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Exo
An outbound train on the Mont-Saint-Hilaire Line (left); An Exo commuter bus in Downtown Montreal (right)
Exo train network symbolExo bus network symbol
Overview
Locale	Greater Montreal
Transit type	Commuter rail Bus service Paratransit On-demand transit
Number of lines	5 (commuter rail) 219 (bus)
Number of stations	52 rail stations 11 bus terminuses
Annual ridership	44,737,400 (bus) 6,147,995 (commuter rail) 652,719 (paratransit) 69,164 (on demand) (2023)
Chief executive	Sylvain Yelle
Headquarters	700 rue de la Gauchetière, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Website	exo.quebec/en
Operation
Began operation	1859 (first section) January 1, 1996 (as AMT) June 1, 2017 (2017-06-01) (as Réseau de transport métropolitain/Exo)
Operator(s)	Alstom
Reporting marks	EXO
Infrastructure manager(s)	Canadian National Railway Canadian Pacific Kansas City Réseau de transport métropolitain
Number of vehicles	41 locomotives 206 passenger cars (2023)
Network map as of July 2023

Exo, stylized as exo and officially known as Réseau de transport métropolitain (French pronunciation: [ʁezo də tʁɑ̃spɔʁ metʁɔpɔlitɛ̃], RTM; English: Metropolitan Transportation Network), is a public transport system in Greater Montreal, including the Island of Montreal, Laval (Île Jésus), 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 Agence métropolitaine de transport 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 4,258.97 km (1,644.40 sq mi) area radiating from Montreal.

History

A regional transit agency in Greater Montreal was first created by the Quebec government in 1995 with the Agence métropolitain de transport, 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 (STCUM).

On June 1, 2017, the AMT was disbanded in a reorganization of metropolitan transit authorities. A new agency, the Réseau de transport métropolitain (RTM) was created to be responsible for operating commuter rail and suburban transit services.

In May 2018, the RTM adopted the Exo brand (stylized exo, all-lowercase), to represent the sub- and exurban nature of its service area.

Partners in transport

Exo's parent agency, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM), 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 Société de Transport de Montréal on the Island of Montreal, the Société de Transport de Laval in Laval, and the Réseau de transport de Longueuil for the urban agglomeration of Longueuil.

Commuter rail

Exo commuter rail (reporting marks EXO) is a network of five radial commuter train lines serving the Greater Montreal area, operated by Alstom, using trackage owned by Exo as well as by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.

Exo's commuter trains are its highest-profile division. It uses diesel-electric push-pull trains. The Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Mascouche lines run on Canadian National trackage and operate out of Central Station, while the Vaudreuil-Hudson, Saint-Jérôme, and Candiac lines run on Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) trackage and operate out of Lucien L'Allier terminus, beside the historic Windsor Station. The Saint-Jérôme line also runs on CPKC trackage and on Exo's own trackage between Sainte-Thérèse and Saint-Jérôme.

Operation of all commuter rail was provided by contract to CN and CP (on their respective rail networks) until June 30, 2017. Operations were taken over by Alstom (then Bombardier Transportation) beginning July 1, 2017, on an 8-year contract.

Fares

Exo services operate within the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM)'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 (smoothing). As of July 2024, Exo commuter rail and certain bus sectors still have these unique fares.

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.

Ridership

In 2018, Exo carried 174,710 passengers on a typical weekday — 77,210 on the trains and 97,500 by commuter bus, including adapted transport.

Number of Passenger Trips (2023)

Rail lines
Vaudreuil–Hudson line	2,263,792
Saint-Jérôme line	2,085,468
Mont-Saint-Hilaire line	780,760
Candiac line	677,144
Mascouche line	340,861
Subtotal — Rail lines	6,147,995
Bus routes
Exo North Shore buses	8,217,932
Exo South Shore buses	6,737,806
Exo Paratransit	652,719
Transit on demand	69,164
Subtotal — Bus system	15,677,621
Total — Exo System	21,825,616

See also

• Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain
• Public transport in Canada

References

1. ^ "Rapport annuel 2023" (PDF). Retrieved 2024-08-27.
2. Décarie, Jean-Philippe (2017-05-15). "L'objectif de la mobilité intégrée" [The Objective of Integrated Mobility]. La Presse (in French). Retrieved 2024-09-03.
3. "Status, mandates and territory". Exo. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
4. Act respecting the Réseau de transport métropolitain (RLRQ, c. R-25.01, section 3)
5. "À propos" [About] (in French). Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
6. Barrieau, Pierre. "L'Évolution des trains de banlieue montréalais : 170 ans de service (1847 - 2017)" [The Evolution of Montreal Suburban Rail: 170 Years of Service (1847 - 2017)] (PDF) (in French). Université de Québec à Montréal.
7. "Nouvelle gouvernance dans les transports collectifs" [New governance in public transit] (Press release) (in French). Réseau de transport métropolitain. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
8. "Le Réseau de transport métropolitain devient exo" [The Réseau de transport métropolitain becomes exo] (in French). Exo. 2018-05-23. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
9. "Bombardier aux commandes des trains de banlieue du Réseau de transport métropolitain" [Bombarider in the driver's cab of the Réseau de transport métropolitain's commuter trains] (in French). Réseau de transport métropolitan. 2017-06-22. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
10. "The challenge of coordinating train traffic in winter". Exo. 2019-01-03. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
11. "The challenge of coordinating train traffic in winter". Exo. 2019-01-03. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
12. Agence QMI (2017-07-03). "Retour à la normale sur le réseau de trains de banlieue" [Back to normal on the commuter train network] (in French). TVA Nouvelles. Retrieved 2024-11-29.
13. "À propos" [About us] (in French). Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
14. "Fare reform". Exo. Retrieved 2024-12-10.
15. "Refonte tarifaire" [Fare reform]. Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (in French). Retrieved 2024-12-10.
16. "Fare schedule: Public transit. Fares in effect starting July 1, 2024" (PDF). Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain. Retrieved 2024-12-10.

External links

• Official website

v t e Exo commuter rail lines and stations
Vaudreuil–Hudson	Lucien-L'Allier Vendôme Montréal-Ouest Lachine Dorval Pine Beach Valois Pointe-Claire Cedar Park Beaconsfield Beaurepaire Baie-D'Urfé Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Île-Perrot Pincourt-Terrasse-Vaudreuil Dorion Vaudreuil Hudson
Saint-Jérôme	Lucien-L'Allier Vendôme Montréal-Ouest Parc Chabanel Bois-de-Boulogne De La Concorde Vimont Sainte-Rose Rosemère Sainte-Thérèse Blainville Mirabel Saint-Jérôme
Mont-Saint-Hilaire	Central Station Saint-Lambert Longueuil–Saint-Hubert Saint-Bruno Saint-Basile-le-Grand McMasterville Mont-Saint-Hilaire
Candiac	Lucien-L'Allier Vendôme Montréal-Ouest Du Canal LaSalle Sainte-Catherine Saint-Constant Delson Candiac
Mascouche	Central Station Ahuntsic Sauvé Saint-Michel–Montréal-Nord Saint-Léonard–Montréal-Nord Anjou Rivière-des-Prairies Pointe-aux-Trembles Repentigny Terrebonne Mascouche
Exo bus services ARTM park and ride lots Opus card Deux-Montagnes line (former)

v t e Public transport
Bus service	Bus driver list Bus rapid transit Express bus Guided bus Trackless Tram Intercity bus Open top bus Charabanc Public light bus Rail replacement bus Share taxi/Taxibus Marshrutka Pesero Shuttle bus Transit bus Trolleybus
Rail	Passenger rail terminology glossary Airport rail link Commuter rail Elevated railway Funicular Heritage railway Heritage streetcar High-speed rail Higher-speed rail Inter-city rail Interurban Maglev Monorail Narrow-gauge railway People mover Railbus Metro/Rapid Transit Medium-capacity rail system Rubber-tyred metro Regional rail Street running Suspension railway Tram Cable car Horsecar Light rail Tram-train
Vehicles for hire	Auto rickshaw taxi Boda boda Combination bus Cycle rickshaw Demand-responsive transport Microtransit Paratransit Dollar van Dolmuş Hackney carriage Jeepney Limousine Motorcycle taxi Marshrutka Nanny van Personal rapid transit Pesero Public light bus Pulled rickshaw Share taxi Songthaew Taxi Tuk tuk
Carpooling	Car jockey Flexible carpooling Real-time ridesharing Slugging Vanpool
Ship	Cable ferry Ferry Gondola Hovercraft Hydrofoil Ocean liner Vaporetto Water taxi
Cable	Aerial tramway Cable ferry Cable railway Elevator Funicular Gondola lift bicable tricable Inclined elevator
Other transport	Airline Airliner Carsharing Bicycle-sharing Scooter-sharing Elevator Escalator Horse-drawn vehicle Hyperloop Inclined elevator Moving walkway Personal transporter Robotaxi Shweeb Slope car Trackless train Vactrain
Locations	Airport Bus bulb Bus garage Bus lane Bus stand Bus station Bus stop Bus turnout (bus bay) Dry dock Ferry terminal Hangar Harbor Interchange station Kassel kerb Layover Metro station Park and ride Port Queue jump Taxicab stand Train station Tram stop Transit mall Transport hub
Ticketing and fares	Automated fare collection Bus advertising Contract of carriage Dead mileage Exit fare Fare avoidance Fare capping Fare evasion Free public transport Free travel pass Integrated ticketing Manual fare collection Money train Paid area Penalty fare Proof-of-payment Reduced fare program Transfer Transit pass
Routing	Circle route Cross-city route Network length Non-revenue track Radial route Transport network
Facilities	Checked baggage First class Sleeper Standing passenger Travel class
Scheduling	Bus bunching Clock-face scheduling Headway Night (owl) service On-time performance Public transport timetable Short turn
Politics	Airport security Complete streets Green transport hierarchy Farebox recovery ratio Rail subsidies Security Street hierarchy Transit district Transit police Transportation authority Transportation demand management Transportation planning Transit-oriented development (TOD)
Technology and signage	Destination sign Passenger information system Platform display Platform screen doors Smart cards CIPURSE Calypso Ticket machine Timetable Transit map
Other topics	Boarding Bus rapid transit creep Crush load Dwell time Hail and ride Land transport Outline of transport Passenger load factor Public good Request stop Service Sustainable transport Timing point Transport economics Micromobility
Transport portal

• Exo (public transit)
• Railway companies established in 2017
• 1859 establishments in Canada East
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