First, the bad news: fares on the STM will go up yet again next year, with the cost of a monthly pass rising from $65 to $66.25 and the cost of a strip of tickets going up from $11.75 to $12.
But there’s also good news. Lots of it, in fact. Montreal’s 2008 budget, tabled yesterday, contains more money for public transit than we have seen in years. All told, the city will invest $100 million more in the STM next year than it did in 2007, including $29 million to pay off its deficit, an extra $32 million for operating expenses and $50 million for capital investment.
The most immediate impact of this increase in funding will be a higher level of service. The STM plans to increase overall service by 4% every year for the next four years, leading to a 16% percent increase in service hours between now and 2012. That is almost double the increase in service since 1998. Service in the metro will increase by 26% next year alone.
Simply put, what this means is that, starting on January 7th, your metro trains and buses will soon be coming more often. Off-peak frequencies will be increased on the green, blue and orange metro lines as well as on 30 of Montreal’s bus routes, including the busy but underserved 24 Sherbrooke, 18 Beaubien and 121 Sauvé lines. The headway between metro trains will be improved by at least two minutes outside of rush hour, meaning that the 8 minutes you now have to wait for an evening train on the green line will be reduced to 6 minutes next year.
In Laval, meanwhile, there’s even more good news. After the service improvements that accompanied the opening of the metro extension last spring, Laval will now be cutting its transit fares. The cash fare will decrease from $3 to $2.50 and the cost of a strip of eight tickets will pass from $21 to $18.
Photo by caribb
4 comments
I hope that this experiment in improving service will be closely monitored to evaluate the extent to which it increases ridership. With luck it could demonstrate that the marginal revenue generated compensates the additional cost. However, the experiment has been contaminated by the increase in fares.
Laval will allow us to determine whether reduced fares promote an increase in ridership which compensates loss in revenue.
My position may seem technocratic: after all public transport is a social service. It is not there to make money. However, in the context of always restricted funds it is better to put money where there is the biggest ridership payback. The goal of innovation, whether, through pricing, door-to-door trip times, comfort or convenience, is always to increase public transport use, above all of ex-motorists, with the ultimate objective of reducing auto use and with it, pollution, deaths and injuries, and unpleasnat conditions on urban streets imposed on non-motorists.
While I applaud the promises for increased service (especially off-peak metro service), I’d be happy just to see every bus that is scheduled to actually show up.
There must be some kind of relief for low-income people. At $4 a return ride, this is even an obstacle for unemployed job-seekers.
This article makes me sad because I live in Toronto.
$109 for a metropass, hooooray.