difficult” it will be for the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) to reduce its expenses without cutting service, the organization’s management warned Monday, which does not hide that it fears a new “downward spiral” in public transport.
“85% of our budget is directly linked to operations and 70% of the operating budget is payroll, 90% of which is agreed. So, yes we can optimize, but the more we move forward, the more difficult it will be,” conceded the company’s general director, Marie-Claude Léonard, on the sidelines of a speech to the Montreal Chamber of Commerce on Monday. metropolitan (CCMM).
His exit comes three days after that of the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault. She said on Friday that she found “a little strange” the position of the municipalities, who fear heavy cuts to the metro and buses if Quebec does not pay at least $300 million for 2024.
The minister had notably maintained that other means would make it possible to “save money” without affecting the service, among other things in terms of “operations and human resources”.
At the STM, the story is very different: on the contrary, we warn that time is running out. “We are becoming limited in the volumes of money we have which are not directly linked to the service”, retorts Mme Leonard to the minister.
Visibly worried, the president of the company, Eric Alan Caldwell, clearly spoke on Monday of a certain “downward spiral” which would hurt the industry after three years of pandemic. “If we degrade the service offering, there are fewer customers, less revenue and we drag down the service. […] If we want to move upwards, we must choose to invest. »
According to him, the financial model of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) should serve as inspiration during negotiations with the government. “The REM has its costs covered 85% by the government, and 15% by the cities. With this distribution, we could cover the operating costs of public transport,” he declared during his presentation earlier.
Fewest users affected
All this occurs while the STM is already working on “recurring” spending reduction options for 2024. That said, “for next year, we only know our expenses and not our income, so it’s difficult to say how we position ourselves and where we are going,” worried Mme Leonard.
The latest news is that Quebec’s aid will amount to more than 200 million for 2024, but on Friday, the cities negotiating on behalf of their transport companies announced that aid of less than 300 million for 2024 would result in several cuts.
Only on the island of Montreal, according to the municipalities’ assumptions, the metro should close after 11 p.m. every day and only open at 9 a.m. on weekends. The drop would also be felt in the number of buses, throughout Greater Montreal, and drivers would have to be laid off.
Speaking of “hypothetical scenarios”, Marie-Claude Léonard argued on Monday that “if we ever needed to go for reductions […] we will want to do it in order to reach as few customers as possible.” “The more I lower my service, the more unhappy customers I have, the more income I lose, so I’m in a cycle,” she concluded.