Exo (public transit)
Exo, stylized as exo and officially known as the i=no, is a public transport system in Greater Montreal, including the Island of Montreal, Laval, and communities along both the North Shore of the Mille-Îles River and the South Shore of the St. Lawrence River. It was created on June 1, 2017, taking over Montreal's commuter rail services from the former i=no as well as bus and paratransit services from the various suburban municipal and intermunicipal transit agencies. Exo operates the second busiest such system in Canada after Toronto's GO Transit.
Exo's territory is concurrent with Montreal Metropolitan Community limits, with the addition of the Kahnawake First Nations reserve and the city of Saint-Jérôme. It serves a population of approximately 4 million people who make more than 174,000 trips daily in the area radiating from Montreal.
History
A regional transit agency in Greater Montreal was first created by the Quebec government in 1995 with the, with the mandate of developing, coordinating and promoting transit throughout the area; improve and develop the commuter rail network, and; encourage integration of different modes of transit. On December 20, 1996, the AMT took over responsibility of the commuter trains from the Société de transport de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal.On June 1, 2017, the AMT was disbanded in a reorganization of metropolitan transit authorities. A new agency, the was created to be responsible for operating commuter rail and suburban transit services.
In May 2018, the RTM adopted the Exo brand, to represent the sub- and exurban nature of its service area.
Partners in transport
Exo's parent agency, the, is charged with transportation planning for the Greater Montreal area.Exo operates commuter train service as well as the bus service outside of the three main population centres of Greater Montreal. In these areas service is provided by the on the Island of Montreal, the in Laval, and the for the urban agglomeration of Longueuil.
Buses
Exo runs multiple bus lines through its subsidiaries serving Montréal suburbs.Exo operates all commuter bus services for the North Shore and South Shore suburbs, excepting the cities of Longueuil and Laval, which have their own transit agencies.
These bus services are operated mostly through 13 bus terminals, of which most belong to Exo :
- Terminus La Prairie
- Terminus Châteauguay
- Terminus Georges-Gagné
- Terminus Montcalm-Candiac
- Terminus Repentigny
- Terminus Terrebonne
- Terminus Sainte-Julie
- Terminus Saint-Eustache
- Stationnement incitatif Beloeil
- Terminus Chambly
- Terminus Contrecoeur
Fares
Exo services operate within the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain 's integrated fare structure for Greater Montreal, which manages its fare schedule and fare zones.In 2022 the ARTM began a multi-year program of updating and simplifying the fare schedule. Through this process, and as the Réseau express métropolitain replaced some train and bus services, certain legacy fares were retained and new transitional fares were created, with the objective of slowly raising prices over time to match the simplified fare structure and then ultimately be phased out — a process called lissage. As of July 2024, Exo commuter rail and certain bus sectors still have these unique fares.