Six months after its introduction of the Reso Express Metropolitan (REM) service, which had sparked several complaints from customers, imposed its overhaul, the situation is settling down at Exo. The carrier claims to have seen an 80% reduction in complaints and an increase in traffic between 6 and 9% depending on the sector.
“We have a new network and, as in the majority of big projects, it's normal to have a change in habits. The more people know about the new network, the less dissatisfaction we've noticed and the more users we have,” transport agency spokesman Jean-Maxime Saint-Hilaire said in an interview. .
this summer, Press reported that Complaints from citizens are piling up on social networks as Exo buses can no longer cross the Samuel-de Champlain Bridge. The circuits have since been reorganized to serve the suburbs between them, connecting the REM to the city centre.
Several towns in the Le Richelaine/Roussillon sector were affected, including La Prairie, Candiac, Delson, as well as the entire region, including Chambly, Richelieu and Carignan. Users have decried the increase in connections, increase in travel times and generally more difficult routes after the redesign.
Few changes have been made since then. For example, timetables have been revised to accommodate educational institutions and CEGEPs, and the service perimeter of certain lines has been increased to serve more customers.
Fewer complaints, more users
Since these adjustments, complaints have decreased by 80% in both sectors within six months. In August 2023, at the time of the overhaul, there were 666 reports, while in the month of January 2024, only 127 consumers filed formal complaints.
Ridership was up 9% in Chambly-Richelieu-Carignan, from 14,122 to 15,365 trips, and 6% in Le Richelain/Roussillon from 33,378 to 35,443 trips. This data is taken for the week of January 29, 2024, and then compared to the week of January 30, 2023, a year ago.
The two zones have respective on-stop punctuality – i.e. the proportion of buses arriving at each station that are 5 minutes or less late – currently at 82.7% and 89.6%. Service delivery reached 99.95% and 98.67%.
Exo says it commissioned a recent survey to support this trend. The survey specifically confirmed, “Customers said they particularly appreciate the new bus lines that provide access to REM and suburban train stations, […] As well as the extended service hours of the new network,” the carrier maintains.
Exo's executive director of operations, Mark Rousseau, spoke Wednesday of the “significant improvement in reliability of the new bus network in six months.”
“Our network operations and planning teams, in collaboration with our partners, have worked hard to identify the perfect solutions to meet user demands. We continue to closely monitor performance indicators to continuously improve network reliability,” he said in a press release.
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