Mes alertes The Société de Transports de Montréal (STM) welcomes the publication of the Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité Durable’s performance audits report. Although the exercise of comparing different transit agencies across Quebec has several limitations, as recognized by the auditors, the STM appreciates the collaborative work that identified interesting optimization avenues, in addition to those already proposed by the STM.
"The exercise highlighted that transit agencies know their organizations well, both their strengths and areas for improvement, and did not wait for external auditors to take action on several optimization avenues and have identified others for the future. I’m proud the STM was the transit organization that presented the most optimization avenues in the process," said Marie-Claude Léonard, General Manager of STM.
In this regard, it should be noted that STM has already committed to reducing its expenses by $100 million over the next five years to limit the growth of its expenses. Of this $100 million, $36 million has already been saved in 2024, a year not considered in the current report.
"We will take the time to analyze the optimization proposals. But from the outset, I reiterate our collaboration with the Ministère. We are ready to leverage our expertise to analyze, plan, and implement any optimization avenues that allow us to deliver quality service to our customers at a lower cost," added Ms. Léonard.
Preliminary Findings
- STM has the best cost per bus trip in Quebec. This situation is largely explained by the fact that STM buses make an unparalleled number of trips in Quebec, nearly 750,000 trips daily. Conversely, due to its dense urban context affecting bus speed, the cost per kilometer is higher than that of other agencies.
- The report confirms that the metro is the most cost-effective mode of transport for urban trips. With a cost per trip of only $1.48, the metro is the collective transport mode with the lowest cost in Quebec.
- STM is the company with the highest self-financing rate, with fare revenue accounting for 32% of total income.
- STM needs to work on its reserve rate, a task already started in 2024 as 155 buses were disposed of last April, bringing its reserve rate to 31% (according to the methodology used in the report, different from that used by STM). A reduction target is also identified for the coming years.
- The report confirms higher costs in the maintenance sector. STM and its union partners are already active on this front, with more than $20 million in optimization avenues already identified and accounted for in our $100 million commitment.
- STM's administrative fees are below the Quebec average at 8.3% and lower than those of Toronto and Vancouver.
- During the years under review, there was no increase in the number of full-time equivalents, and payroll growth was kept under control at 3% per year.
- It is important to note that the $346 million in potential savings identified in the report do not take into account existing employment contracts, which contain clauses that could have an impact on timeline for achieving these savings.
International Benchmarking
In addition to this initiative, STM will continue to actively participate in international benchmarking networks that allows it to compare its performance to networks of similar size and realities. The results of these benchmarks demonstrate that STM's operating costs are in the average of comparable networks. These benchmarking results can be consulted on the STM website.
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