Métro

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