My Alerts
The STM presents a balanced budget
to ensure public transit’s growth
Montréal, November 30, 2010 – After adopting a balanced budget for 2011, the Board of Directors of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) approved its 2011 fare structure aimed at supporting the growth of its transit services and ridership, thereby ensuring better customer service. During the next year, the STM will continue to deploy its fare strategy by offering up new, reasonably-priced fare products, including the introduction in January 2011 of an « unlimited evening » fare that provides unlimited travel within the STM network during any given evening, available seven evenings a week as of 6 p.m. « Since 2007, the STM has been working on PASTEC, the public transit service improvement programme, in collaboration with the Montréal agglomeration and Transports Québec. The nearly $110 M of investments are producing results. Indeed, our consistent ridership levels confirm this, despite a difficult economy in 2009 and a tenuous economic recovery for 2010 and 2011. Such positive results can be explained by the additional service from the bus network, including the 31 bus routes making up the 10 minutes Max network and the 427, 467 and 747 Express bus lines. By the end of 2011, we should be slightly ahead of our goal of increasing ridership by 8% in five years, because we expect a 1.8% rise in 2011 with an anticipated 393.3 million rides. As for Transport adapté, our paratransit service, we expect a 9.2% increase in trips, which will bring the total number of rides to 2.9 million for 2011, » declared STM Chairman, Michel Labrecque. In 2011, the STM will review its service standards to improve the comfort of passengers aboard buses throughout the island of Montréal, which will mean an additional 300 bus departures each weekday. New express bus routes and neighbourhood shuttles will also be established. Moreover, the STM will put the final touches on its train-bus synchronization programme, which ensures improved transfers between buses and commuter trains in the West Island. Night service will also undergo a review starting next June to better serve the needs of night-time clients. Finally, The STM will deploy more Navette Or shuttle services for seniors. To carry out these many projects, it will need to acquire another 205 buses, including 62 articulated ones. Fare strategy deployment
Starting in 2011, STM fares will be raised, taking inflation indices into account (CPI and CPI transportation) as well as the 5.3% increase in the offer of service from the bus network, which will translate into an additional 186,000 hours of service in 2011. In this context, and in relation to the cost of living in various Canadian and American cities, STM fares are still competitively priced. Thus, the regular fare monthly pass will go for $72.75, a $2.75 or 3.9% increase over last year. For the reduced fare, this means a $2.25 increase, bringing its cost to $41, aimed at complying with an STM Board policy requiring that discounted fares offered to clients be gradually brought back to a 40% level. As for the unit fare, it will be raised for the first time since 2007, with the regular fare costing $3, and those enjoying the reduced fare privilege paying $2. Transit users can still pay last year’s prices by purchasing the new « 2 trips » fare card allowing them to make a return trip. Lastly, the new « unlimited evening » pass will be available for $4. In the wake of a full review of public transit’s financial framework in the metropolitan area, last June the STM announced it had reached an agreement with the RTL, by virtue of which the fares for Longueuil–Université-de-Sherbrooke station would gradually be raised to match fares charged at other off-island stations by 2012. Thus, starting January 1, 2011, clients transiting Longueuil–Université-de-Sherbrooke station with the use of a monthly pass will be required to purchase a new transit fare card, the Longueuil CAM pass, sold for the same price as the TRAM 1 pass, or $82 for the regular fare and $49 for the reduced fare. A balanced budget
For the first time in nearly ten years, the STM tabled a balanced budget, one that will reach $1.2 B in 2011. Such fiscal balance without accounts receivable was made possible thanks to a generous $28.5 M increase in contribution by the Montréal agglomeration, for a total $387.9 M – a record amount in STM history – and additional revenues from the new 1.5 ¢ tax per litre of gas, in effect since last May 1, 2010. These sums enable the funding of increased expenditures, including the expanded level of bus service and the heightened reimbursement of capital and interest on STM loans made to maintain installations and proceed with the procurement of MPM-10 métro railcars (Matériel sur Pneumatiques de Montréal 2010). « It is in this context that the STM developed its 2020 Strategic Plan. This ten-year plan will provide for the population’s need for sustainable mobility by offering up the most productive public transit network in North America. Such a performance will be reached through an improved client experience and important investments aimed at expanding the offer of service, a greater diversification of public transit modes and their electrification. We are confident that, globally, these measures will help establish Montréal as an agglomeration widely-acknowledged for its quality of life, in addition to being a prosperous economic centre, with strong environmental values, » concluded Mr. Labrecque. Finally, in 2010, the STM received the Outstanding Public Transportation System in North America award from the American Public Transportation Association, for the excellent results it achieved from 2007 to 2009 in terms of productivity and efficiency. The Budget 2011 and PTI 2011-2013 are currently available in French on the STM website by clicking here – 30 –
