Navigating blind: River shuttles want earlier answers
[Press review ] As river shuttles continue to grow in popularity across the Greater Montreal area, Navark says it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage a public transit network without knowing what the next season will look like.
Navark, St. Lawrence Shipowners and Croisières AML are calling on the Quebec government to provide greater predictability. They are proposing a predictable multi-year operating framework and long-term, three- to five-year funding for river shuttle services. They also believe service schedules should be confirmed several months in advance.
For Normand Noël, captain and president of Navark, demand is not the issue. Quite the opposite. “Boats are increasingly full, and some passengers even have to be turned away during peak periods,” he says.
He estimates that ridership on Navark’s four routes is currently up approximately 5% to 10% compared with the same period last year, even though the season began nearly two weeks later than in previous years.
For its part, the ARTM says ridership across the Montreal network has more than doubled since 2022.
In 2025, ridership on the N4 and N5 routes connecting Montreal’s Old Port with Île Sainte-Hélène and Longueuil, operated by Croisières AML, increased by 39% and 32%, respectively. “These results are not solely related to tourism, but reflect a wide range of uses: commuting, access to the Old Port and Parc Jean-Drapeau, events, and connections with the metro and bus network,” the organization notes.
@ST:A season announced at the last minute
@R:Navark currently operates four routes in the Montreal area, including connections between Boucherville and Montreal’s Old Port, between Boucherville and Parc de la Promenade-Bellerive, as well as routes from Varennes and Pointe-aux-Trembles to the Old Port.
For Mr. Noël, the uncertainty begins long before the first boats set sail. This year, the network had to be set up in just a month and a half because funding was confirmed late. “Employee recruitment, crew training, vessel preparation and schedule planning all have to be completed quickly when government confirmations are delayed,” he explains.
Ideally, he would like to know the direction for the following season as early as November. Instead, decisions are sometimes not announced until April, even though service is expected to begin just a few weeks later, the president explains.
“If we knew by November, for example, it would help us plan and organize trips for May. Right now, sometimes we don’t find out until April.”
For Navark, a three- to five-year agreement would therefore make it possible to move away from short-term management toward genuine network planning.
This predictability would not only benefit the company, he argues. It would also make it easier for residents to incorporate river shuttle services into their daily routines.
