Mayor says REM traffic `disaster waiting to happen'
Ste-anne-de-bellevue Mayor Paola Hawa says she is worried a massive new development on the Riocan site in neighbouring Kirkland will lead to daily traffic jams around the future Anse-à-l'orme REM station.
Because the Anse-à-l'orme station in northern Ste-anne is the last link on the West Island branch of the REM light-rail network, Hawa says the station is a traffic snarl waiting to happen. She said the arrival of hundreds of transit buses from the off-island, combined with local commuters trying to drive to the station, is going to turn the Chemin Ste-marie access road into a daily traffic jam.
“The Riocan project is wonderful and it's great that it will be repurposed, but I'm very, very concerned about the traffic impact of that project,” Hawa said. “Without a new overpass (on Highway 40) in Kirkland, I really don't see how that can work. Plus, you'll have about 60 buses an hour coming from Vaudreuil into the Ste-anne's REM station, so I don't see how this will end well.
“The overpass that goes over Highway 40 (near the Riocan Centre) is already at maximum capacity. So can you imagine adding more cars?
“And then, of course, you're going to have the addition of cars that will try to find parking at the Ste. Anne station, and if they won't be able to they'll take Chemin Ste-marie again to try to do the same thing in Kirkland.”
Hawa said the initial REM plan was for the Kirkland station to offer a substantial park-and-ride option. “Remember how the original plan was for 2,000 parking spots at Kirkland and they were supposed to complete the urban boulevard (to Pierrefonds)? It was my understanding that the provincial government had made a commitment to put in a new overpass,” Hawa said. “Then, for whatever reason, all that changed. The urban boulevard disappeared and the $30 million for a new overpass disappeared, and the parking disappeared.
“So what you see today does not at all reflect what the original plan looked like. The original plan, in my opinion, was well thought out. It's all the subtractions that came afterward.”
Kirkland Mayor Michel Gibson told the Montreal Gazette last week that public parking is needed at the Kirkland REM station, especially now that a new mixeduse development is planned for the Riocan Centre site.
Gibson added he is confident there will be some kind of parking arrangement for users of the REM station, which is to be operational by 2023-24.
He said major stakeholders, including the Caisse de Dépôt, Riocan, Broccolini and city of Kirkland, have to hammer out a parking solution.
“If the REM wants the station to be successful, everyone will have to work together,” Gibson said. “Riocan and Broccolini have to sit down with the REM. In our discussions with them, we'll let them know we need some parking.”
The Anse-à-l'orme station in Ste-anne is to have 200 park-andride spaces, including 20 spaces reserved for carpooling, four parking spaces with electric car charging stations and three universal access spaces. Hawa said she is worried motorists searching for a REM parking spot will converge on the Anse-à-l'orme station, which is located just north of Highway 40, on Chemin Ste-marie, between l'anse à l'orme Road and Morgan Blvd.
The entrance to the park-andride lot is on Chemin Ste-marie, which Hawa said is already operating at maximum capacity. She said Chemin Ste-marie is one of the oldest roads in Montreal and wasn't built for heavy traffic.
Hawa said she has been in discussion with CDPQ Infra (builders of the REM) and several transit authorities, including EXO, but has gotten nowhere.
“It's like talking to a wall,” she said.
Unless there are substantial changes to existing infrastructure, buses rerouted and more parking added at other stations, she said the traffic along Chemin Ste-marie is “a disaster waiting to happen.”