MUNICIPAL. The City of Drummondville is working hard to optimize the public transportation system. Due to lack of resources, it has no choice but to postpone the deployment of the new network, falling back on another option: that of improving the current network.
“I remind you that we have done exhaustive work with the City teams to have the most optimal network possible. On the other hand, we saw at the opening of the bids that the price of succeeding in having this network exceeds the ability of our citizens to pay,” said the mayor of Drummondville, Stéphanie Lacoste, during the last meeting of the municipal council. , Tuesday evening.
Optimizing the public transportation system is one of the municipal administration’s priorities. Implementing a structuring network would have been the best option to meet the needs of the population.
“It better served the entire city, including industrial areas. It was really different. Right now it’s 30 minute loops. We were revolutionizing the entire public transport system,” said the first magistrate.
The price to pay? $8 million. “It was really too expensive at the moment. We do not have additional leverage to finance it. We must continue to work hard so that the government better funds public transportation in the regions,” she said.
The mayor has repeatedly appealed to the Quebec government. In his opinion, there is a funding crisis in public transportation in general. And Drummondville suffers. Since there is no transportation company in the area, the City does not have access to all the subsidies.
As a result, the new public transport network project is put on ice, although deployment was planned for 2025.
For the moment, the municipal organization has decided to improve the current network for a period of two years. “Unfortunately, it is clear that we will have to go towards this option. Your council is nevertheless proud to have worked on improving our current network to ensure that our students are better served. The clientele who takes public transportation to get to university and CEGEP is growing day by day,” underlined Stéphanie Lacoste.
Concretely, the frequency of buses will be higher during peak hours on the Cégep de Drummondville and Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières lines.
The elected officials awarded the contract to Multi-Transport Drummond for the amount of $9,864,855.
The municipal apparatus does not intend to give up, however. “Rest assured that we will continue to work very hard to have an even more optimal network for the citizens of Drummondville.”
Let us recall that in 2023, the popularity of the Drummondville public transport network was such that a record number of passengers was recorded (717,443, up 25% over the previous year).
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