2023-10-01 09:00:00
A resident of Saint-Georges, in Beauce, Amélie Carrier suffers from optic nerve atrophy which reduces her distance vision. For her work as a reviser and author, she uses a television machine which enlarges the characters. “But to get around outside, I have a white cane, so I never took my driving license. I don’t think they would have accepted me,” she jokes.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Since the Saint-Georges–Québec bus route disappeared on March 31, she has less heart to laugh about it.
“It weighs more on me not to be able to drive,” said the woman who used this service two or three times a month, often to catch the bus to Montreal. There remains carpooling, whose schedules do not always work.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY AMÉLIE CARRIER
Amélie Carrier
When, at the age of 32, you asked your parents to take you to Quebec… Sometimes, I feel like I’m losing things that I had managed to gain.
Amélie Carrier
When Autobus Breton announced the cessation of its intercity service for the first time, in 2018, Ms. Carrier launched a petition which collected nearly 900 signatures and several testimonies from users, including the elderly, the sick and the immigrant workers. A support program financed by Quebec and the MRCs then made it possible to maintain the service, but at the end of 2022, it was no longer enough. And the new petition launched by Ms. Carrier, which has nevertheless collected more than 1,500 signatures, has changed nothing. The Beauceron carrier ended this service which “could no longer finance itself”, it indicated on its Facebook page in the spring.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY AMÉLIE CARRIER
Amélie Carrier in 2018, after her first petition helped maintain the Saint-Georges–Québec connection.
Less service
If no other connection has disappeared after Saint-Georges–Québec, several are less served than before. Although there are no official statistics, everyone sees this.
“We have started to lose a lot of services since the pandemic, and that is not coming back,” denounces Sarah V. Doyon, general director of Trajectoire Québec, an association which campaigns for the development of public transport.
95% of the lines are repeated. On the other hand, for frequencies, there are fewer than in 2019.
Luc Lafrance, CEO of the Bus Transport Federation
Ridership has decreased between Quebec and Montreal and “also on the other lines, namely to Abitibi, the North Shore, Lac-Saint-Jean, Gaspésie”, perhaps due to teleworking and meetings in line, says the president and CEO of the Federation of Bus Transporters, Luc Lafrance.
At the Commission des transports du Québec (CTQ), the administrative tribunal where carriers must submit their changes to schedules and routes, we also notice this.
Some have “reduced the number of departures per day and others serve certain points less often,” observes Me Marie-Andrée Gagnon-Cloutier, legal advisor to the CTQ. “Or, in small villages where fewer people were boarding, they ask for permit modifications so they can no longer pass through there. We see all kinds of changes […] to try to make up for their shortfall. »
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
The difficulty of traveling between regions concerns members of the Association of Rural Collective Transport of Quebec.
Journeys that do not dock
However, interurban transportation is “a need everywhere,” underlines the president of the Association of Rural Collective Transport of Quebec (ATCRQ), André Lavoie. Its members are MRCs that offer local public transportation, but the difficulty of traveling between regions concerns them.
“That’s why we talk about transportation systems: all of this is supposed to be interconnected. It’s not necessarily interrelated,” laments Mr. Lavoie.
In my opinion, leaving Matane to go to Gatineau, it’s better to drag a tent!
André Lavoie, president of the ATCRQ
We did the test on the Orléans Express site, which serves these two cities. The trip was “no longer available” for the day you searched, the results page indicated. However, a Matane-Gatineau trip with Orléans Express was offered on the Busbud ticket sales site. The duration was 25 hours 40 minutes, with an 11 hour stop in Montreal. There was no suggestion of a campsite, but it could be useful, because as carriers point out on their sites, “some stations are closed at night”.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Carriers, which are private companies, have no obligation to agree among themselves to harmonize their services.
Some trips by coach are really much longer than by car, or even impossible to make during the day.
Since carrier schedules are approved by the CTQ, it can oppose requests for modifications that would make the situation worse, by extending a transfer by 24 hours, for example. “It is certain that it cannot pass like a letter in the post because it raises questions for users,” indicates the secretary of the Commission, Me Hélène Chouinard.
Carriers, which are private companies, however, have no obligation to agree among themselves to coordinate their services. Certain journeys combining several carriers therefore inflict serious delays on passengers.
“Finally, we realize that even between Montreal and Quebec, the offer we have is not glorious. And it’s even worse on less paying lines. We really need to rethink the entire model,” argues the CEO of Trajectoire Québec.
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