Exo users on the South Coast can no longer rely on their bus to get to work as trip cancellations are so common due to the network’s ongoing driver shortage.
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“I have experienced frustration, stress and worry, but now I am angry,” says Maria Marcano.
The dental hygienist from Saint-Constant has to take the 156 bus to get to the Sainte-Catherine train station and then take the train that takes her to her office in downtown Montreal where she works.
She claims that for the past two months her bus has stopped running three or even four mornings a week, as well as the previous and the next.
“I was late for work five times. My patients had to wait 15 or 20 minutes. “Once I had to take a taxi,” says the woman, who started an online petition to restore the previous service.
Cancellations
Lory Hale simply missed work Monday morning because there was no bus to take her to Brossard.
She says she experiences rejections three to four times a week, especially in the evenings. As she leaves work, the public transport app Chrono informs her that the line 154 route that was supposed to take her back to Saint-Constant has been canceled due to a “lack of staff”.
“There are no others, so I have to go to Delson and walk for thirty minutes. Instead of 5:30 p.m. I arrive at 7 p.m.,” sighs the credit analyst, who pays $194 a month for his train ticket.
François Bourassa is indirectly affected by these repeated cancellations, as his 19-year-old son has to take bus 156 to Sainte-Catherine station, where the train takes him to the Cégep du Vieux Montréal.
“As long as the weather is good, he walks and at 6:40 a.m. a neighbor picks him up from the train,” says the father. He regrets that since July 31st all services have been directed to the new Réseau express métropolitain (REM).
Shortage
Since September 1, the exo-carrier has received around fifty complaints about cancellations of departures due to staff shortages in the Le Richelain/Roussillon and Chambly-Richelieu-Carignan sectors.
The commissioning of the REM is not to blame, explains spokesman Jean-Maxime Saint-Hilaire in an email.
Around fifty drivers are needed to fill the vacant positions in the network, he says.
An “action cell” has been set up to combat the shortage, he argues.
Measures that need to be taken to promote employee recruitment and retention include restructuring rosters, introducing driver reserves and facilitating in-house training.
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