A car-sharing service “victim of its popularity” and intercity bus transportation that leaves something to be desired are some of the factors that will make it more difficult for many Quebecers without a car to take part in family gatherings away from home during the time festivals. Overview.
On the Communauto mobile application, it is possible to reserve a car up to one month before the date of the trip. However, for many Montrealers who do not have their own vehicle, it proved impossible this year to find a free car on the platform for a reservation of a few days during the holiday season, in particular the day before and the day of Christmas.
“I refresh my screen all the time and when I see an offer, I try to jump on it,” says Richard Crête, a former “tank guy” who left his car four years ago. The Montrealer is now counting on Communauto to “get off the island”, but the car-sharing service “is a bit of a victim of its popularity”, he notes.
“It’s difficult to meet demand when we haven’t received the cars we ordered,” explains Communauto’s vice-president of strategic development, Marco Viviani. Of the 800 cars ordered this year for Montreal, 600 arrived safely, most after the summer. “Car manufacturers are not able to deliver what we need,” adds Mr. Viviani, who still wants to add 1,200 other vehicles to his Montreal fleet in 2023.
As for car rental companies, such as Hertz and Enterprise, “the prices are crazy or there’s absolutely nothing” to rent, Mr. Viviani notes.
The American platform Turo, on which you can rent a car directly from its owner for the short term, experienced strong growth in Quebec this year, with more and more motorists wishing to share their vehicle there. “The challenges faced this summer by traditional rental or car-sharing companies are likely to persist over the holiday season and we are delighted that Turo is emerging as a practical, reliable and economical mobility solution for all Montrealers to celebrate the celebrations with their loved ones”, argued in writing the vice-president and responsible for the company in Canada, Cédric Mathieu.
The plane as a solution
Kevin Charron, a father who lives in the Villeray district, for his part decided this year to swap car-sharing for plane tickets at $500 each to go to Abitibi-Témiscamingue during the holiday season with his wife and her young daughter under the age of two — who can travel for free. “But the plane, it’s not viable to take that two or three times a year to go see the in-laws,” he sighs.
As for his trips to the North Shore of Montreal, where Mr. Charron also has relatives, “there are options [en transport en commun]but these are long journeys” and several municipalities are poorly served, he notes.
We have, at this level, a fundamental weakness which must be rectified, and as long as the State refuses to offer and support the infrastructures [de transport interurbain] that are necessary, we will continue to hit that wall
Despite the shortcomings of the current public transport offer in the greater Montreal area, Montrealer Roberto Chiarella is well suited to the solutions of the commuter train and intercity transport to get to family gatherings during Holidays. “The travel time, we don’t mind,” says the man who plans to opt for a cocktail of public transit options to travel with his wife and children to gatherings in the Laurentians over the next few weeks.
Joanie Martin plans to rent a friend’s cousin’s car during the Holidays, in particular to be able to take part in a family gathering in Rawdon, in Lanaudière. The Montrealer could have opted for a bus from the Radisson metro to go to this municipality, but the poor frequency of the service discouraged her. “When there is no room on the bus, you wait for the next one and the next one is in five hours”, she illustrates.
“It’s a bit crazy”
Criticisms are also numerous concerning the shortcomings in the service offer of carriers, such as Orléans Express and Intercar, which provide bus connections between the different regions of Quebec.
This is the case of Nicole Trudeau, a resident of Saint-Lambert who planned to go by bus to Baie-Saint-Paul to see a friend there during the holiday season. She must take an Orléans Express bus from Montreal to Quebec City, then another Intercar to her destination.
However, the first bus leaving Montreal for Quebec is at 7 a.m. and arrives safely at 10:15 a.m., more than an hour after the only daily departure of an Intercar bus in the direction of Baie -Saint-Paul, departing from the Sainte-Foy terminus. In an interview, Nicole Trudeau says that employees of these two carriers offered to sleep in Quebec to take the bus at 9 a.m. the next day for Baie-Saint-Paul.
“It’s a bit delusional”, loose the one who deplores the decline in the service offer of intercity carriers in Quebec in recent years.
“At this level, we have a fundamental weakness which must be rectified and as long as the State refuses to offer and support the infrastructures [de transport interurbain] that are necessary, we will continue to hit that wall,” notes the lecturer at the University of Montreal and expert in transportation planning, Pierre Barrieau. If nothing is done, an increased number of Quebecers will opt to buy a car to facilitate their travels, he warns.
Joined by The duty, Keolis Canada, which notably includes the carrier Orléans Express, indicates that the latter “is still working on its plan to gradually relaunch its post-pandemic operations”. In this context, “its capacity is constantly evolving according to traffic and the workforce available”, indicates a written declaration.
The company also assures that it “plans to add additional buses during peak periods in order to better serve the needs of customers”.