Budget 2024: A “fragile” financial context in the training center, which will increase its prices

Under financial “pressure” with major upcoming investments to electrify its fleet, the RTC will increase its prices for users, but also ask the government to give it the means to achieve its ambitions and reduce its costs. stimulate.

• Read also: Reduced service this winter for RTC buses: more than 360 weekly departures cancelled

• Read also: RTC chief promises to improve its communications

The head of the RTC, Maude Mercier LaRouche, confirmed on Thursday evening that “there will be an increase” due to inflation. “It will be a moderate increase, as we did last year, also in a fragile context,” he added.

The news came when the RTC presented its 2024 budget on Thursday. “We must be clear that, for the coming years, the situation remains fragile,” director general Nicolas Girard said in his first budget at the helm of the company. the organization.

He denounced the Legault government’s “evasions” regarding public transportation and the lack of a predictable financing framework, stressing that “it has become impossible to plan for the future, to prepare the development of our future offer.” […] No business can grow in such a context. Doing so dooms RTC to stagnation for the foreseeable future.

The three opposition parties in the city council lamented this potential increase, which will force users to dig deeper into their pockets. “It is not an incentive to get people to use public transportation. This is in addition to the other increases that people are experiencing,” said official opposition leader Claude Villeneuve.

$1.8 billion for‘electrification

The investments required for transportation electrification, which is a government requirement, amount to $1.8 billion over 10 years. The RTC does not currently have the means to pay it in full. Therefore, it would have to add $300 million to its debt to get to that point, Mr. Girard says.

That is why the President of the RTC calls for “a stable, indexed and sustainable financial framework, [pour] This allows public transport companies to improve their service offerings and increase the attractiveness of transportation. M^I Mercier-La Roche goes further and asks the government to review its goal of electrifying 55% of the fleet by 2030.

“I think it would be in our best interest to take a step back from electrification and ask ourselves whether we should slow down the pace.” She indicated that she proposes improving investment in providing services in order to encourage citizens to use public transportation, which helps reduce greenhouse gases.

Too fast for a bike?

Opposition parties have questioned whether the RTC has not gone too quickly in rolling out the bike-sharing service àVélo, which plans to put 1,300 bikes and 115 stations into service in 2024.^I Mercier Laroche and Mr. Girard do not think we have been too greedy and point out that the service is very popular and everyone wins when a citizen chooses a bike instead of a car. RTC is also considering new financing solutions, such as adding bike and station sponsorships.

In numbers

Balanced budget is $280.7 million, an increase of $20.4 million over 2023 projections.

• Indexing collective agreements and multiple supply contracts: $7.5 million
• Contribution to STAC: $4.5 million
• Service level: $3.7 million
• Net debt service: $2.9 million
• Adding flexible bus zones: $1.1 million

Capital Expenditure Program 2024-2033, investments worth $2.9 billion distributed over 10 years, including:

• Electricity: $1.8 billion
• Maintenance of rolling stock, infrastructure and systems: $891 million
• Infrastructure and systems development: $232 million

number of passengers:

• Passenger recovery rate is 83.7% compared to 2019