Published February 3, 2025

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The city of Bromont is planning to test out a taxi-on-demand service for trips within the municipality in partnership with the MRC of Brome-Missisquoi (MRCBM), Bromont Mayor Louis Villeneuve confirmed last week. Villeneuve told the BCN the city was hoping the first taxis would be rolling by February or March.

“This new sustainable initiative, deployed jointly with the MRCBM, will allow Bromont residents to travel via a new on-demand public transit service in our six districts,” Villeneuve said.

City officials said in a statement that the yearlong pilot project “aims to test a new service model … specifically adapted to the needs of citizens.” The stated objective is to “improve the mobility of residents in the territory and to improve the public transit service offer.” The pilot project will be funded by a $300,000 grant from the MRCBM and a $50,000 contribution from the city.

People who want to use the on-demand taxi service will have to reserve trips at least 30 minutes in advance and wait at any one of 40 predetermined stops around the city for their taxi. Each trip will cost $4. “We’ll follow [the rollout] closely, collect data on buy-in and on who is using the service the most and where the in-demand areas are,” said Villeneuve.

“Public transit worthy of the name”

Bromont has launched several pilot projects in recent years aimed at increasing public transit use. In summer 2021, the city trialled a free downtown shuttle bus service. At the time, Villeneuve said he hoped  a taxi-on-demand service would be running by 2022, with a regular bus service in place in 2024. There were also longer-term plans for a commuter transport service in collaboration with major employers and an app-based car-sharing program. However, the program ran into a roadblock when several early calls for tenders received no bids, and it was ultimately shelved.

In June 2024, the municipality and the MRCBM announced they were working with the Green Municipal Fund of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities to roll out an app-based car-sharing service; when asked about the implementation of that project, Villeneuve referred a request for comment to the MRCBM.

“We tested the bus with MOBI and now we’re trying something different,” Villeneuve said. “We’d like to bring in shuttles and car-sharing over the longer term. We have a bunch of initiatives to give us public transit worthy of the name. There’s a lot of trial and error in life, and I’m confident we will have results.”

Villeneuve said he believed public transportation would catch on sooner rather than later. “We are there now with the number of citizens and the industrial park… we have a lot of young people and a lot of older people who don’t necessarily drive. People will find [public transit] practical and I think that will encourage people to use it.”

MRCBM communications co-ordinator Mariève Lebrun said more information on the project would be available in February.

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