exo Announces a Significant Reduction in Its Projects and Investments (Translated)

Montréal, December 9, 2025 – In response to significant financial pressures affecting public transit in the Greater Montréal region, exo is announcing a substantial reduction in its projects and investments. This decision aims to optimize spending and focus resources on maintaining the assets required to deliver service safely. exo’s Capital Investment Program (CIP), currently being prepared for submission later this year, will be reduced from $2.5 billion to $1.9 billion over a 10-year period.

“Funding challenges for public transit are more critical than ever, and transit agencies must help address a shortfall amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. While exo is announcing today a reduction in its projects and investments, additional measures will need to be identified and implemented across the metropolitan region to address public transit funding challenges,” said Pierre Fortin, Chair of exo’s Board of Directors.

Prioritizing Asset Maintenance

“This announcement means that several projects will have to be postponed or cancelled, and that we will focus our investments on the maintenance required to ensure the safety of infrastructure and rolling stock,” said Marc Rousseau, Chief Executive Officer of exo. “We are aware of the impact these difficult choices will have on communities. Service delivery is, and will remain, at the heart of our priorities.”

The first optimization lever will consist of reducing exo’s investments and the number of projects. To achieve budgetary balance, several difficult but necessary decisions must be made by targeting a specific set of projects, including:

• Reduction of preliminary project studies;

• Postponement of the construction of garages required for electrification and a slowdown in electrification-related activities;

• Maintenance of a minimal maintenance plan, without major investment in rolling stock;

• Consolidation of technological investments around a digital optimization program.

Additional measures that are an integral part of the optimization plan will be presented in January, following the tabling of the budget and the CIP.

Sound Management of Staff and Public Funds

Since its creation, exo has proactively incorporated sound financial management and optimization into its practices to address funding challenges. Over the past several years, multiple measures have been implemented to optimize the budget, including:

• Reduction of the payroll;

• Review of the organizational structure;

• Optimization of office space;

• Adjustment of service levels since the pandemic;

• Reduction in the frequency of upgrade, maintenance, and security work at its sites, while always complying with applicable standards;

• Postponement or cancellation of technology projects and deferral of investments.

These measures have generated savings of several million dollars. In 2024 alone, exo achieved optimizations and recurring expense reductions totaling $17.1 million.

Furthermore, the efficiency of exo’s outsourced business model was clearly demonstrated in a report produced by the firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton on the performance of public transit organizations (PTOs). exo’s cost per service hour is 25% lower than elsewhere in the metropolitan region.

About exo

The second-largest public transit agency in the metropolitan region, exo efficiently and user-friendly transports riders across the North and South Shores. Its territory spans 4,000 km² and includes the 82 municipalities of the Montréal Metropolitan Community (CMM), as well as Saint-Jérôme and Kahnawake. Whether by train, bus, paratransit, or shared taxi, exo is firmly focused on the future, developing innovative and greener transportation solutions.