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The city’s transit agency has quietly retired 155 buses with no intention to replace them.
The Société de transport de Montréal’s board decided this month to retire older diesel buses and articulated buses that have reached their end of life. Since they won’t be replaced, the transit agency’s overall bus fleet will be reduced to 1,855, according to an agenda item listed on the STM’s website. That is 190 fewer than the highest level listed in the STM’s 2022 annual report, when there were 2,044 buses in the fleet.
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The city’s opposition leader denounced the decision at Tuesday morning’s city council meeting.
“I would like to remind the mayor that her promise was to augment and put in place 300 additional buses,” Aref Salem said.
As one of her first acts after she was elected, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante ordered 300 buses, to increase the city’s overall fleet to 2,100. The purpose of the purchase was to boost Montreal’s bus service by five per cent.
Those buses were still being delivered when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and while the city could have halted the order, Plante insisted they were still necessary to augment the service after the pandemic.
On Tuesday, Plante insisted it was the fault of the Quebec government for not adequately funding transit.
“There is a partner missing at the table,” she responded in council.
This story will be updated.
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