Marie-Claude Léonard

Metro riders safer with STM’s new text service

Local Journalism Initiative / The Suburban / August 4, 2025 / Dan Laxer, Marie-Claude Léonard, Métro, STM

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

In a bid to make Métro riders feel safer, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) has launched a new text line. The text line is active and riders can text concerns to 1-800-786-1119.

The line is to increase riders’ “sense of safety,” says the STM, and was set up to alert the STM to “potentially problematic situations.” The texts go to the STM’s surveillance room where, depending on the severity of the issue, the message gets funneled to either the City of Montreal’s mobile social mediation and intervention team (EMMIS), the Montreal police (SPVM), or even maintenance staff.

As for what the line should be used for, The Suburban was told by Laurence Houde-Roy of STM public affairs that it could be anything that a rider feels could have an impact on safety, such as threatening behaviour, harassment, drug use, or cleanliness issues.

The text line is an addition to the security measures the STM already has in place, like the intercoms on the Métro cars that reach the conductor, and the red phones located on the platforms that are a direct line to the control room.

“Our customers wanted an easy, discreet way to report hostility and other situations that could make people feel unsafe in our network,” said Marie-Claude Léonard, CEO of the STM. She adds, “The text message service will also give our security teams more information, which will help them respond quickly and defuse situations that could adversely affect the experience of our users.”

As of last June, there are 15 new “special constables” staffing the Métro system, for a total of 180, and another 20 currently in training. They’ll be on the job in late December.

There are also 14 new “safety ambassadors” in training, which, later this month, will bring the total number of safety ambassadors to 30.

Teams comprised of special constables and safety managers have had an increased presence in 13 Métro stations since November 4.

This is all in addition to partnerships the STM has in place with community organizations to offer services and resources to vulnerable STM users, like primary healthcare and psychosocial support services through the OBM mobile clinic, outreach workers from Health and Social Services and harm-reduction workers from CACTUS Montréal at certain stations.

There are also needle drop boxes at some stations, and the special constables, along with other staffers, carry naloxone kits. n

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STM reports boost in ridership

By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban

The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) saw a 21% ridership increase last year, for a total of 288 million trips in 2023, according to its 2023 annual report.

It “was a year of return to normalcy following a pandemic that hit us hard,” said CEO Marie-Claude Léonard. Although remote working has reduced travel frequency for many Montrealers, STM customers still choose public transit, said Léonard. “That’s why it’s so important to provide more people-focused, efficient and sustainable services for everyone. The resurgence of large-scale events, leisure activities, and tourism has helped drive the recovery in ridership, which even reached one million trips per average weekday in the fall.”

The increase in ridership in 2023 was also accompanied by a 10% increase in comments and complaints but there was an 8% decrease in complaints per million bus trips and an 11% decrease per million Métro trips. A total 37,943 complaints were handled, says the agency, blaming an “increasingly complex social landscape” which impacts customers’ sense of safety, particularly in the Métro. The STM’s 2023 response was to add 20 special constables to the network and creating the role of safety ambassador to support customers.

The STM also boosted efforts to optimize expenditures by more than $57 million as it awaits indexed, recurring funding. “The STM continued to have constructive discussions with its partners to identify new revenue streams and introduced a commitment to generate $100 million in recurring expenditure reductions over the next five years without impacting service levels.”

The STM added 12.7 km of new bus priority measures (BPMs) and new priority traffic lights at 150 intersections, as well as grouping 31 high-frequency lines — accounting for more than 50% of current ridership — under a new banner marked in purple for easier identification.

The report notes that by 2030, 93% of the STM’s infrastructure will be over 40 years old and need modernization. “We made significant efforts to ensure sound budget management, while maintaining appealing public transit services that meet the mobility needs of our customers,” said Léonard. “We’ll face many challenges in 2024, including funding, which demands a solution if we want to maintain an attractive service offering.” n