Abandonment of the 10-minute max: the PLQ demands “adequate” funding for the STM
An STM bus.
While the Société de Transports de Montréal (STM) announced on Friday that it had to abandon its slogan promising guaranteed bus passage every 10 minutes during rush hour, the official opposition in the National Assembly on Tuesday blamed the government for the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) for a perceived lack of adequate funding for public transit.
“While experts around the world are declaring a climate emergency, the Legault government is abandoning public transit companies and prefers to swallow $10 billion in a highway tunnel,” said the Liberal Critic for Transport and Sustainable Mobility and Member of Parliament for L’Acadie, André A. Morin, in a statement sent to the media.
Calling himself a public transit user in the metropolis, the MP is very concerned about the “underfunding” of it and asks Minister Geneviève Guilbault to “take her responsibilities”.
It must quickly put in place measures to provide improved and predictable funding, which will allow public transit corporations to increase their service offer and not reduce it. It must put an end to the sad spectacle we are currently witnessing.
André A. Morin, Liberal MP
More than “10 minutes max!”
Remember that the STM announced last week that it would drop its slogan “No need for a timetable with the 10-minute max network!”. The current context would have forced the state-owned company to readjust the frequency of its buses. From now on, the arrival time of the buses will be based on all the available passengers.
“An interval of more than 10 minutes could therefore be observed between two passages on our lines 10 max in hour of point”, we learned in particular on the STM website.
In order to minimize the impact on crowding on board buses, this adjustment affects the least busy lines and directions, however supports the STM. In total, eight lines had a frequency of 10 minutes maximum during peak hours on the entire bus network.
