Bleak picture in update from traffic planners
Train service disruptions, parking spot reductions at bus terminal add to woes
Major construction projects will once again cause major gridlock in late summer and fall, but there’s more bad news: those projects are now also hampering public transit users.
Traffic planners in the region met the media Tuesday to give their annual rundown on major projects before the back-to-school period. This year, there was a new player at the table, the Réseau express métropolitain. The five-year construction period for the city’s new $6.3-billion driverless electric train to link the downtown core to the South Shore, Deux-Montagnes, the West Island and the Trudeau airport is just getting underway. However, it’s already causing major disruptions for public transit users.
Starting this fall, 500 of the roughly 1,500 parking spaces at the South Shore Panama bus terminal will be eliminated so workers can build a temporary bus terminal while the main terminal is demolished and converted into a train station. Also this fall, half of McGill College Ave. will close between Ste-Catherine St. and de Maisonneuve Blvd. for the construction of the REM’s McGill station, which will link to the métro’s Green Line. The work will last at least 14 months.
Already this spring, work on the Canora and Mount Royal stations forced the closure of one of two tracks leading to the tunnel. That forced the cancellation of three trains per day and all weekend trains through the tunnel. Affected users have been offered passes with 10 free trips so they can try different public transit options. Users of the Deux Montagnes line can also benefit from up to a 30 per cent rebate on their monthly passes.
While the interruptions in transit service are frustrating, planners still maintain that taking a bus or a train is the best way to commute through town.
“It’s still advantageous to take public transit, and even though we have interruptions on the Deux-Montagnes Line, that’s just one train line,” said Simon Charbonneau, a spokesperson for the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain, the regional body that governs transit planning. “We diminished the frequency, but you’re still better off taking public transit.”
There is more bad news: starting in 2020, the Deux-Montagnes train line will be out of service between Central Station and the Du Ruisseau station for a period of at least two years, and planners still have not come up with a plan to offer alternative transit options for the nearly 40,000 daily riders who rely on the Mascouche and Deux-Montagnes train lines.
Traffic planners will be holding a forum later this year and inviting the public to give their input on how best to provide transit alternatives for the two-year period the southern portion of the Deux-Montagnes Line will be out of service.
Charbonneau said there are several attenuation measures being studied and the agency aims to provide users with a comprehensive solution by the fall of 2019.
As for the rest of the road network, the Turcot Interchange reconstruction and the construction of the new Champlain Bridge are causing several long-term closures.
This summer, one lane of traffic was closed from the Turcot Interchange to the Notre-Damede-Grâce tunnel and will reopen in November.
The Sherbrooke St. entrance to the northbound Décarie Expressway is closed, and will remain so until sometime next month. The Sherbrooke St. exit off the northbound Décarie will reopen in October.
Work on the Champlain Bridge will force the closure of the Atwater Ave. entrance and exit off Highway 15 North for two months starting in September. The Highway 15 North exit for Nuns’ Island and the Bonaventure Expressway will also close for two months in October, and traffic will be rerouted to Gaétan Laberge Blvd.
But there is some good news: the city’s promised mobility squad is expected to be up and running soon, with a formal announcement set for Wednesday. Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante pledged the squad will help ease at least some of the pain caused by construction.
It’s still advantageous to take public transit, and even though we have interruptions on the Deux-Montagnes Line.