Free public transport is not available

Making public transit free during major snow storms sweeping the Montreal area would cost nearly $ 1 million a day, with no guarantee of reducing the number of accidents. The Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC), which has been studying the idea for the last few months, recommends not moving forward with such an initiative.

Posted on October 10, 2019 at 6:00 am

Sara Champagne
The Press

In the wake of the umpteenth storm that had left twenty centimeters of snow, Montreal's elected officials last winter commissioned a study on the possibility of making public transport free during heavy rainfall.

First, the CMM found that "storm" does not always rhyme with "accidents". The report noted an increase in collisions on just six occasions in snowfalls of 9 centimeters and over from 2011 to 2018. In other storms, the number of accidents dropped by 22%. In fact, paradoxically, the number of accidents tends to increase during light storms and to decrease during heavy rainfall.

Then, for each free day, the CMM calculates that the measure would dig a financial hole of about $ 840,000 for the metropolitan area (CMA) and $ 630,000 for the agglomeration of Montreal. It should be noted in passing that the free charge would only apply to daily and unitary securities, since no refund would be provided for annual or monthly cardholders.

The annual shortfall could go up to 28.6 million if the gratuity was decreed after each snowfall, calculates the CMM.

Idea rejected

The report does not recommend adopting this measure. Even excluding the shortfall, the members of the MWC's transportation commission do not see how free of charge would be relevant in the context where the orange line of the Montréal metro is already saturated at rush hour. The City of Montreal also notes that the work of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) has a heavy impact on the train line of Deux-Montagnes, with a clientele who falls back on the metro.

In addition, the idea seems to have been particularly unwelcome by the municipalities of the crowns, especially on the South Shore. "I do not understand how this idea reached us. This is not really the idea of ​​the century. Free in Montreal if it wants to offer free delivery on an ad hoc basis, but it does not come to dig in our pockets, "denounced the mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Guy Pilon, who chairs the transport commission of the CMM.

Heated highways

According to him, it would be wiser to invest in "heated" road sections if we really want to reduce the number of collisions. "With such large amounts, we could for example take advantage of the reconstruction of the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge (linking Vaudreuil-Dorion to Senneville) to heat the pavement. The technology exists elsewhere. I do not understand why we never thought about Quebec. "