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Despite major investments to improve the reliability and comfort of its buses, the Société de transport de Montréal has seen bus ridership plummet in the last few years, according to figures obtained by the Montreal Gazette in an access-to-information request.

The findings come as most major cities in North America are also struggling with declining or stagnating numbers. The request was for bus ridership numbers over the last 10 years, but the STM only provided data spanning 2012 to 2017, saying statistics for previous years were not available.

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The findings show a steep overall decline of bus ridership by 13.32 per cent in that period, with the biggest drop in 2015, when ridership plummeted 6.38 per cent. From 2012 to 2017, the STM’s bus ridership dropped by more than 34 million trips per year.

“It’s alarming,” said François Pepin, the president of the lobby group Trajectoire Québec.