The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) met on Wednesday with the leaders of the four transit companies in the greater Montreal area to present them with a roadmap aimed at finding ways to achieve economies of scale while improving the service offered to users. An action plan will follow in September.
The duty obtained a copy of the roadmap presented Wednesday afternoon by the ARTM to the leaders of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the Société de transport de Laval (STL), the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) and the transport organization Exo.
The four-page document proposes to increase the performance of transport companies by putting an end to the principle of “cabotage”, which currently prevents an RTL bus going to Montreal from picking up customers in the metropolis on its the way back. Buses thus run regularly without any customers on board, resulting in financial losses for transport companies.
In a “pooling” approach, the ARTM, which is responsible for financing and planning public transit in the greater Montreal area, also proposes to select road corridors that several transit companies could use in order to optimize their use. Savings could also be made by facilitating the sharing of infrastructure related to the electrification of buses, which could potentially limit the number of garages to be built in the region.
“The charging equipment, is there a way to locate it on the territory to allow recharging without the vehicle needing to return to its territory? asks the director general of the ARTM, Benoît Gendron.
In interview at Duty Wednesday, Mr. Gendron also assured that the organization does not intend to ask public transit companies in the region to reduce their number of executives or managers, as mentioned on Wednesday in an article by The Press. “We do not intend to play in the structures of transport companies,” he assured.
A new context
The unveiling of this ARTM roadmap comes at a time when the fare revenues of transit companies in the metropolitan area have been greatly affected by the pandemic. Last year, these amounted to 653.6 million dollars, or less than 70% of the 939.9 million collected by the four transport companies in the region in 2019.
At the same time, the travel habits of residents of the greater Montreal area have changed significantly. In the era of telecommuting, trips to the city center are less popular, while local trips are gaining in popularity.
“In this context, building on the model in place without questioning oneself is not only not responsible, but counterproductive. Public transport must adapt to new mobility behaviors, to new trends,” underlines the ARTM’s roadmap. In this sense, the organization is proposing a few avenues for “reviving” public transit that would be financed in part through the savings made by improving its performance.
Among the measures proposed by the ARTM, there is the possible creation of high-frequency bus lines on different “metropolitan” roads located in different key sectors of the region. Users of this “structuring network” could then go to their bus stop with the assurance of not having to wait more than a certain number of minutes before getting into a vehicle. Behind the scenes, at the ARTM, we compare this project to the defunct “10 minutes max” network of the STM, which ended precisely for financial reasons at the beginning of the year. However, such a project would extend to the scale of the metropolitan region, and not just to the island of Montreal.
Save “significant sums”
However, this roadmap is only the first milestone in a process that the ARTM is beginning with the four public transit companies in the Montreal region. Discussions will continue over the next few months to arrive at an action plan that should achieve consensus among all stakeholders. This will be completed in September and should include measures to be implemented over a five-year horizon, according to our information.
“The ARTM estimates that at the end of this process, it will be able to generate significant and recurring sums over a period of five years”, which can then be reinvested in an improved service offer for users, furthermore advances the document presented on Wednesday.
Mr. Gendron, however, did not want to come forward Wednesday on an approximation of the amounts that transport companies could save by adopting the principles of this roadmap. “As we speak, we have no idea. »
One thing is certain, the ARTM continues to request the sum of $500 million from the Legault government in order to be able to help the transport companies in the region balance their budget for the current year.