These are the 7 STM bus routes being eliminated in Montreal

The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) says it is eliminating seven bus routes in Montreal as part of an overhaul of services on the island.

Most of the changes affect the LaSalle, Lachine, Sud-Ouest, Verdun and the Ville-Marie boroughs.

The STM explains that some lines were reconfigured and others were merged in order to allow for higher efficiency.

"There was a lot of redundancy," explains Isabelle Tremblay, a spokesperson with the STM. "We are going from serving 88,000 people to 220,000 people with this reconfiguration that cost us zero, that gives us the space to extend the circuits."

As part of the changes, the public transit agency says it also has plans to add several new routes, including the 38 on de l'Église, the 114 Angrignon and the 190 on Newman "to improve neighbourhood accessibility."

In addition, 20 bus lines are expected to have new routes, times or frequencies.

"The 107 Verdun, 112 Airlie and 496 Express Victoria...will now be high-frequency during rush hour to give local customers better access to high-frequency buses," the STM notes.

The agency says it has already presented its plan to representatives of the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM), as well as elected officials from the affected.

“Our main goal with this part of the bus network redesign is to upgrade public transit service in southwestern Montreal,” says Éric Alan Caldwell, chair of the STM board of directors. “Without increasing the budget, we’ve overhauled bus service in two sectors spanning five boroughs"

Officials note these areas of the bus network have not been updated in 30 years.

“The redesign in this large area of southern Montreal will be a big change,” says Marie-Claude Léonard, CEO of the STM. “In addition to saving time on major routes and maintaining local service, the new bus routes will improve access to industrial areas, reinforce connections with the Metro network and give customers more ways to get to high-traffic locations and points of interest.” 

The seven routes being eliminated are:

1. 15 Sainte-Catherine
2. 58 Wellington
3. 75 de la Commune
4. 78 Laurendeau
5. 109 Shevchenko
6. 116 Lafleur/Norman
7. 191 Broadway/Provost

The 406 Express Newman is also being eliminated.

"To accommodate this change, the 106 Newman will become a rush-hour high-frequency line with enhanced service," the STM notes.

The changes are expected to take place starting Aug. 26.