Public transit takes a backseat in Quebec’s latest budget

The Société de transport de Montréal (STM), Canada’s second busiest transit system, turns 60 next year — and the infrastructure is showing its age.

But provincial cuts could stop projects in their tracks, says the system’s chair. According to the STM, the government is slashing $258 million dollars from funding for the maintenance of public transit over the next three years.

“It’s a setback. We’re going backwards instead of going forwards,” says Eric Alan Caldwell, the chair of the STM’s board of directors.

A spokesperson says it’s money the system needs now, not later.

In response, the Quebec Transport Minister says the government is giving the STM more money than ever before.

“$14.5 billion goes to funding for public transportation, including most of this money to maintain infrastructure for the Société de transport de Montréal,” says Geneviève Guilbault.

The STM says most of the money is for development, not maintenance.

Advocates worry less government money could result in higher fares.

“There’s a limit that customers can pay in an increase in fares,” says Philippe Jacques, Trajectoire Québec’s co-executive director. “So we think the government has to take the bill and not the customers.”

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante also expressed her disappointment, saying that though she understands the difficult economic context it’s a “severe blow to the backbone of the Quebec metropolis’s economic vitality: public transit.”

Commuters already have concerns.

“There have been stoppages, or like inconveniences, where the metro will be stopped or will be late,” one woman told CTV News.

Another said: “If I know I have to be somewhere at a certain time, I would not take the metro.”

Ridership on the Montreal metro is slowly declining.

People are trading in their Opus cards for bikes, particularly in the Greater Montreal area where the number of commuters cycling to work doubled between 2018 to 2023, according to a survey by the Regional Metropolitan Transportation Authority (ARTM).

“Biking is way faster, way more convenient, keeps me healthy, super fun,” one man told CTV News.

“It’s way faster, and now that we have more bike paths, it’s better,” another added.

From lanes to Bixis, better biking infrastructure is the main reason for a boost in popularity says Velo Quebec’s programs director.

“What we do know, too, is that people on e-bikes tend to cycle more regularly and do longer distances, than they would on a regular bike,” says Magali Bebronne.

She adds that transit and cycling should complement, not compete with each other, and governments should do more to support that synergy.