Press release

A major threshold has been crossed for the pilot project
for hybrid buses in Montreal and Gatineau

Montreal, December 16, 2003 – As part of the Urban Transportation Showcase Program, Transport Canada has selected the project submitted by the Outaouais and Montreal transit corporations to receive a subsidy of up to $8.8 million. This project, valued at more than $30 million, is designed to introduce hybrid buses, running on electricity and an environmentally friendly fuel, in Gatineau and Montreal. To carry out this project, however, the corporations must obtain financial support from the Quebec government as well as from suppliers and private partners.

The chairman of the board of directors, Mr. Claude Dauphin, applauded the federal government’s decision to choose the STM-STO project from among 48 candidate proposals from across Canada. «If we are successful in obtaining the necessary funding quickly, eleven articulated buses, fuelled with biodiesel and electricity, will be running on line 105-Sherbrooke in Montreal in 2005. Based on our evaluations, they could contribute to reducing fuel consumption by at least 33 % and greenhouse gas emissions by 1 500 tonnes, the equivalent to that produced by 626 cars.»

In order to carry out this project in Montreal, changes will be required along Sherbrooke Street including extending the bus stop zones (to accommodate the length of the articulated buses), adjusting the height of sidewalks, eliminating parking spaces on the street, redesigning the approaches to the Vendôme station and building a terminus at the Elmhurst loop. The STM would also like to implement preferential measures in order to reduce the travel time on this line. To that end, traffic lights giving buses priority, right-turn arrows, protected bus stop zones, appropriate signage and detector loops could be installed. A marketing and communications action plan, targeted at retailers and institutions, will also be undertaken to promote public transit on this artery and to stimulate the local economy.

Various factors motivated the selection of line 105 for this project : it is short (4 kilometres); it has high ridership levels (more than 4 million trips per year), it has a high service frequency and it provides interconnection with the métro and commuter trains via stops at the Vendôme métro station and at the Vendôme and Montreal West train stations on the Montreal-Rigaud line.

Finally, it should be noted that the elected officials of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges/Notre-Dame de Grâce who supported this showcase project are delighted with this news and hope that the Quebec government will agree to fund it, as its realization will have a positive impact on both air quality and the health of Montrealers.

- 30 -