Montreal, 14 April 2003 ; At a meeting of the board of directors held on April 8, the Société de transport de Montréal agreed to mai

Press release

The STM is maintaining the taxibus service between Lachine and Dorval

Montreal, 14 April 2003 – At a meeting of the board of directors held on April 8, the Société de transport de Montréal agreed to maintain the taxibus service providing a direct link between Lachine and Dorval until the end of the year. This service is offered Monday to Friday, outside rush hour, between the Dorval commuter train station and Galeries Lachine, two destinations that enable users to transfer to the regular system. As the numbers indicate that it is more heavily used at night, the schedule has been slightly modified. Thus, as of May 6, three departures (rather than five) will be offered in the morning between 10:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., and six in the evening between 10:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., in both directions. To use the service, customers must present the driver with a valid STM ticket, CAM or TRAM or a valid transfer from the train or bus.

Implemented on April 8, 2002, this project is designed to give employees working in the industrial park access to public transportation outside rush hour. It saw the light of day thanks to the participation of the Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi de Marquette, the Centre local d’emploi, the Groupe de recherche appliqu�e en macro�cologie, the Centre local de d�veloppement Lachine as well as the Lachine borough personnel at the city of Montreal.

According to Mr. Claude Dauphin, chairman of the board of the STM and chairman of the borough of Lachine, "this service has twenty or so regular clients, and since January its ridership has continued to grow, particularly at night. I’m confident that by continuing it until the end of the year, and by relaunching publicity to potential users, this service will continue to gain in popularity."

Mr. Dauphin acknowledges that "implementing a taxibus service is a flexible and efficient means of responding to specific needs in less well-served sectors. In addition, this alternative mode of transportation enables us to measure the potential of a market segment for less than it would cost to set up a regular bus line, an attractive proposition for the STM".

Finally, we should point out that the Lachine taxibus service joins four others already offered by the STM on the Montreal territory in the Anjou, Senneville, Ile Bizard and Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue sectors.

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