Press releases published by Projet Montréal

Projet Montréal denounces the hostility of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and the Tremblay administration towards the idea of air conditioning all new wheeled vehicles.  “Users of public transport should be able to benefit from a quality of service comparable to what we now find quasi-standard in its competitor, the automobile.  If we want to convince more people to use public transportation, they must absolutely be air-conditioned,” declared Richard Bergeron, leader of Projet Montréal.  Today is the time to decide whether the next metros to run in Montreal will be air-conditioned because Montrealers will have to live with the choice for decades.  “Do we want to be hot on the metro for another 50 years?  Our answer is no and it appears that this is also the case for the majority of users.  And if Mayor Tremblay took the metro more often, he wouldn’t be able to deny the evidence”, declared Richard Bergeron.

“Public perspiration” on public transportation

During the last City Council session, Projet Montréal invited Montreal’s elected officials to think about the issue and preferred to take back its motion to continue the debate publicly rather than be sorely beaten by the majority.  Projet Montréal will take up the charge and continue to debate the question at the next Council.  “It’s about time the administration realizes that the users of public transport are not second class citizens.  They should have the right to benefit from a minimum of comfort and to not arrive at work sweaty”, indicated the Saind-Édouard District City Councillor, François Limoges.

The motion proposes that the STM include air conditioning in all new, wheeled vehicles.  According to our calculations, it is enough to take just one car off the road for the benefit of public transportation to justify (ecologically neutral) air-conditioning 3 busses.  But, because we are in Quebec, where there’s a season called winter, the air-conditioning would not be on all the time.  That’s why, in Montreal, taking one car off the road for the benefit of public transportation would allow for air-conditioning in not 3, but 12 busses!

“We will not be able to convince more people to use public transport if all we do is encumber our current system.  If it’s certain that the we must add to the services offered, we must not underestimate the quality of the experience when we take public transportation”, added Councilor François Limoges, a regular user of public transit.

Biased arguments at the expense of the quality of service

At the the press conference, point-by-point, the two Projet Montréal elected officials slammed the arguments brought up by the STM Vice-President, Marvin Rotrand during the last City Council Meeting.  Richard Bergeron qualified controlling the environmental footprint of the STM, which would generate more greenhouse gases if it goes the route of air-conditioning, as slanted.  “It’s completely defamatory to invoke such an argument when we know that the STM wants to electrify its network by 2025.  Air-conditioning would permit a marked augmentation of clientele.” Argued Richard Bergeron.  “Adding air-conditioning to the next tender for new metro cars would correspond to a 1.7 to 2.5% surcharge on the total bill, which was evaluated between 2 and 3 billion $, and an increase of 0.86% in energy operating costs.  We’re therefore talking about a marginal cost for purchase and for operation, so what are we waiting for?”

Also during the last Council Meeting, Marvin Rotrand said that the water discharges from air-conditioning units would create flooding on the decks.  “He wants to scare people.  We calculated that the maximum water discharge would be 7,000 liters of water during rush hours, equivalent to 7 cubic meters of water an hour.  Considering continuous service 24/24, 365 days a year, that would theoretically represent 61,320 cubic meters of water a year.  Now, according to the STM, “the total quantity of infiltration water that is pumped daily for the entire of the metro system was evaluated at more than 13.4 million liters”, equivalent to 4.9 million cubic meters a year.  Therefore, even with the worst-case scenario, air-conditioning would only increase the volume of water pumped in the metro by a mere 1.25%.  Listening to these arguments, you would think that everything we see in other cities is impossible in Montreal.  Can we ask Mr. Rotrand to stop fabricating fears and deceiving the population,” declared François Limoges.

François Limoges also destroyed Marvin Rotrand’s arguments according to which it would be impossible to air-condition a deep underground metro, that only metros that come to the surface can benefit from air conditioning and that air-conditioning busses isn’t efficient on small lines, because of frequent door opening.  “Marvin Rotrand should look at what is being done elsewhere in the world, and even in small cities like Gatineau, Ottawa and Terrebonne.  He would then know that the cities of New York, Chicago, Barcelona and even New Delhi have air-conditioned their entire networks.  That cities like London, Moscow and Paris, which have deep underground lines like ours, will very shortly have air-conditioned lines”, declared the St-Édouard Councilor.  As for the open door argument, it simply does not hold up.  Air-conditioned buses don’t have all their cold air  sucked out when the doors open.  You only need to go to New York to see this.  You would observe several Nova LFS buses—exactly the same as our low floor buses— that are fitted with the Carrier AC­353 air conditioning unit and 05G compressor, which are an option on this Saint-Eustache factory made model.