Montreal, March 13, 2026 – An anonymous STM bus driver has finally spoken out, and what he describes isn’t just “a bad day on the job.” It’s a daily nightmare that’s been getting worse for years – and nobody at the top seems to give a damn. In a bombshell interview with Le Journal de Montréal, the veteran chauffeur (using the pseudonym Martin) lays it all out: passengers spit on drivers, blast loud phone calls and videos right behind the wheel, punch the protective plexiglass, and turn buses into chaos zones, especially on school routes. “It’s part of our daily life,” he says. “When you have a day where nothing happens, you say: ‘Yes! We made it through that one.’“ddf484 He details the worst offenders: people yapping loudly on cellphones from seats reserved for those with reduced mobility. Others crank music or force everyone to hear their TikToks and Netflix shows – ignoring the signs that clearly say “headphones only.” The plexiglass barriers, installed during COVID, now take punches from angry riders. And on certain lines near public schools? Pure mayhem – kids throwing snowballs inside the bus, shoving to dodge fares, older students bullying younger ones while school staff just wave them on with a sarcastic “good luck.” “This has been getting worse for at least five years,” Martin adds. “It’s not just COVID’s fault – people are more individualistic, stuck in their bubble, and it distracts us from driving safely.” He even picks quieter private-school routes to avoid the drama. STM didn’t bother replying to the newspaper’s request for comment. Surprise, surprise. But here’s the part that should make every rider furious: while this incivility runs rampant and drivers live in fear, the STM and its overseeing body, the ARTM, keep jacking up prices year after year for the exact same broken service. Just last July (2025), monthly passes in Zone A (the island of Montreal) jumped from $100 to $104.50 – a roughly 4-5% effective hike in some cases. Another 3% average increase is already baked in for July 2026. Single rides stay at $3.75 for now, but everything else keeps climbing while service reliability tanks, buses feel unsafe, and basic respect disappears.f92cd8 This isn’t “indexation” or “economic reality.” It’s charging more for the same bullshit: overcrowded, unreliable buses where drivers are treated like punching bags and passengers act like they own the place. The STM’s 2026 budget talks about “cost cuts” and “maintaining service levels,” but the reality on the ground – as this driver courageously exposed – shows the opposite. Nobody’s fixing it. Not the STM brass hiding behind “no comment.” Not the politicians who love photo-ops but never ride these routes. And certainly not the entitled riders who think blasting their phone at full volume or spitting is their god-given right. This behavior shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere – let alone in a city that relies on public transit. The message is clear: STM will keep raising fares every New Year like clockwork, delivering the same declining service and zero accountability for the chaos. Riders are expected to suck it up and pay more to be disrespected. If you’re tired of getting screwed by a system that doesn’t care about the people actually using it, you’re not alone. The driver who spoke up called a spade a spade. The rest of us should demand the same – real enforcement against incivility, actual service improvements, and an end to the endless price gouging. Until then, same old story in Quebec’s biggest transit network: pay more, get less, and deal with the disrespect. Nothing changes. And that’s exactly the problem.