Montréal has been elected host city of the 62nd International Association of Public Transport (UITP) World Congress and Mobility and City Transport Exhibition. The event will be held in 2017, the year of Montréal’s 375th anniversary. The UITP’s decision can be attributed to the combined efforts of the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT), the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), Montréal’s Palais des congrès and Tourisme Montréal. The news was announced in Hamburg, Germany by the UITP’s Executive Board.
The congress will be held from May 13 to 17, 2017 and will attract over 9,500 delegates and visitors from more than 80 countries, as well as 350 exhibitors.
As a finalist alongside Brisbane, Australia and Seoul, South Korea, Montréal was chosen to host the congress, which is held every two years in cities where sustainable mobility plays an important role. Over the course of five days, many major international players in the public transit field will take part in training and networking activities as well as an exhibition at Montréal’s Palais des congrès. The congress will also include a component that will be open to the public.
“Montréal has the most frequent users of public transit in North America and we are working to become nothing less than the best public transportation agency in the world in our category,” said Michel Labrecque, chairman of the STM Board of Directors “Considering all the projects that will bear fruit by 2017, the AZUR metro cars, our new hybrid and electric buses, real-time information and the growing number of reserved lanes, Montréal was clearly the ideal city to host this congress.”
The International Association of Public Transport is the organization for public transport authorities and operators. It represents an international network of 3,400 members from 92 countries. The UITP has a main office in Brussels and ten regional and liaison offices across the world. The next UITP congresses will be held in Geneva, Switzerland next month and in Milan, Italy in 2015.