The AMT and STM welcome the 2014 APTA Rail Conference

Montréal, June 19, 2014 – The Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) and the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) hosted the 2014 edition of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) world conference, which included two activities: the International Rail Rodeo and the Rail Conference. The event gave Canadian and American APTA members a unique opportunity to meet and share their knowledge and experience. The conference is the rail industry’s most popular forum on urban transportation, and the choice of Montréal as host city certainly contributed to making the participants’ experience a success.

The Rail Conference, held from June 15 to 18, attracted over 1,100 participants. The diversified program, bringing together approximately 300 lecturers on 75 different panels, allowed convention delegates to discuss best practices and common issues such as technology, operations, safety, planning, sustainable development, finance, capital projects and management. For its part, the International Rail Rodeo, held from June 12 to 15, drew 250 participants, including 18 maintenance teams and 15 operations teams. The skills competitions offered train operators and maintenance personnel the chance to demonstrate their urban rail transportation know-how.

"Montreal has two outstanding public transportation systems in Agence métropolitaine de transport and Société de transport de Montréal," APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy said. "This conference provided excellent opportunities to learn from them and other systems in a way that will make our industry stronger. We thank AMT and STM for their warm and wonderful hospitality."

“I would like to thank APTA for having chosen our city to host its annual meeting. We are very proud to have welcomed its members to Montréal, a public and active transportation friendly city. As the second largest public transit company in Canada and the third largest in North America, the STM has achieved its ridership growth objectives over the years - 416.5 million trips in 2013 - thanks to the contribution of its 9,400 employees. We are particularly proud to have garnered APTA’s Gold-level recognition for our sustainability commitment as well as the Gold Award for the service point for the homeless, developed jointly with the Société de développement social de Ville-Marie (SDSVM),” said Mr. Philippe Schnobb, STM board chairman.

“The fact that the APTA conference was held here is a clear indication that Greater Montréal enjoys an excellent reputation as a North American leader in public transport. This reputation reflects the reality on the ground: Montréal boasts a structured, multimodal and intermodal public transit network,” stated Mr. Nicolas Girard, AMT president and CEO. “Public transit ridership has experienced continued growth for nearly 20 years. Since 1996, ridership across all modes has increased by 29%, or 1.7% per year. During the same period, the AMT’s ridership ‒ commuter trains and metropolitan express buses combined ‒ has increased by an impressive 176%, or 10.3% per year. This means that customers appreciate public transport services and will continue to use them.”

About APTA
Created in 1882, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is a nonprofit international association of 1,500 public and private sector organizations, engaged in the areas of bus, paratransit, light rail, commuter rail, subways, waterborne services, and intercity and high-speed passenger rail.  More than 90 percent of the people using public transportation in the United States and Canada ride APTA member systems

About the STM
The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) develops and operates an integrated metro and bus network as well as  paratransit service for the benefit of its customers.  The metro network consists of four lines serving 68 stations, while the bus network covers the Island of Montréal, an operating area of 500 km². The STM provided 416.5 million trips in 2013, or some 1.3 million rides per day. The company handles more than 80% of all public transportation in the Montréal area, representing more than 70% of all public transit use in Quebec.

The STM has over 9,400 employees. Its budget totals $1.3 billion, and the replacement value of its assets is estimated at more than $14.5 billion. In 2013, the company was the recipient of 17 awards, while employees and members of the board of directors received six distinctions.

About the AMT
The Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) is a government agency with a metropolitan vocation whose mission is to expand and plan public transit services in order to improve commuting efficiency in the Greater Montreal Area. The AMT currently operates 5 commuter train lines, 51 stations, 1 metropolitan express bus line, 62 park-and-ride lots, 16 metropolitan terminals and nearly 90 km of reserved lanes. Annual commuter train ridership is over 17.5 million trips, ranking the Montreal region sixth in North America. For more information, visit amt.qc.ca.

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