If you happen to’ve ever stepped onto a Montreal metro platform and questioned why that escalator has been taped off for 3 months, or why the ceiling in one of many older stations appears prefer it belongs in an deserted constructing, the STM‘s new annual report has your reply.
In line with the native transit system’s 2025 annual report launched final week, the STM community’s infrastructure is now a mean of 48 years outdated. When the STM went by its newest stock, 46 p.c of metro belongings got here again rated in poor or very poor situation.
For context, that covers 35 of the 68 stations throughout your complete community, 36 p.c of the tunnels, and 60 p.c of what the report calls auxiliary buildings (issues like air flow techniques, electrical tools, and the mechanical infrastructure most riders by no means take into consideration till one thing goes fallacious).
The “asset upkeep funding deficit” has now reached $7 billion. And whereas that quantity retains climbing, authorities funding has truly been going within the different route.
“The state of our infrastructure is changing into more and more crucial and requires main investments,” the STM wrote within the report.
That’s a part of why the STM ran a public consciousness marketing campaign final yr below the identify “Notre metro est indispensable.” The message was aimed squarely on the province and metropolis corridor, primarily making the case that the metro isn’t a nice-to-have and can’t hold operating on goodwill and patched-up components endlessly.
The trains themselves are a part of the issue. The MR-73 automobiles, the older ones that also run on the inexperienced, orange, and yellow traces, at the moment are 50 years outdated. Their reliability price is greater than ten instances decrease than the AZUR trains that got here after them. That hole exhibits up as extra breakdowns, extra delays, extra mornings the place the platform fills up as a result of one thing upstream has stopped shifting.
The STM says it has began early-stage planning for a alternative, however wants funding simply to get by the research.
None of this stopped the STM from closing 2025 with out a deficit, which is its personal type of achievement given the yr it had. As many Montrealers bear in mind, multiple strikes hit a number of divisions. In the meantime, worldwide scholar numbers dropped after modifications to federal immigration guidelines, and total ridership fell 6.6 p.c to 293.9 million journeys. The company nonetheless discovered $43 million in recurring financial savings by an ongoing cost-cutting plan, with a goal of $100 million whole by finish of 2026.
The ten-year capital funding wants for the system are pegged at $25.8 billion. Whether or not that cash materializes is a special query solely.