The métro breaks down more often, buses are dirtier, all due to a lack of maintenance employees, Montreal’s opposition party charged Tuesday.
Speaking at a plenary session of city council, Marie-Claude Léonard, the CEO of the city’s transit agency, defended cuts made in recent years to balance the budget,
Figures obtained by opposition Ensemble Montréal and provided to the Montreal Gazette show the transit agency’s number of mechanics dipped to 411 in 2023, compared with 428 in 2021. The number of overtime hours worked by maintenance employees dipped last year, to levels lower than they were in 2018, according to the figures.

One of the consequences of the cuts has been buses being cleaned less often