Issues with the current situation.

It has been a common theme over the last few months, that the Réseau Express Métropolitain (REM) has been under fire for ill-communicating service shutdowns (Journal de Montréal). It has even come to a point, that the line's operator, the CDPQ, has admitted that the communication has been deficient and that they are working on improving it (LaPresse). Admittedly, some of this press is overblown as well, as the REM is on-time 98.8% of the time, a somewhat similar level to the Métro (which also gets its often-non-fair share of complaints) (LaPresse). Anyways, one thing makes consensus, the urgent need to improve communication. Communication is not just better vocal messaging, more people on-site, improved web presence and the like, but also improved signage. In fact, signage is the most important part of communication, it is the first thing the travelling public sees. This is why signage and wayfinding has to be right, the first time.

Despite the news being all over the REM for the lack of communication, it is not only them who struggle. For example, when the STM redesigned its Île-des-Soeurs bus network, it only published publicly the final redesigned network April 25th, 2023 (STM page 1), while the REM opened July 29th, 2023 (REM). A consultation was held in May, which resulted in a modified route 168 (Journal de Montréal). There were several draft network combinations proposed (STM pages 8, 9 & 10), but this did not include any final decisions, route numbers, stop locations, specific frequency details, etc. This is already in stark contrast to MBTA, SEPTA and Winnipeg Transit's redesigns, where of all of them proposed an entire network map, including route numbers, stop locations, specific frequency details, personalized online maps so that riders can estimate their new travel times, etc, at least two years before the final redesigned network. SEPTA and MBTA used innovative tools such as Remix, so that the public can easily establish differences between networks, and gauge travel times, something that the STM did not do. STM did provide an ArcGIS storyboard, but this just presented images of maps of the new routes, not a dynamic map to predict travel times. SEPTA, MBTA and Winnipeg Transit all proposed their final redesigned network at least a full year before first implementation. This allowed the general population to comment on the changes, and for those agencies/authorities to communicate these changes to their customers (See table below).

The other issue is that the STM did the vast majority of consultations online. The other consultations were formal town hall style consultations, which are not the most effective (A future article is coming soon). SEPTA and MBTA did a variety of consultations, such as canvassing door-to-door, setting up workshops at major interchange points to understand the day-to-day issues of riders using the system but more importantly to share the changes. The STM, therefore, should look into such consultation methods, such as presenting network changes at major bus terminals, like at Henri-Bourassa, Côte-Vertu, Dorval. For example, all of STM's 18,712 survey respondents were online (STM page 5). SEPTA specifically mentioned the issues with online consultation:

"SEPTA and its consultants are well aware that internet surveys don’t provide accurate information. As it writes, “We (SEPTA) recognize the need to account for a significant digital divide, a range of literacy levels in our region, and an increasing number of people for whom English is a second language.” SEPTA does not state how they interpret the responses to control for the digital divide" (The Philadelphia Hall Monitor)

Therefore, it is notable that many of the people who have lower literacy levels, and those who's French and English is not fluent tend to be part of the transit-critical population, or captive riders of a transit system (J. Miller et al. 2018, page 20). Those, that a transit system should be consulting the most. These captive riders typically also have different travel patterns and different transit experiences than the 9-to-5 commuter. This is especially important, as the current network is very much geared towards that type of commute, as buses come very often during peak weekday periods, such as every 5 to 12 minutes, and that same route, during nights and weekends comes every 30 minutes, a period that transit-critical populations tend to ride the most.

"Transit-critical populations are more likely to ride and rely on transit—making them the system’s most reliable users. But they also have preferences and needs that are different from the standard “9-to-5” commute that has historically informed much of the MBTA’s service planning: they make multiple trips while riding transit, they use transit throughout the day, and they travel to non-Downtown destinations" (MBTA page 20).

The STM did do a portion of consultations in-person or by webcasts, but these are often under the "town-hall" or public hearing format. This format is often criticized for several reasons. A 2004 study claims that "citizens may speak their mind, but officials do not listen and usually have their minds made up before the public hearing. [...] Public hearings frequently degenerate into the worst sort of debate: Rather than citizens stating their opinions and offering supporting argumentation, they will employ sound bites, hyperbole, and falsehoods to criticize and demonize opponents—hardly a model of citizen deliberation" (Adams et al. 2004, page 2). An article in the news had mentioned that during the presentation of the redesigned bus network, the STM faced criticism from many citizens, and probably this restricting method of doing public consultation is partially the reason why the debate was heated (Journal de Montréal). On top of that, these hearings are not attended by a representative portion of the population. "People who show up to meetings are more likely to be extremists on the issue being discussed because they have greater personal incentives to participate" (Adams et al. 2004, page 2). This is even more reason for the bus redesign team to present the future network outside, in front of average transit customers. For example, the STM planning team could have gone to the busiest boarding and debarking stops of the existing Île-des-Soeurs bus routes, and ask riders a few questions, a survey to fill out, maps of potential networks, distribute flyers and postcards to better inform the population of the changes and obtain a more representative population. These talks and discussion points could be announced at advance, on their Parlons-en page, STM social networks, STM bus network redesign page, Transit App header notification, etc.

After all the consultations were completed, the STM should have also posted paper network maps of the final redesigned network at several stops, instead of just QR codes leading to the webpage. The STM should have had employees at major stops, REM stations, Métro stations to inform riders about the changes and which bus to catch and when. The period of having these employees should have been in July and as well in September for the start of schools and university. In fact, this gap of communication is one of the main reasons why Île-des-Soeurs residents were unhappy with the changes as addressed in this open letter to the STM.

All of this combined, would have led to better communication, and likely would have minimized outrage, better understood the needs of the population after the implementation of the bus network redesign in Île-des-Soeurs, and would have improved the reputation of public transit.

However, a lot of these problems also are caused by the harsh environment that the STM finds itself in. Tough conditions such as a short timeline to implement the network due to the REM opening, and the severe lack of funding significantly kneecaps the STM's ability to be able to do a highly effective bus network redesign (mainly the latter). This means that the STM likely does not have the monetary resources to implement new software such as Remix, nor the ability to do rider on-street meetings.

Another example would be when the 439 Express Pie-IX bus was extended to Cégep Marie-Victorin. When this happened, a key bus route for many people in Montreal-North, the 69 Gouin, was rerouted to continue further along Henri-Bourassa. In its place, the 439 would run. The problem is that the 439 goes to a different Métro station, on a completely different line. Therefore, when I boarded the bus a week after the changes had been implemented, roughly half the passengers were confused about the bus they were on. This is despite the STM installing identical signs at every single bus stop along the 69. Users were frustrated to learn that their bus route had changed and thought there was no 69 anymore. If this situation happened in other boroughs, such as Île-des-Soeurs, there probably would have been news articles about it. However, many of these riders are captive, and have no choice to take public transport, or thought to be. In fact, Montreal North is one of the areas that the STM had lost a great amount of ridership (Nick C. et al. 2020). Therefore, even in areas where ridership is thought to be captive, good signage is still important.

The installed sign at every stop of the 69 Gouin announcing its reroute in Montréal North (STM).

However, the issue was that at a particular bus stop, Lacordaire/Henri-Bourassa to be exact, the bus stop was moved across the intersection with the same name. The problem is that there was no sign indicating that the 69 no longer stopped at that specific stop. Preferably, an arrow should have been installed to direct transit users across the intersection to the new stop. Ideally the sign would also have a zoomed-in diagram of the intersection.

Mock of a possible sign.

The issue is also not limited to that stop. In fact, it was not clear which alternatives were offered to users wanting to continue their travel to Henri-Bourassa and beyond. There were no signs inviting users to take the 439 at the ex-69 bus stops, and then transfer at one of the handful of stops to the 69. There were also no signs informing users that they could take the 49 to go to Henri-Bourassa Métro station. It was probably so bad, that a resident had installed this very informal sign on several stops along Maurice-Duplessis.

An ad hoc sign installed presumably by a resident indicating which bus to take that will go to Henri-Bourassa station.

Exo also has its fair share of problems. For example, it had shuttered its Twitter accounts announcing in detail which bus departures were cancelled, due to the lack of a member of staff, lack of available vehicles, etc. Therefore, if you go on their website and click on Schedules & Service Status, and then click bus under the Customer Notices page, it brings you to this page. It does not show the user any status, just upcoming notices about the exo network as a whole.

This page appears when you click on Service Status, and then under Customer Notices, click on Bus on exo's website.

To access the service status of the bus, the user actually must click on Schedules & Service Status, then click on Bus Schedules. Already this is confusing, because the user is not searching for the schedule, but the status of the service. Then on the left sidebar, the user must click on Service Status. Then, the user must click on Bus. The user will finally end up on this page.

This page appears when you click on Service Status, and then click Bus Schedules, and finally on Service status on the left sidebar.

But again, the issue is that the user must know their bus route in advance. The user wants to search by sector, and by list? No, it's impossible. On top of that, it's also poorly designed. If the user enters a route and presses enter right away, it will display an error. Instead, the user must wait until a dropdown list appears when they enter a number, and then click on the route. This caused me, to think at first that this tool did not work.

Again, this is entirely in the agency's control. They can improve this page quickly, and make it more user friendly, but also more accessible. At first, I didn't even notice that service status was available on the front page, since it was not prominently separated from the rest of the information. On top of that, the user has to scroll down to even see the service status page. At first, I thought it was only for trains, but then I noticed a small button for buses as well.

Perhaps exo could put it at the top of the page, with a notification-like red circle with the number of service status messages available to better grab the user's attention. On top of that, they could add the service status more prominently to each bus route page and add an attention sign to the list of the bus routes, if there is a service modification. This is very similar to how the MBTA function. See MBTA's bus route page here.

A route page on MBTA's website, clearly displaying the service status at the top of the page.

These few examples display to me the need to have service modifications/changes better communicated to transit customers. That is why in this article, I had chosen two particular cases and focus on them to provide high quality signage. One of these cases will be for the upcoming exo Lucien-L'Allier train station shutdown and the REM planned/unplanned substitute bus service plan.