Hundreds of buses stuck in garage
Work-to-rule campaign at STM caused maintenance backlog
The STM’s aging bus fleet appears to be in crisis. Figures recently provided by the transit agency show a fleet plagued by frequent breakdowns, and maintenance workers can’t keep up with repairs and maintenance they must perform on the buses. According to figures obtained from the Société de transport de Montréal though an access to information request, between 400 and 450 buses are continuously parked in garages either being repaired, or awaiting repairs or maintenance. The situation is so dire that despite a 7.3-per-cent increase in the overall fleet of buses in five years, there were still fewer buses available to pick up passengers in 2017 than there were in 2012. Earlier this year, the Montreal Gazette reported that ridership on the city’s buses declined by more than 13 per cent over a five-year period. Among the chief complaints of bus users was the poor reliability. The STM figures give a glimpse as to why riders can’t count on their buses. In 2012, the STM had a fleet of 1,712 buses, 1,427 of which were available to transport passengers during the peak periods.
Last year, the STM counted 1,837 buses in its fleet, but only 1,424 were on the road during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The figures from the STM show buses are driving shorter distances before breaking down, and in the last four years roughly one in five of the STM’s buses has been parked for repairs or maintenance. The STM’s annual filings show a rate of parked buses that hovers around one in five, or at 21.1 per cent in 2017. And the trend is going the wrong way. In an interview Thursday, STM director-general Luc Tremblay said this spring and summer, the rate of parked buses jumped to around 25 per cent, or one in four, because maintenance workers were on a work-to-rule campaign and refusing to log overtime hours. The STM is now in mediation with its maintenance workers, so the pressure tactics have been called off, for now. “As soon as the new collective agreement is signed, we’ll work on this, and bring the level up to a rate where we can offer the level of service that we want,” Tremblay said. In its annual budget, the STM pledged better bus service in 2019, increasing the overall service by 1.6 per cent or 83,000 hours. Tremblay told The Montreal Gazette the agency will reduce its rate of parked buses to improve the service. He would not elaborate on how the STM plans to meet that pledge with fewer buses in the fleet, due to the retirement of several older buses. There are now 1,804 buses, according to the 2019 budget document made public Thursday, a 1.8-per-cent decrease from 2017, according to the STM’s annual report from that year. Tremblay said it is misleading to compare the number of buses on the road today to the fleet in 2012, because there are far more articulated buses in the fleet that can carry more people. There were 257 articulated buses in 2017 compared with 202 in 2012. He said a better benchmark to use is the number of service hours offered by buses. That number, however, is predicted to stand at 5.3 million in 2019, which is the same level it was at in 2012, when there were about 100 fewer buses in the fleet. Other findings show the average number of kilometres driven without a breakdown dipped to 4,152 in 2017. It was 5,187 in 2012. By comparison, buses for the Toronto Transit Corp. logged between 12,000 and 20,000 kilometres between breakdowns, and New York City buses logged an average of 10,300 kilometres between breakdowns, according to the reports on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s website. Tremblay said the main problem with the buses is that they are old. The average age of a bus in the fleet was 8.9 years in 2017. Tremblay said that will continue to climb until the STM receives 300 additional buses starting in 2020. That will be an increase in the fleet of about 15 per cent, and result in a significant improvement, Tremblay said. “We are required to keep our buses for 16 years, and the average age now is more than nine. In 2012, it was around seven years,” Tremblay said. “Like a car, the older a bus, the more maintenance it needs. In the coming years, you’ll start to see the average age come down, and the indicators will also go back to what they were.” Tremblay said the STM has enough maintenance workers to keep up with the required repairs. He said the STM hired 21 more workers to help cut the overall number of overtime hours it has to pay. In the 2019 budget, the STM anticipates reducing its overtime costs by 30 per cent next year. The STM plans to hire 200 more maintenance workers within a year to maintain and repair the 300 additional buses. Tremblay said it’s easy to blame poor maintenance, but one of the main factors that delays bus service is the traffic congestion caused by a record number of worksites around the city, and that’s a situation the STM can’t control. “It’s difficult to get around the city, and with the extra buses that we will get in 2020, it will give us some tools to improve things,” Tremblay said. STM chairperson Philippe Schnobb said there is a bit of a renaissance happening around the city’s bus service. Recently, the agency added GPS to all its buses to allow users to track them in real time. The STM is adding more air-conditioned buses to its fleet, adding reserved bus lanes and express bus routes — like the SRB Pie-IX — and is reviewing its service across the island to better co-ordinate with future transit projects like the $6.3-billion Réseau express métropolitain — a commuter train line to begin service by 2022 to link the existing Deux-Montagnes train line to the South Shore, the West Island and the airport — and the extension of the métro’s Blue Line due in 2026. “We know the bus is sometimes unloved, but we want to revamp its image,” Schnobb said.