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Exo (public transit)

Exo
Photo of a train in a station
Photo of a bus
An outbound train on the Mont-Saint-Hilaire Line (left); An Exo commuter bus in Downtown Montreal (right)
A stylized icon of a train on a pink background
A stylized icon of a bus on a black background
Overview
LocaleGreater Montreal
Transit type
Number of lines
  • 5 (commuter rail)
  • 219 (bus)
[1]
Number of stations
  • 52 rail stations
  • 11 bus terminuses
[1]
Annual ridership
  • 44,737,400 (bus)
  • 6,147,995 (commuter rail)
  • 652,719 (paratransit)
  • 69,164 (on demand)
(2023)[1]
Chief executiveSylvain Yelle
Headquarters700 rue de la Gauchetière, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Websiteexo.quebec/en
Operation
Began operation
  • 1859 (first section)
  • January 1, 1996 (as AMT)
  • June 1, 2017 (2017-06-01) (as Réseau de transport métropolitain/Exo)[2]
Operator(s)Alstom
Reporting marksEXO
Infrastructure manager(s)
Number of vehicles
  • 41 locomotives
  • 206 passenger cars (2023) [1]
Network map as of July 2023

Exo, stylized as exo and officially known as Réseau de transport métropolitain (French pronunciation: [ʁezo də tʁɑ̃spɔʁ metʁɔpɔlitɛ̃], RTM; English: Metropolitan Transportation Network), is a public transport system in Greater Montreal, including the Island of Montreal, Laval (Île Jésus), and communities along both the North Shore of the Mille-Îles River and the South Shore of the St. Lawrence River. It was created on June 1, 2017, taking over Montreal's commuter rail services from the former Agence métropolitaine de transport as well as bus and paratransit services from the various suburban municipal and intermunicipal transit agencies.[3] Exo operates the second busiest such system in Canada after Toronto's GO Transit.[citation needed]

Exo's territory is concurrent with Montreal Metropolitan Community limits, with the addition of the Kahnawake First Nations reserve and the city of Saint-Jérôme.[4] It serves a population of approximately 4 million people who make more than 174,000 trips daily in the 4,258.97 km2 (1,644.40 sq mi) area radiating from Montreal.[5][1]

History

See also: Exo commuter rail § History, and Exo bus services § History

A regional transit agency in Greater Montreal was first created by the Quebec government in 1995 with the Agence métropolitain de transport, with the mandate of developing, coordinating and promoting transit throughout the area; improve and develop the commuter rail network, and; encourage integration of different modes of transit. On December 20, 1996, the AMT took over responsibility of the commuter trains from the Société de transport de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal (STCUM).[6]

On June 1, 2017, the AMT was disbanded in a reorganization of metropolitan transit authorities. A new agency, the Réseau de transport métropolitain (RTM) was created to be responsible for operating commuter rail and suburban transit services.[7]

In May 2018, the RTM adopted the Exo brand (stylized exo, all-lowercase), to represent the sub- and exurban nature of its service area.[8]

Partners in transport

Exo's parent agency, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM), is charged with transportation planning for the Greater Montreal area.

Exo operates commuter train service as well as the bus service outside of the three main population centres of Greater Montreal. In these areas service is provided by the Société de Transport de Montréal on the Island of Montreal, the Société de Transport de Laval in Laval, and the Réseau de transport de Longueuil for the urban agglomeration of Longueuil.

Commuter rail

Main article: Exo commuter rail
This section is an excerpt from Exo commuter rail.[edit]

Exo commuter rail (reporting marks EXO) is a network of five radial commuter train lines serving the Greater Montreal area, operated by Alstom, using trackage owned by Exo as well as by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.[9][10]

Exo's commuter trains are its highest-profile division. It uses diesel-electric push-pull trains. The Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Mascouche lines run on Canadian National trackage and operate out of Central Station, while the Vaudreuil-Hudson, Saint-Jérôme, and Candiac lines run on Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) trackage and operate out of Lucien L'Allier terminus, beside the historic Windsor Station. The Saint-Jérôme line also runs on CPKC trackage and on Exo's own trackage between Sainte-Thérèse and Saint-Jérôme.[11]

Operation of all commuter rail was provided by contract to CN and CP (on their respective rail networks) until June 30, 2017. Operations were taken over by Alstom (then Bombardier Transportation) beginning July 1, 2017, on an 8-year contract.[12]

The train lines are part of Greater Montreal's integrated public transit network including bus, regional rail (REM) and Metro, coordinated by the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM).[13] Many train stations serve local bus terminals, and a few provide connections to Metro, REM and Via Rail and Amtrak national rail services.

Fares

See also: Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain § Fare structure

Exo services operate within the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM)'s integrated fare structure for Greater Montreal, which manages its fare schedule and fare zones.[14]

In 2022 the ARTM began a multi-year program of updating and simplifying the fare schedule. Through this process, and as the Réseau express métropolitain replaced some train and bus services, certain legacy fares were retained and new transitional fares were created, with the objective of slowly raising prices over time to match the simplified fare structure and then ultimately be phased out — a process called lissage (smoothing).[15] As of July 2024, Exo commuter rail and certain bus sectors still have these unique fares.[16]

Buses

An Exo commuter bus in Downtown Montreal.
An Exo commuter coach at Mansfield Terminal in Downtown Montreal, headed for Sainte-Martine.
Main article: Exo bus services

Exo runs multiple bus lines through its subsidiaries serving Montréal suburbs.

Exo operates all commuter bus services for the North Shore and South Shore suburbs, excepting the cities of Longueuil and Laval, which have their own transit agencies.

Ridership

In 2018, Exo carried 174,710 passengers on a typical weekday — 77,210 on the trains and 97,500 by commuter bus, including adapted transport.

Number of Passenger Trips (2023)[1]
Rail lines
Vaudreuil–Hudson line 2,263,792
  
Saint-Jérôme line 2,085,468
  
Mont-Saint-Hilaire line 780,760
  
Candiac line 677,144
  
Mascouche line 340,861
  
Subtotal — Rail lines 6,147,995
Bus routes
Exo North Shore buses 8,217,932
  
Exo South Shore buses 6,737,806
  
Exo Paratransit 652,719
  
Transit on demand 69,164
  
Subtotal — Bus system 15,677,621
Total — Exo System 21,825,616

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Rapport annuel 2023" (PDF). Retrieved 2024-08-27.
  2. ^ Décarie, Jean-Philippe (2017-05-15). "L'objectif de la mobilité intégrée" [The Objective of Integrated Mobility]. La Presse (in French). Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  3. ^ "Status, mandates and territory". Exo. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
  4. ^ Act respecting the Réseau de transport métropolitain (RLRQ, c. R-25.01, section 3)
  5. ^ "À propos" [About] (in French). Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  6. ^ Barrieau, Pierre. "L'Évolution des trains de banlieue montréalais : 170 ans de service (1847 - 2017)" [The Evolution of Montreal Suburban Rail: 170 Years of Service (1847 - 2017)] (PDF) (in French). Université de Québec à Montréal.
  7. ^ "Nouvelle gouvernance dans les transports collectifs" [New governance in public transit] (Press release) (in French). Réseau de transport métropolitain. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  8. ^ "Le Réseau de transport métropolitain devient exo" [The Réseau de transport métropolitain becomes exo] (in French). Exo. 2018-05-23. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
  9. ^ "Bombardier aux commandes des trains de banlieue du Réseau de transport métropolitain" [Bombarider in the driver's cab of the Réseau de transport métropolitain's commuter trains] (in French). Réseau de transport métropolitan. 2017-06-22. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
  10. ^ "The challenge of coordinating train traffic in winter". Exo. 2019-01-03. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
  11. ^ "The challenge of coordinating train traffic in winter". Exo. 2019-01-03. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
  12. ^ Agence QMI (2017-07-03). "Retour à la normale sur le réseau de trains de banlieue" [Back to normal on the commuter train network] (in French). TVA Nouvelles. Retrieved 2024-11-29.
  13. ^ "À propos" [About us] (in French). Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
  14. ^ "Fare reform". Exo. Retrieved 2024-12-10.
  15. ^ "Refonte tarifaire" [Fare reform]. Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (in French). Retrieved 2024-12-10.
  16. ^ "Fare schedule: Public transit. Fares in effect starting July 1, 2024" (PDF). Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain. Retrieved 2024-12-10.
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