Street lamps to stay dark for a while yet
Q Your April 24, 2017 column kindly answered a question of mine about the high number of non-functioning street lights on Highway 20 all through the West Island and into the city.
(Transport Quebec spokesperson) Sarah Bensadoun said that they should be functioning again by June 21. On my drive through that stretch last week, I saw no improvement. I wonder why the problem continues on Highway 20? Could it be that the lights are the responsibility of the boroughs and not the province? The style of street lights seems to change around borough borders.
I love how the traffic sound barriers on the 20 through Lachine have been painted very attractively. I just wish they could fix the lights, too!
— Gregg Blachford, Plateau-Mont-Royal
A As mentioned in the April column, the street lights are part of a project to replace and upgrade light standards across the island. However, the project has been delayed until the end of the year, so those areas will stay dark for a few months still. The project has been undertaken by Transport Quebec and includes the following spots:
Highway 20, between VilleSt-Pierre and the Turcot Interchange;
Highway 15 between De La Verendrye and Decarie;
The Metropolitan Expressway between St-Laurent and Highway 15 North;
Côte-de-Liesse Expressway between the Dorval Circle and Highway 40;
Highway 138 between the Mercier Bridge and the St-Pierre Interchange.
Last week, Bensadoun said the street light replacement program has been delayed for several reasons. For one, the multitude of construction projects going on right now in the city would make it quite inconvenient for crews to close down large sections of highways to replace the lights.
“We didn’t want to hinder traffic more than what is necessary,” she explained, adding that work on the street lamps will resume when construction projects end in late October.
There have also been several serious accidents along the network that affected other street lights. That meant Transport Quebec had to dispatch crews to do emergency replacement of street lights, and those crews were therefore not available to work on the other projects which, Bensadoun explained, were not as urgent.
Q I don’t understand why bus 485 does not stop at the Gare Pointe-Claire commuter train stop. This stop connects with the commuter train and has a large parking lot.
I know that express buses have fewer stops, but this one is so important and so easy to stop at (short ramp off Highway 20) that it would be beneficial to many to use it.
I wrote to the Société de transport de Montréal many months ago and never received an answer, not even an acknowledgment.
If they have reasons against this, I would like to know what they are.
— Claude Renaud, Pointe Claire
A The 485 express bus was created in 2012 expressly to serve the Pierrefonds sector, by providing quicker access to downtown, explained STM spokesperson Isabelle-Alice Tremblay. It is one of the measures put in place to encourage people to take public transit during the five-year construction project to rebuild the Turcot Interchange.
The line, which starts at Pierrefonds Blvd. at the corner of Palomino St., has a limited number of stops in the West Island before it stops at the LionelGroulx métro station.
It also stops at the Dorval train station and bus loop, which Tremblay said is more of a multi-modal station than Pointe-Claire. Tremblay pointed out that the Pointe-Claire station is well served by four other bus lines, three of which are express buses.
While the STM is aware there is demand to get to the PointeClaire train station, the goal of the line was really to serve Pierrefonds and Pointe-Claire residents going to the métro, Tremblay said.
Adding a stop at the PointeClaire station could increase the number of commuters on the line who would not be using it to get downtown. The stop would also add a significant amount of time to the bus route, she said. Do you have a question for Squeaky Wheels? Ask it here: