Bixi expands beyond the island
Bixi is undergoing an unprecedented expansion to four new towns, including Sherbrooke.
This makes me curious. Is Bixi a service or a business? This item calls it an “organisme paramunicipal” – does this mean that Montreal will either be subsidizing Sherbrooke, or that any profit eventually accruing from operations in Sherbrooke will come back to Montreal?
EmilyG 10:40 on 2025-03-31 Permalink
I wish they had Bixi out here in the West Island. I would’ve thought maybe it could be a priority to get it out in the rest of the island of Montreal before expanding it to other places, but I don’t know how that works.
Jim 10:47 on 2025-03-31 Permalink
Good questions, I’m happy for all those places though, it’s a great ‘organism’! IMO would have preferred to see them expand more to the west on the island itself, still not that much in Lasalle – Lachine and beyond, except on the riverside.
Nicholas 11:22 on 2025-03-31 Permalink
There’s a confusing set of layers here, which I think I’m describing correctly. Bixi is owned by the city parking bureau, who runs it. CycloChrome is based in the same building near the Rosemont bus barns and does the bike repairs. Cycles Devinci in Saguenay makes the bikes, which the cities buy. PBSC (Public Bike Share Company) was started by the city to do all this in 2007ish, but went bankrupt so the city bought the local assets and the rest was spun off, and is now owned by Lyft; Lyft is the provider of the Bixi app, that’s all, but in other regions they also operate the system.
Because Bixi is operated by Montreal, it can set the prices, locations of stations, number of bikes, and Montreal decides what to buy every year. The other cities operate on a contract basis. Westmount, the first non-Montreal partner, pays Bixi money every year to deploy a set number of stations and a proportionate number of bikes. The bikes obviously move around between cities but the docks and locations are chosen by Westmount. All the other cities that joined in are all buying in this way, from what I understand: they choose the locations and number of docks, and Bixi quotes a price.
So the reason there are no Bixis in the West Island is the West Island cities choose not to pay for it. There is a limit to the number of bikes the Davinci company can build, but I guarantee if Dorval or Beaconsfield wanted Bixis they could have them. (There used to be two stations in Dorval — one at the airport and one at the train station — to help with last mile connections, but I think that was sponsored by ADM.) At full summer build out there will be stations in Lachine right up to the Dorval border, which I’ve used. And iirc there are no cities on the island with Bixis other than Montreal, Westmount and maybe TMR? No CSL, Hampstead, Montreal West, let alone further cities.
To be fair to the cities, Pierrefonds and PAT don’t have Bixis either, even though they’re in the city; last year I used the last station in Ahuntsic, at Beausejour Park. I did a focus group a few years ago with Bixi and I said it’s not fair that cities can stunt growth of the system, that I can take transit anywhere on the island, but not Bixi, and that should be an Agglo responsibility. I don’t think Bixi disagrees, but as a city operator, they’re not going to pay to put Bixis in other cities. The best way to get Bixis there are for residents, business owners and, less importantly, customers/tourists to reach out to those cities and ask them to expand. Elections are this year, and I know expansions in Laval, Longueuil and elsewhere were due to municipal leaders prioritizing this.
EmilyG 11:50 on 2025-03-31 Permalink
Thanks.
(I am in Pierrefonds, technically part of Montreal.)
DeWolf 21:20 on 2025-03-31 Permalink
Bixi has plans to expand to Pierrefonds but the borough has never reached an agreement on where to put the stations. There’s a news story from 2023 if you Google it.
I seem to recall Dorval was also in negotiations with Bixi but can’t find any sources at the moment. Last summer there were Bixi stations right up to the Dorval-Lachine border. Dorval would have to enter one of the contract arrangements with Bixi that Nicholas describes.
Nicholas’ description is accurate except that I am pretty sure the parking bureau (now called the Agence de mobilité durable) has nothing to do with Bixi, which is an independent non-profit established by the city.
Incidentally, many people assume Bixi is somehow heavily subsidized but in fact the service is profitable, with the clarification that this only refers to the operations – the city pays for (and owns) all the stations and bikes.