STUCKINTRANSIT
Getting around the city by bus, métro and adapted transport can be both liberating and challenging for Montrealers in wheelchairs. Three of them give Jason Magder a first-hand look at how they navigate the STM’s system.
Linda Gauthier still remembers the thrill the first time she took the métro.
The network was brand new, and the city was abuzz with visitors heading to Expo 67.
“I was 10, and I took it to see Man and His World (the exhibition at Expo 67),” Gauthier said.
Gauthier, now 59, said riding the métro today is still a thrill, but for different reasons. For the last 20 years, she has been getting around the city in a wheelchair. Taking the métro means independence, and not having to rely on adapted transit buses or minivans and the many restrictions and delays that can come with the service.
“It’s exciting; it’s a taste of freedom,” Gauthier said while riding on the Orange Line toward Laval last month. “With the métro, you can get places fast.”
Martin Dion, 33, has been in a wheelchair for the last eight years. A Mascouche native who has muscular dystrophy, Dion moved to Montreal two years ago to be closer to hospitals and rehabilitation centres for appointments. He also trains at a gym four times per week.
“It’s important for me to do this,” he said.
With a permanent grin on his face, Dion said he loves to travel around the city to visit friends, go shopping or even just to see different places. Dion, who knows the layout of the city and the métro map by heart, said he wishes it were easier to get around on public transit without having to rely on adapted buses and minivan taxis run by the STM.
“I can’t really take the bus when there’s snow on the ground,” he said. “As soon as the snow melts, I’m on the bus almost all the time. I go all over the city.”
Carole Cartier, 56, is used to getting where she needs to go on her own with her car. Cartier, a former competitive basketball player, has spina bifida and has been in a wheelchair her whole life. Last year, she took the métro for the first time.
“It was my birthday outing with my boyfriend. What can I say? I’m a cheap date,” laughed the energetic Cartier, who has bright red hair with a blue streak on the side. “He just took me on the métro and I was very happy. I really enjoyed it, and would do it a lot more if there were more accessible métro stations.”
Cartier said since she moved apartments, she doesn’t have an indoor spot for her car and hasn’t yet found someone she can pay to clear snow off the vehicle, so in the winter she relies on public transit and adapted transport.
Gauthier, Dion and Cartier are among thousands of Montrealers who make daily trips on adapted transit. Recently, they agreed to allow a Montreal Gazette reporter to follow them on bus, métro and adapted transit trips.
Our day with Gauthier began in the morning after a light snowfall as a crew of city workers cleared the walkway in front of her groundfloor apartment on Rachel St. E. in Plateau-Mont-Royal.
“That’s a service we got that’s very useful,” said Gauthier, cofounder of Regroupement des activistes pour l’inclusion au Québec (RAPLIQ). “It’s necessary, because if there is snow on the walkway, or even on the side of the street, we can’t get onto the bus or van.”
The day began with frustration as Gauthier’s 10:15 a.m. reservation for an adapted van seemed to have been lost. She called back and politely pointed out to the operator that she had a reporter with her, and a van was found quickly. Gauthier was picked up around 10:30.
She said that experience was typical of the frustration people in wheelchairs face every day, because they can never just go out of their houses and travel somewhere. It takes a lot of planning, especially in the winter.
“You have to make a reservation 24 hours in advance, and you can’t really use the service to do any sort of errands, because you have to be at the place where you were dropped off for at least an hour, and you’re not allowed to carry any bags.”
When Gauthier was picked up by a grey minivan, the driver unfolded a ramp to allow her to roll into the area where the front passenger seat was removed. The driver fastened seatbelts to each of Gauthier’s back wheels and around her shoulders. They drove about 10 minutes from her house to get to the Rosemont métro station, passing two stations that are not accessible on the way. Still, Gauthier said she’s excited there is an accessible station so close to her home.
“In the summertime, I can just go out of my house and take my wheelchair straight to the métro,” said Gauthier, a former professional rumba dancer until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996.
At the Rosemont station’s entrance, Gauthier pushed the button to open the motorized swinging door and steered her chair inside, turning a sharp left to get to the elevator. It took her down to the ticket counter.
Not a regular user of the métro, she bought her ticket at the cash and made her way to the second elevator, which took her to the platform. Rosemont has two elevators to get to the platform from the street, but many of the accessible stations, like Lionel-Groulx and Snowdon, require passengers to take three elevators. If one of them breaks down, it can be a big problem, Gauthier explained.
“My heart races every time I press the button for the elevator,” she said. “If I get stuck, I have to figure out a Plan B. I have no Plan B.”
Because not many stations are accessible, passengers could be stranded at the platform if an elevator breaks down and it’s a far ride to the next accessible station.
“If they arrive at the station on the last train of the night and the elevator is down, the STM has to call the fire department,” Gauthier said. “Two or even three firefighters will have to carry the person in a wheelchair, and it can weigh up to 600 pounds with the person inside.”
She said it has happened to RAPLIQ members five or six times in recent years.
“It’s embarrassing, and an indignity.”
Dion said he had to be carried out of a métro station when he accidentally took the Green Line toward Honoré-Beaugrand from Lionel-Groulx. No other stations on the Green Line aside from Lionel-Groulx have elevators, so he had to get out of the train and wait for help to arrive.
“It happened this past summer,” Dion said. “I got to the HonoréBeaugrand station and they called the fire department to get me out.”
Although the STM lists the state of the elevators on its website, that information can be wrong, or out of date by several hours. Dion pointed out that the elevators at the Snowdon station were listed as being out of service for more than a week when he met the Gazette reporter, but a spokesperson for the STM said later the information on its website was wrong and the elevators were working properly. The website was promptly corrected.