STO Ridership Grows

The Société de transport de l’Outaouais (STO) has seen an average growth of 3.7% in its ridership since the beginning of 2011, reaching a peak of 5.5% in June and 6.5% in July.

“This is very good performance,” stated STO Chairman Patrice Martin happily. “We have not seen such a significant rise since 2008 when oil prices skyrocketed, along with gas prices at the pump, and commuters decided to trade their vehicles for the bus.”

Since the beginning of the year, sales of the STO’s public transit passes have also gone up by an average of 4.4%. In particular, sales of adult passes alone rose by 5%. “This is a clear sign of growing customer loyalty among our adult, student and senior clientele,” added Mr. Martin.

Besides the cost of fuel, which has once again risen steeply over the past few months and has very likely encouraged riders to use public transit, the STO also attributes this performance to a number of actions to make public transit more appealing to the public. “Introducing Plani-Bus last November certainly provided a tool that helped encourage this growth by making it easier to plan bus travel,” explained the STO’s chairman. “The STO’s desire to continue to make the system more accessible, the variety of transit passes offered to respond to the needs of different types of clienteles (Family Fare, Zap, etc.), and investments in new services have also had a positive effect on ridership.”

As of August 29, the start of the school year also means more enhanced services, including improved service in the Plateau neighbourhood with the creation of bus route 24, additional trips on various routes and new arrangements on the system, such as the Allumettières terminus and incentive parking facility that will offer about 100 additional parking spaces in the city’s western sector.

“Customer satisfaction is still our number one motivation, encouraging us to introduce different measures to address this aspect and to continue to offer quality services for the public,” concluded Mr. Martin.

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