“Transport on demand” (TAD) continues to expand on the outskirts of Montreal. Boisbriand, on the North Shore, will become the fifth suburban town to obtain this personalized service starting November 9.
Posted at 1:28 a.m.
Updated at 8:00 a.m.
Thanks to this young project, the customer can essentially book their trip using a mobile application or exo customer service. The user then specifies their destination and departure time, then they are informed – again by the application – of the upcoming arrival of the bus. He pays his way once on board.
The carrier is thus trying to make itself more attractive in the crowns. According to data from the survey on mobility in Greater Montreal made public this week, barely 9% of trips are made by bus or commuter trains in the southern and northern suburbs. More people are walking or cycling, with active transportation accounting for an 11% modal share. The car remains king with 80% of trips.
This service has already been implemented in Beloeil, Terrebonne, Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Otterburn Park. For the moment, however, the formula will be a little different in Boisbriand, since on-demand transportation will only be offered on weekends.
“Saturday and Sunday, it will replace lines 51 and 52, which have a much less frequent passage, during the hours, than during the week. But from Monday to Friday, they will keep their normal hours. This is the first time that we are going to test regular lines with on-demand transport,” says exo’s executive director of customer experience, Marie Hélène Cloutier.
Regular stops will remain in place, but “virtual” stops can also be added by users themselves, on the exo application. “We will serve several places, such as Faubourg Boisbriand, Sainte-Thérèse train station, Lionel-Groulx college and Place Rosemère, where people travel on weekends to do shopping and activities,” says Mme Cloutier.
Growing demand
It must be said that the appetite of users is very present. In Terrebonne, where the service was also slightly improved when on-demand transport was implemented in 2022, there are now almost 2,000 trips of this type every month.
And, above all, this attracts new users and, therefore, new revenue for the carrier. In Beloeil, 40% of TAD users had never used public transport services. In Terrebonne, where the bus network was slightly improved at the same time, this figure is around 15%.
As was the case for other municipalities, everything will be done without new expenses for exo. In other words, the level of service offering is not modified, but simply more targeted.
It is unknown when other municipalities will be added, but it seems certain that on-demand transportation will continue to grow. “There are other places that we are currently studying, where we know that with the same financial framework, we could optimize our offer in the same way,” concludes M.me Cloutier.
Other on-demand transportation projects have also been carried out elsewhere in Quebec, in Laval, Longueuil and Quebec City, in particular. In 2021, the Société de transport de Montréal also tested the MUVE on-demand service (SALD), a pilot project testing a new mobile application allowing you to book a collective taxi in the Senneville and Sainte-Anne sectors. -de-Bellevue.
