Last week, the STM held a public consultation in the West Island, bravely exposing itself to the onslaught of residents with a lot of time on their hands and just as many complaints about how everything is run.
During the consultation, STM planning director François Pépin explained some changes that are coming to West Island bus routes over the coming years. Some changes will happen as early as next March while others will wait until 2009 or 2010.
Specifically:
- 40 new buses will be added to west island routes, 10 of which will be used for between-rush-hour service and 30 to synchronize with AMT train schedules, particularly at Roxboro-Pierrefonds and Beaconsfield.
- Buses, in general, will have headway reduced from 30 minutes to 18 minutes.
- 72 Alfred-Nobel, which serves the Ville-Saint-Laurent industrial park during rush hour, would be extended westward to the Fairview terminus.
- 207 Jacques-Bizard (which goes from Fairview to Ile Bizard) and 208 Brunswick (Fairview to Roxboro/Pierrefonds train station via Brunswick and Sources) will be merged in two years, making an East-West line along de Salaberry that doesn’t stop at Fairview. It would, for the first time in decades, mean no direct link between Fairview and Ile Bizard. (I find this move questionable, since the vast majority of 207 bus users take it to the shopping centre and don’t transfer to the 208.)
- 209 Des Sources will go from a rush-hour to an all-day (weekday) bus in March. It’s the only bus that goes all the way down Sources Blvd., from the Roxboro-Pierrefonds to Dorval train stations. Its southern end would reach Dorval via Donegani instead of Lakeshore.
- 210 John Abbott will begin operating in the summer and during school holidays, all day on weekdays, to better serve the growing industrial sector in Kirkland, starting in June 2008. It will also be extended eastward to Roxboro/Pierrefonds train station. Right now it acts mainly as a shuttle between Fairview and John Abbott College during the morning and afternoon.
- 212 would be a new bus route in a few years from Chateau-Pierrefonds to the Roxboro/Pierrefonds train station via streets just south of Pierrefonds Blvd. such as Antoine-Faucon, Oakwood, Shakespeare and Anselme-Lavigne. Montreal transit historians will remember 212 as the old Lakeshore bus line, which more or less doubled the 211 during rush hour.
New proposed 212 bus route – View Larger Map
- 218 Antoine-Faucon (serving northeast Kirkland and western Pierrefonds during rush hour) would be extended eastward from Fairview along Brunswick Blvd. and down Sources to Lakeshore and then to the Dorval terminus in the long-term, once that terminus is reworked.
- 219 Chemin Sainte-Marie (Rush-hour from Fairview to the Kirkland industrial park) would have a more simplified route starting in June, cutting the travel time by 5 minutes.
- 268 Trainbus Pierrefonds, which is a limited-stop one-way rush hour bus (which goes eastbound into Cartierville in the morning but starts its afternoon westbound run at Roxboro/Pierrefonds) would be extended to Cote-Vertu in June 2008. I’m not sure if this means it’ll operate westbound from the station as well, but that would provide a good option for residents of eastern Pierrefonds who have to use two buses to get to the metro.
- Two new direct-to-airport shuttles will be added, one from downtown and one from the orange line (I’m assuming either the Lionel-Groulx metro or Du College). Currently people have to take the overcrowded 211 and then transfer at Dorval, waiting up to a half-hour for the connecting 204 bus.
The last major reorganization of West Island bus routes happened in 1996, which saw the creation of the 207, 217, 218, 219, 225, 261 and 268 bus routes, and significant route changes to most of the others.
There was also discussion of the Doney Spur (not the Donnie Spur as the Chronicle calls it), a rail line that splits off from the Deux-Montagnes line at Highway 13 and travels along Hymus until just before St. John’s Blvd. But since commuter trains are the AMT’s jurisdiction, the STM couldn’t comment.
Oh just dandy, how do I get to Fairview in the futur. I wish the people making the decisions actually took the bus. The bloody 207 is a pain in the ass as it is, now just make it 10 times more dificult for us non car people to get around.
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merging the 207-208 is a brilliant idea. that would mean all the Des Sources highschool kids can go directly to school without loitering at fairview. To get to fairview you just have to change buses at De salaberry. i live on Ile Bizard and work on Sources i always have at least twenty minutes between the time i finish work and the next bus then a ten minute wait between transfers. It is faster to ride by bicycle 14 km than take the buses(in spring, summer and fall) The 207-208 will be a blessing.
Merging the 207 with the 208 is a horrible idea. It’s bad enought that the 207 takes 25 minutes to get to fairview with a 30 minute wait between buses. It makes no sense to break the connection between the terminal and the ONLY bus that leaves Ile Bizard on a regular basis. For John Abbott students, this sounds like a major hassle – two transfers? Taking the metro from Cote Vertu would be pointless since you would have to transfer once just to get to fairview, then take an overcrowded bus to the metro. This may be a blessing for people headed to Des Sources but anyone going elsewhere (which I believe is a decent majority) will be living a nightmare. I do believe it’s time to invest in a car.
I am drooling over the 212 idea. I love the Two Mounts line over the Dorion line. I right now drive to the Dorion Train line (Pointe-Claire) station as its one of the only West Island Train Stations that still has parking in the late morning.
I can’t wait to take the 212 bus from my street all the way to Pierrefonds train station. No more spending money on gas driving. No more trying to find parking. I just hope the STM doesn’t F*** this up like they did with the 261 Trainbus.
The 261 has two major issues:
1) In the morning, they have scheduled it to arrive 5 minuets or less before the Train is scheduled to arrive. God forbid there is traffic on St. Charles and the bus arrives 1 minuet late after the last train of the morning departs Beaconsfield. Cause that never ever happens…..
2) The last departure of the 261 Trainbus from Beaconsfield is at around 6:45PM. The problem with that is that there is still one more train. That last rush hour train doesn’t arrive at Beaconsfield until 7:05PM. Ooops. I am sure you can guess which train I am on. Please no lame comments about taking an earlier train. I would if I could.
After at least 6 YEARS of waiting, the STM has finally fixed the stupid schedule of the 261.
In case you did not read the announcement:
http://www.stm.info/English/info/comm-10/a-co100831.htm
And the new schedule:
http://www.stm.info/English/bus/Planibus/261.pdf
Does that mean I should sell my car? :)
I have sorta gotten used to it now.
Does anybody have any info on when route 212 might be starting? Its been three years since this little announcement.
Not in the near future. A route would still need to be approved by the board of directors, and that hasn’t happened.
I asked the STM about the 212, and if anybody is curious to know, here is the answer:
We received your inquiry regarding the possible new line 212 in the west island. Currently we’re working on mitigation measures for the Turcot interchange construction and a new line should be established within the framework of this project, which would be very similar to line 212 presented some years ago. We hope to service this line from the beginning of construction of the interchange, to encourage people to use public transit instead of taking their car. There are still details to be finalized, like the exact streets that will be borrowed by this new line. You’ll have more details on this new line on the STM internet page as soon as we launch this line.
Thank you for your interest in public transit.
Have a good day
I have even more information on the 212. Its will be in fact called the 485 Express Antoine Faucon
Here is the info straight from the STM’s mouth:
Hi,
The terminus of the 485 will be at
Station Lionel-Groulx
Intersection Palomino/Pierrefonds
The bus will pass at :
terminus Fairview
terminus Dorval
station Lionel-Groulx
The last departure from Lionel-Groulx will be around 19h.
All the information will be available in the newspaper and on the STM website a couple of weeks preceding the departure of the service on april 2nd.
I found this PDF file online with details of the route. Looks legit.
http://www.sigmawave.com/jason/485_antoinefaucon.pdf
http://www.stm.info/English/info/a-4expressouest.htm
Here is the official announcement by the STM.