On the sidelines of the difficult negotiations between the government of Quebec and the cities of the Montreal region, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) maintains that it has made optimization efforts for two years, but that it will be more more difficult to generate savings without cutting services.
However, cutting services will put the STM into a “downward spiral” with a loss of ridership, warned the chairman of the STM board of directors, Éric Allan Caldwell, during a speech delivered Monday to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal. “We are degrading the service offering, we have fewer customers, we have less income, we are dragging the service down. An investment in the service offering generates goodwill. If we want to move upwards, we must choose to invest in the service offering,” he explained during a press scrum following his speech.
In 2022, the STM started the year with a shortfall of 43 million, which it ended up making up. In 2023, the scenario repeated itself with a budget hole of 78 million which the STM had also reduced over the year.
For 2024, there is still room to make certain savings, but it promises to be difficult, admitted the general director of the STM, Marie-Claude Léonard. “85% of the budget is linked to operations. And 70% of the operating budget is made up of payroll, 90% of which is agreed. Yes, we can optimize, but the further we go, the more difficult it will be,” said M.me Leonard.
Certain expenses are difficult to reduce if we want to maintain the service and improve it as requested by users, underlined Mr. Caldwell. “We can’t run a bus with half a driver,” he said.
Two weeks ago, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, indicated that Quebec would limit its contribution to 20% aimed at absorbing the projected deficit of $2.5 billion over five years for public transport companies. of Quebec. The mayors of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) responded last Thursday by demanding that Quebec assume a greater share of these deficits, otherwise transport companies would be forced to make major cuts in supply. on duty. Several scenarios have been developed, such as closing the metro after 11 p.m. and reducing bus service in municipalities in the metropolitan region.
“These are theoretical hypotheses on which we worked,” Marie-Claude Léonard said on Monday. “This is not what the STM wants to do. At a minimum, we need to maintain our service and increase it over time to maintain our attractiveness. »
For 2024, the STM is continuing its optimization process, she said. The fact remains that the STM still does not know precisely what its shortfall will be since its income now comes solely from the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) which redistributes to transport companies in the Montreal region the sums coming from cities, motorists and of the government.
During his speech, Éric Allan Caldwell discussed the financing model of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec which relies on ridership to determine the extent of public funding. According to him, this is a winning combination.