The Société de transport de Montréal is planning to install 23 new elevators across the métro system by 2025, in addition to nine that are already either planned or under construction, it announced on Tuesday.
The announcement came as the STM unveiled its accessibility development plan for 2016-2020. The STM currently has elevators in 11 of the métro system’s 68 stations, a number accessibility advocates have long denounced as too low.
Including the nine elevators already in the works, the new additions would bring the total of elevator-accessible métro stations to 41 by 2025. There will be 43 elevators in total in the métro network by then, including two planned for stations where elevators are already in place at Jean-Talon and Berri-UQAM.
Stations that already have elevators under construction or planned include Rosemont, Place-d’Armes, and Honoré-Beaugrand. The STM said 14 of the new elevators are scheduled to be operating by 2022, with the remaining nine to be in place by 2025.
In terms of bus service, the STM said it improved accessibility on 150 bus lines across the city since 2011, and roughly 55 per cent of its total bus fleet is now equipped with front door ramps for people in wheelchairs. It plans on having 81 per cent of its fleet equipped with the ramps by 2020.
The STM said it will spend $213 million on increasing accessibility between 2017 and 2022.
