If nothing is done to improve public transportation in the greater Montreal region, automobile travel will continue to increase, to represent two-thirds of trips in 2050. The vision for the development of public transportation that the Authority must unveil on Wednesday rather, the regional transport authority (ARTM) aims to increase the proportion of trips made by public and active transportation to 50% within 25 years. As noble as they are, these objectives arise in a difficult context, because public transport is facing financial difficulties and relations between the ARTM and Quebec are going through a zone of turbulence.
Currently, 8.1 million daily trips are made in the greater Montreal region, all modes combined, according to 2018 data. Collective and active transportation represents 31% of trips, compared to 69% for motorized vehicles. . With anticipated population growth and the arrival of 650,000 additional residents, the number of trips is expected to increase to 9.6 million, including 6.6 million by car.
“We really need to completely reverse this trend,” indicates the general director of the ARTM, Benoît Gendron, in an interview. To achieve a modal share of 50% for active and collective transportation, it will be necessary to reduce car trips by 14%, according to the organization.
It is on this basis that the ARTM developed its vision for the development of public transport, the first step before the publication, by the end of the year, of a strategic plan which will propose transport projects to be prioritized at over the next ten years as well as their production and operating costs. Among them will be the structuring transportation project in Longueuil, indicates Mr. Gendron. It will be accompanied by an implementation plan spread over five years.
The target of 50% of trips by public and active transport in 2050 is in line with that established by the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM) in its Metropolitan Land Use and Development Plan currently being revised.
Areas to develop
The development vision document indicates urban centers in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil and Brossard, as well as sectors likely to develop over the coming years in order to guide the authorities in their planning. It specifies the main travel corridors, including those linked to the metro and phase 1 of the Metropolitan Express Network, and determines the 66 potential axes for the development of collective and active transportation, across the territory which covers 82 municipalities. But it remains silent on the preferred modes of transport for each of these axes.
The exercise required consultations with all the municipalities and MRCs of the CMM. Benoît Gendron assures that this vision has consensus within the Montreal region, unlike the increase in the registration tax adopted last week by the CMM despite the opposition of the mayors of the southern crown.
As for the financing challenges, we briefly mention them in the document to emphasize that the status quo will not provide the impetus that public transportation will need in the coming years.
Meetings and PowerPoint
This development vision is not likely to meet the pressing expectations of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault. In an editorial interview last month to talk about the future Mobilité Infra Québec agency, which must take charge of carrying out public transport projects, she did not hide her exasperation with regard to the ARTM. “I find that, over the past year and a half, I have had a lot of meetings,” she declared about the ARTM. I’ve been presented with PowerPoints several times, then with ideas for solutions. Perhaps there we would be at the stage of applying them. »
Benoît Gendron recognizes that the minister made harsh remarks. “There were significant issues related to financing. […] I think we are heading towards conclusive results overall. The PES [Projet structurant de l’Est]“, it’s another achievement that we’re putting forward,” he said about the tramway project for eastern Montreal, the new version of which was unveiled last Friday. “So, we start to check boxes where we achieve things, and not just PowerPoints and “useless” meetings. We are also working on the entire issue of optimization in the metropolitan region. »
Quebec’s criticisms of the ARTM go back several years. In 2021, the ARTM had developed a strategic plan including a long list of projects totaling $57 billion. Dissatisfied, the government demanded that the organization define its priorities and present a more precise financial framework. But this revisited strategic plan will not be known for several months.