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It’s something that commuters can depend on: you can’t depend on your buses when the first snow of the season hits.

With a thin layer of snow on the ground Tuesday morning, frustrated commuters in St-Laurent, the West Island, LaSalle, Rivière-des-Prairies and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce complained about buses arriving later than usual, or not at all in some cases.

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Société de transport de Montréal spokesperson Amélie Régis said when the first snow hits before people get a chance to put winter tires on their cars, buses are also affected.

“There were lots of accidents this morning, and buses have to follow the traffic flow, unfortunately,” Régis said. “The first snow always surprises people a bit. Since it’s before Dec. 15 (when winter tires are mandatory), a lot of people didn’t get their tires on and were going slower than usual.”

One specific neighbourhood wasn’t worse than others, but the STM noticed a general slowdown of its entire bus network.

Although buses don’t have winter tires, Régis said they don’t have trouble in snowy conditions. In mid-November, they are all equipped with what are called traction tires that allow them to grip better in winter weather.

Here is a sampling of some frustrated commuters:

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