The city of Montreal will cut $155 million from its budget for 2009 to cope with the sagging economy, and $40 million of that will be cut from the transit corporation, Mayor Gérald Tremblay said Wednesday.

"The situation is more difficult than expected," Tremblay said.

The city will save $95 million by leaving vacant jobs unfilled, freezing some salaries and abandoning some as yet unspecified projects, the mayor said.

The city will also ask boroughs to find a way to cut $20 million from their budgets, without reducing services.

It's the $40-million cut to the transit corporation — that's four per cent of its budget — that has some people worried.

"How can you claim on one side that public transit is paramount in your city, then, as soon as you have a chance, cut the budget by four per cent," said Benoît Labonté, leader of the city's opposition party.

Tremblay admits it's a tall order. He's urging both the provincial and federal governments to make good on their promises to hand over billions of dollars they have promised for municipalities to fix crumbling roads, waterworks and sewers.

"All we are saying is we want the governments to finalize the agreements as soon as possible, so we can benefit and accelerate the investments in our infrastructures," Tremblay said.

Transit corporation spokeswoman Isabelle Tremblay said keeping its service running is still its main priority.

"Public transit is more and more important, and more specifically in an economic crisis, so we will do our best to maintain and continue our development of our service as well as the quality of it," she said

She said the corporation's board meets next week and will decide on ways to absorb the cuts.