The further the time goes on, the more “difficult” it will be for the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) to reduce its expenses without cutting back on service, the organization’s management warned on Monday, not hiding that it is facing a new “downward spiral “feared. in public transport.
Published at 3:37 p.m. Updated at 4:25 p.m.
“85% of our budget is directly linked to operations and 70% of the operational budget is payroll, 90% of which is agreed.” So yes, we can optimize, but the further we progress, the more difficult it becomes” , admitted the company’s general manager, Marie-Claude Léonard, on the sidelines of a speech at the Montreal Chamber of Commerce on Monday. CCMM).
His departure comes three days after that of Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault. She said Friday that she finds “a little strange” the position of municipalities, which fear steep cuts to subway and buses if Quebec doesn’t pay at least $300 million for 2024.
In particular, the minister had noted that other measures would allow “money to be saved” without affecting the service, including in terms of “operations and staffing”.
The situation is completely different with STM: on the contrary, we warn that time is running out. “We have less and less money available that is not directly related to the service,” replied Ms Léonard to the minister.
Visibly concerned, the company’s president, Eric Alan Caldwell, spoke clearly on Monday of a certain “downward spiral” that would harm the industry after three years of the pandemic. “If we worsen the service offering, there will be fewer customers, less sales and we will worsen the service. […] If we want to go up, we have to choose investments. »
According to him, the financial model of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) will serve as inspiration for negotiations with the government. “The cost of the REM is covered 85% by the government and 15% by the cities. With this distribution we could cover the operating costs of local public transport,” he explained in his previous lecture.
Least affected users
All of this comes as the STM is already working on “recurring” spending reduction options for 2024. That means: “For next year we only know our expenses and not our income, so it is difficult to say how we will position ourselves and where we will go,” worried Ms. Léonard.
The latest news is that Quebec’s aid for 2024 will amount to more than 200 million, but on Friday the cities negotiating on behalf of their transport companies announced that aid of less than 300 million for 2024 would result in several cuts .
Only on the island of Montreal will the subway close after 11 p.m. every day and only open at 9 a.m. on weekends, according to the municipalities’ assumptions. The decline would also be felt in the number of buses across the Greater Montreal area, and drivers would have to be laid off.
Marie-Claude Léonard spoke on Monday of “hypothetical scenarios” and argued: “If we ever had to make reductions.” […] We’re going to want to do it to reach as few customers as possible.” “The more I reduce my service, the more unhappy customers I have, the more income I lose, so I’m in a vicious circle,” she concluded.