The sharp increase in complaints is confirmed at the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), especially in paratransit and in the subway, where the feeling of insecurity leads to denunciations. Overall, their number has increased by 24% compared to 2021, mainly due to the increase in traffic.
Posted at 2:37pm.
In 2022, the STM received nearly 6,250 complaints for its subway network, compared to around 4,500 the year before, according to the organization’s 2022 activity report released on Thursday.
However, Philippe Déry, spokesman for the company, said “traffic has increased by 43%” while complaints have increased by 24%. “Another important piece of data to consider is the number of complaints per million trips. From this point of view we see that we are lower than in 2021, namely 39 in 2022 versus 36 in 2021 in the metro and 132 in 2022 versus 160 in 2023 for buses,” he indicates.
However, their number is higher. The transport company attributes this increase, among other things, to “fears in connection with vulnerable people, drug and alcohol consumption and problematic behavior of certain customers” and the “desired presence of more inspectors to comply with hygiene measures”. even the “cleanliness of the facilities”. The workforce has just been expanded by about 60 people to address these issues in the metro.
Note: In the subway, the number of incidents of 5 minutes or more causing service disruption increases when we look at this number per million kilometers. In 2022 it was 10.4, compared to 9.4 in 2021.
Significant dissatisfaction with paratransit
Paratransit, on the other hand, is causing more dissatisfaction than ever before: in 2022 there were 3,392 complaints, the year before there were only 1,641, a significant increase of 107%. This significant increase is mainly “due to the lack of taxi drivers at the end of summer 2022”, which has now been resolved.
In the bus network, the situation is more stable, although the number of complaints from citizens has also increased by 11%, namely 16,108 in 2022 compared to 14,524 in 2021. Almost a third of these complaints (31%) concern the service provided. In other words, the frequency of the buses, the feeling of overcrowding and the punctuality of the buses, which was around 81% in 2022 compared to 82% in 2021. However, at the beginning of the school year, in September, this rate was decreasing and is around 76.8%.
Another key metric: the proportion of buses decommissioned for maintenance was 17% in 2022, compared to 16% a year earlier.
Complaints also increased by 22% in what the STM called “other areas of activity”. For example, the ARTM tariff reform from July 2022, but also the waiting times estimated to be longer or the application of health measures such as the obligation to wear a mouth and nose cover.
Overall, the STM received 34,358 complaints in 2022, compared to 27,708 in 2021. “When traffic returns, we can expect complaints from our customers to return, and that is perfectly normal.” share their dissatisfaction and help us improve our service,” says Philippe Déry. So far, 67% of users say they are satisfied with the overall quality of service. In 2021, this figure was 75%. In addition, around 30% of commuters state that they are “neutral” and 4% are dissatisfied.
The busiest subway stations
In its 2022 report, the STM also reveals the five busiest metro stations on the metro network. First up, unsurprisingly, is Berri-UQAM with 7.2 million trips last year compared to 4.2 million in 2021.
Then come Guy-Concordia (5.9 million), McGill (5.9 million), Côte-Vertu (5.5 million) and Atwater (5 million). In all four cases, there are significant increases of around or more than 1.5 million trips per year.
So far, 26 of the 68 stations have elevators and 42 are not yet “publicly accessible”. Five other projects are underway at Berri-UQAM, Édouard-Montpetit, D’Iberville, Outremont and Place-Saint-Henri stations.