Commuters still in dark on tunnel closure

Authorities say they are formulating an alternate plan for commuters affected by the two-year closure of the Mount Royal Tunnel, but with 13 months to go, that plan is still a secret to most. Tens of thousands of commuters who rely on the Deux-Montagnes and the Mascouche train lines will have to find alternate means of travel starting in January 2020 because of work on the new Réseau express métropolitain — a $6.3-billion electric light-rail project that will take over the Deux-Montagnes Line, and connect it to the airport. The new network, which will come online in phases between 2021 and 2023, will also link the Champlain Bridge and the West Island. St-Laurent will be the converging point for most of the commuters, as the Deux-Montagnes Line — the region’s busiest commuter train with 30,000 daily passengers — will be stopped at the Du-Ruisseau station from January 2020 until early 2022. The Mascouche Line, which has 3,000 daily passengers, won’t go further than the Ahuntsic station over the same period. Alan DeSousa, the St-Laurent borough mayor, said he’d like to know a bit of the plans to accommodate those who will get off the train in his borough, but has so far heard very little from the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain, the region’s public-transit planning body. He said he’s worried about how his borough will accommodate what he believes will likely be a fleet of shuttle buses escorting people to a nearby métro station: either Côte-Vertu or Sauvé. “We’re talking about huge challenges because it will flood our community with scores upon scores of buses,” DeSousa said. “Depending on the route chosen, it could be problematic for our residential neighbourhoods. If that same traffic is routed to arterial roads, well, they are already quite congested, so that could be problematic.” He added that if Côte-Vertu métro station is chosen as the end point for the train riders, he’s concerned there may not be enough space in that station’s bus depot to accommodate the increased volume of buses. Speaking for the ARTM, Simon Charbonneau said the agency is working with its transit providers, including the Société de transport de Montréal, Exo and the REM to come up with solutions, but it is still too soon to provide details. “We have determined the strategy we’re going to take,” Charbonneau said. “Now we have to look at all the ramifications of this strategy: like where the buses will stop, what sort of parking and fare options we will put in place. “We’ll look at this over the course of 2019.” He said a public announcement would be made shortly. The ARTM and the REM held a forum downtown on Wednesday, attended by roughly 100 stakeholders, but rather than giving out information, the authorities were seeking information about what sort of alternate transit options commuters would like to see employed. REM spokesperson Jean-Vincent Lacroix said the goal of the forum is to come up with additional alternate measures that could be added to the plan already being worked on. Pierrefonds—Roxboro Borough Mayor Jim Beis said that, while his borough has so far worked well with the ARTM, he wishes the agency could be a little more forthcoming about the plans for 2020, because people who rely on the train to get to work, school and other destinations need to be able to plan their commutes. “I have said it clearly from the beginning, there hasn’t been adequate strategic planning in order for us to move forward in a reasonable amount of time, because you can’t be thinking of these things in the last minute,” Beis said.