But the biggest change to come out of this won't take effect on Sept. 6. Instead, the STM is giving advance notice that 26 of its routes will be changing numbers in January, when the winter schedule takes effect.

The change, according to an internal publication that was posted to the metrodemontreal.com forum, is to make things easier for users to understand, by having the number indicate the type of bus route. Express and reserved-lane buses will be numbered 4XX, where XX matches the last two digits of the associated all-day route on the same axis. The 221, for example, is being renumbered 411, so people will see it as the express version of the 211. The 182, an express bus to Pointe aux Trembles, becomes the 486, or the express version of the 186.

The changes will also carve out a spot for seniors' shuttles, which have awkwardly been given numbers mixed in with West Island routes. (The 261 is a West Island route, but the 260 and 262 are both seniors' shuttles.)

Roughly speaking, here's how the numbering system works now:

• 1-9: Reserved for metro lines
• 10-199: Regular bus routes
• 200-299: West Island bus routes (and seniors' shuttles)
• 300-349: Unused
• 350-399: Night bus routes
• 400-499: Express (limited-stop) routes
• 500-599: Reserved-lane routes (545 is used for special shuttles)
• 600-699: Unused
• 700-799: Special routes (so far only 747 is used, for the airport shuttle)
• 800-899: Unused
• 900-999: Unused

In January, the system will be reworked so it becomes more like this:

• 1-9: Reserved for metro lines
• 10-199: Regular bus routes
• 200-249: West Island bus routes
• 250-299: Seniors' shuttles
• 300-349: Unused
• 350-399: Night bus routes
• 400-499: Express, Metrobus, Trainbus and reserved-lane service
• 500-599: Unused
• 600-699: Unused
• 700-799: Special routes (particularly those marketed to tourists)
• 800-899: Unused
• 900-999: Unused

Bus routes being reassigned into the 400 range:

* Some of these are best guesses. There is no official list.

There are a few other changes as well. Three buses are being added to the 7xx range:

• 167 Casino becomes 777 Casino (get it? Triple-sevens?) (No word on its alternate routes toward the Casino and beach)
• 169 Île Ronde becomes 767 La Ronde (supposedly in reference to Expo 67)
• 515 Vieux-Port/Vieux-Montréal becomes 715

As well, some routes are changing numbers so they fit in better with this scheme:

• 132 Viau becomes 136 Viau, so there can be an express bus at 436 (the 432 is being used for the Lacordaire express, matching 32). a rapid bus transit system is being conceived along Viau.
• 251 Sainte-Anne becomes 212 Sainte-Anne so the 250+ block can be reserved for seniors' shuttles. The 251 is a special minibus that carries regular passengers through the narrow streets of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. The number it takes used to belong to the 212 Lakeshore, which was a rush-hour double of the 211 that took Lakeshore Rd. all the way to Dorval Ave.
• 480 Pointe-Nord/Île des Soeurs becomes 178, presumably because they will no longer consider this route an express bus

As the 132 case shows, this new system of numbering has a simple flaw: There are more than 100 regular bus routes, which means there isn't enough space in the 4xx range to accommodate them all. We're adding 20 to the eight existing routes, which means a quarter of the numbers are already taken.

Plus, a lot of these 400-series express routes aren't exact matches to the regular ones, which could confuse users. And then there's the cost of replacing hundreds of bus stop signs.

Still, it's not necessarily such a bad idea. It makes it easier to see at a glance whether a bus is a local or express bus, and giving reserved-lane buses their own category makes less sense now that we're adding reserved bus lanes all over the island.

But some of these numbers have historical significance. The 210 has a special place in John Abbott lore. The 167 and 169 are no doubt on a lot of tourist information, and the 132, 182 and 184 have existed for many years.

But I guess people will just get used to it.

More evening service on three routes beginning Sept. 5/6

There are some changes, though most are minor, that are taking effect now. They are:

• 77 Cégep Marie-Victorin gets 5 new departures northbound and 5 new departures southbound added to the end of its day, extending its service from 3pm to 7pm northbound and from 6:15pm to 9:45pm southbound. This represents an increase of 1,000 hours a year to this route, according to an STM press release. The route remains a school-day-only route.
• 173 Métrobus Victoria gets evening service, now going to 10pm instead of 7pm in each direction. Nine new departures eastbound, with service about every 20 minutes during that span. Westbound, service during rush hour drops to every 15-20 minutes from every 10-15, so the total number of departures actually only goes up by one. Still, the STM says these changes will add 2,800 hours of service a year.
• 194 Métrobus Rivière des Prairies gets evening service, running until 10pm weekdays instead of 7pm, in both directions. Six new departures in each direction will add 4,000 hours of service a year to the line, the STM says. It remains Monday-to-Friday only.

West Island routes to synchronize with trains

The STM has announced additional departures for West Island buses serving the Roxboro-Pierrefonds and Sunnybrooke train stations, so they are better synchronized with trains to and from Montreal during rush hour. As far as I can tell, these are not reflected in the posted schedules for these buses. Changes that are marked are noted below:

• 205 Gouin gets two new departures eastbound - one in the morning and one in the early afternoon - so wait times are reduced. It gets a single new departure westbound at exactly 6pm (other departures remain unchanged), five minutes after the 5:25pm train from Central Station arrives. The STM says departures are being synchronized with the train, but if that's the case it hasn't been reflected in the fall schedule yet.
• 206 Roger-Pilon gets three new departures eastbound in the morning rush-hour, and the times synchronize well with the Deux Montagnes train inbound, with buses arriving 5-10 minutes before the scheduled departure. Those taking this bus for the 9:12am departure are screwed though, as it comes in the middle of a bizarre 48-minute gap in service (otherwise it's about every 20 minutes). Those people will have to take a bus that leaves Fairview at 8:04am (16 minutes earlier than the one they'd currently take) and wait about 45 minutes at the station.
• 208 Brunswick gets two new departures westbound in the afternoon rush-hour and three new departures eastbound in the morning rush-hour. They don't appear to be properly synchronized with train departures and arrivals.
• 209 Des Sources gets three new departures southbound before 8:30am, dramatically reducing time between departures in the morning rush from about 30 minutes to about 15. Northbound schedule is identical. The route remains Mondays to Fridays only.

Major changes to seniors' shuttles

Route changes, more stops and additional departures are some of the changes for seniors' shuttles, which are minibuses that take zigzag routes to serve residences, shopping centres and other points of interest a senior might choose to go to.

• 252 Navette Or Montréal-Nord will serve Place Bourassa and the local Wal-Mart with stops in their parking lots, reducing the distance seniors will have to walk. Otherwise the route is unchanged. (Press release)
• 254 Navette Or Rosemont gets a major route change, so much so that it's barely recognizable. Now instead of a circular route with service in one direction, it's a linear route with two. Gone is service to the Viau metro station, the borough office on Iberville and the mall (and other stops) on Jean-Talon. Added are the CLSC Rosemont, Loblaws and Angus Square on Rachel St., and the Galeries d'Anjou. The number of departures also goes down, from 10 departures in one direction to eight departures in two (four in each direction). Departures are now two hours apart instead of about 45 minutes, though it will mean less of having to go round in an hour-long circle to get from Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital to Beaubien and Lacordaire. (Press release)
• 256 Navette Or LaSalle has its route made a bit more complex, adding stops. It will also see an additional departure - westbound at 3:30pm - and the schedule changes a bit. (Press release)
• 257 Navette Or Rivière des Prairies sees a route change, adding stops along Maurice Duplessis, and cutting the detour that takes it to the CLSC. It adds one departure eastbound at 3:35pm, making four in each direction. The departures are also a bit less predictable, no longer exactly two hours apart and leaving each terminus on the hour. (Note someone screwed up the Planibus, marking eastbound as westbound and vice-versa, and referring to its terminuses as Angrignon Blvd. and Jean-Milot St., which are the end points of the 256) (Press release)

Also of note

The Villa-Maria metro station reopens Tuesday.

Related Posts

• STM’s night bus overhaul increases service by 73%
• STM’s in my lane
• STM adds St. Michel bus route starting Monday
• STM bus route changes coming Jan. 3
• STM launches seniors’ routes in Côte St. Luc, Cartierville

STM's new night bus network (click to enlarge)

There are a lot of changes here, and they're summarized below, but the major themes are these:

• Three new routes (353, 354, 376), all of which existed before - and along similar routes - long ago when night service first began in Montreal. The 353 serves the northeast end of the island, while the other two are express buses to the West Island.
• All routes now operate seven nights a week. No more Friday/Saturday-night-only routes.
• With few exceptions, the maximum wait time between buses is reduced to 45 minutes from an hour.
• The other two West Island routes take dramatic turns halfway through their routes to serve a north-south axis: the 356 along Sources and the 382 along Saint-Jean and Saint-Charles. Before this change, there was no north-south link west of Décarie, which means if someone stayed until 2am at a bar in Ste. Anne de Bellevue and wanted to go home to Pierrefonds, they'd have to take three night routes, including a stop at Atwater, getting home at 4:30am, if they were lucky.
• Four routes are extended to serve the downtown core between Atwater and Frontenac, bringing the total to six. In addition to the 358 Sainte-Catherine and 360 des Pins (which was a Friday-Saturday route) are added the 350 Verdun/LaSalle, the 355 Pie-IX and the 364 Sherbrooke/Joseph-Renaud, all along René-Lévesque, and the 356 Lachine/Mtl-Trudeau/des Sources, which goes along Sherbrooke. This has two main benefits: People who take these routes to get home will require one less transfer, and there will be more night buses travelling through downtown, reducing waiting times for those who want to get to the major hubs of Atwater and Frontenac down to about 15 minutes.
• Hochelaga-Maisonneuve gets night buses on more streets. Before there was just the 364 along Hochelaga and the 355 along Ontario and Ste. Catherine (depending on direction). Now, there are four buses on different streets: 364 on Sherbrooke, 362 on Hochelaga, 355 on Ontario (in both directions) and 353 on Ste. Catherine. All four connect with the Frontenac terminal.
• The 378 Sauvé/Côte-Vertu is extended west to connect to the Trudeau airport terminal.
• The 362 Hochelaga/Notre-Dame is extended west to Frontenac.

With the three new routes, the extension of three others from three to seven days a week, and the increase in frequency, the number of departures goes up pretty dramatically, from 1,368 to 2,009 per week, an increase of 47% (note that this is by my hand count, so it may be off by a few). This doesn't count the nine routes whose length has been extended, in some cases dramatically. In terms of hours of service, the increase is probably more than 50% is from 46,000 to 80,000 hours a year, a 73% increase.

The STM calculates that 95% of the people in the Montreal agglomeration now live within one kilometre of a night bus stop. It also estimates that transfers will be reduced by 25%

All changes take effect the night of Monday, June 27, along with changes to day bus schedules. The STM has posted a cute little Flash app showing the various routes.

Why did it take so long?

These changes are a long time coming, and follow some serious public consultation. As a public transit user, it's hard to be against a huge increase in service. My criticisms, laid out below, are minor compared to the praise for the new service. If anything, my biggest reaction is to ask why it took so long to make these changes, and why the routes we're bringing back were removed in the first place. (I have the answer to the second question, unfortunately: Ill-advised budget cuts to public transit in the 90s).

As a regular night bus user, I can attest that the service is underused by casual users. There are a few reasons for this:

• confusion - the routes don't match day routes, and it's not obvious which ones to take or how and where to transfer
• wait time - in some cases up to an hour between buses, and long waits for transfers
• lack of shelter - this is a problem particularly in winter, but there are few places where one can wait for a night bus indoors

Many people who don't like what the night bus service offers use alternative forms of transportation. Many take cabs, which is expensive but very convenient (and relatively worry-free when you're drunk). But many people also prefer to drive home from bars at night, which presents the very obvious risk of drunk driving (and an even higher risk of "buzzed" driving, from those who are convinced they're just under the legal limit). I don't know if increasing night bus service will have a major impact on drunk driving stats, but if even a handful of lives are saved because a few people took a night bus instead of driving after a long night at a bar, I'd say it's worth it.

"It", by the way, is about $4.4 million, according to STM chair Michel Labrecque.

A bus wrap advertising the new night network is one of the ways the STM is getting the word out.

The new network will come with an advertising campaign to inform riders, which includes wrapped buses, social media, and a campaign organized with Labatt.

Here are the details, route by route (links are to summer PDF Planibus schedules):

New routes

353 Lacordaire/Maurice-Duplessis

The route: Besides serving Lacordaire (which the last bus numbered 353 also served), and closing a pretty big hole in east end service, the 353 also adds much-needed service to Montreal North and Rivière des Prairies. Starting from Frontenac, it takes Ste. Catherine to Viau, to Beaubien, to Lacordaire, to Léger/Perras, Armand-Bombardier and Maurice-Duplessis to share a terminus with the 372.

The schedule: Every 45 minutes. Service is the same seven days a week, except that the first departure is removed on Saturday nights northbound (when day bus and métro service lasts longer).

Review: This route fills a big hole in night service map, particularly in the St. Leonard area. Makes you wonder why they got rid of it in the first place. For those going from downtown to Montreal North, this will probably represent one fewer transfer, and maybe less walking time too.

Departures per week: 69

354 Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue/Centre-Ville

The route: Much like the 354 of old, this route is designed as a night version of the 211, an express to the West Island. It runs without stopping from Atwater to the Dorval train station (it doesn't stop at the airport), and then continues along Highway 20 right up to Ste. Anne de Bellevue. This route takes over the western portion of the 356 (see changes to that route below).

The schedule: 35 departures a week in either direction, exactly 45 minutes apart. Identical schedule weeknights and weekends. First departure westbound at 1:45, last one at 4:45am.

Review: The express nature of this route will be great news for West Island kids who spend the night downtown and want to get to their parents' place before they puke. This route knocks a full 18 minutes off the trip from Atwater to Dorval compared with the 356. But I'm not sure how many of these teens will enjoy walking home late at night from stops next to the highway.

Departures per week: 70

376 Pierrefonds/Centre-Ville

The route: Another night bus route with an express portion, this one starts at Atwater, heads up the Décarie expressway, makes a stop at Namur, and then is express again down Highway 40 until Halpern St (UPDATE: Despite what the map says, there are stops along Côte de Liesse and Highway 40's service road). It then takes Sources, de Salaberry, Saint-Jean and Pierrefonds up to Château-Pierrefonds. (West of Saint-Jean, it's identical to the old 382 route.)

The schedule: Service is every 45 minutes, seven days a week.

Review: A lot of people who take the 470 will be interested by this route, which is largely similar. Considering how much of a huge success the 470 is, one can imagine this being successful as well. It's also a huge improvement for western Pierrefonds residents, who had to transfer at Côte-Vertu. The worst part is that the 371 was scheduled to arrive at Côte-Vertu one minute before the 382's departure, and often people would miss their connections, forcing them to wait a full hour at a dark, lonely outdoor bus terminus for the next one. (If I sound bitter, it's because this has happened to me a couple of times.)

Departures per week: 69

Bus stop sign showing new stops for two existing routes that have been extended

Existing routes

350 Verdun/LaSalle

Major route change: Eastern terminus extended from Atwater to Frontenac via René-Lévesque.

Added departures: From 28 to 35 departures eastbound per week. From 33 to 44 departures westbound per week. Time between departures will be no more than about 45 minutes seven days a week, while before they could be as long as an hour apart.

Review: Considering the number of young people who live in Verdun, having this route serve downtown directly will be a welcome change to having to walk to Atwater.

Departures per week: 79, up from 61

355 Pie-IX

Major route changes: Western terminus extended from Frontenac to Atwater via René-Lévesque. Portion between Frontenac and Pie-IX now takes Ontario both ways instead of Ste. Catherine eastward.

Reduced departures: Now five per night instead of six (35 per week instead of 42). Still 45 minutes apart, but starts later (first northbound departure at 1am is effectively deleted) and ends earlier. Weeknight and weekend schedules are the same.

Review: Pie-IX is one of the top five axes for bus traffic, which makes the 355 an excellent choice to extend into downtown.

Departures per week: 70, down from 84

356 Lachine/Mtl-Trudeau/des Sources

Major route changes: Eastern terminus extended from Atwater to Frontenac via Sherbrooke. Route is the same as before from Atwater to Sources (via Sherbrooke, Elmhurst, St. Jacques, St. Joseph, Georges V, Victoria, Bouchard, Dorval train station, Dorval Airport and Cardinal), but then it heads up Sources Blvd., turns right on Hyman and then up Sunnybrooke to end at the Sunnybrooke train station.

Added departures: Eastbound, from 28 to 35 departures per week, with time between buses reduced from one hour to 45 minutes (identical schedule weeknights and weekends). Westbound, from 32 to 39 departures per week, with time between no more than 45 minutes.

Departures per week: 74, up from 60

357 Saint-Michel

No changes to route.

Service is now seven night a week. The Friday night schedule is used for Sunday to Thursday as well, with departures every 45 minutes. Saturday schedule is unchanged.

Departures per week: 68, up from 18

358 Sainte-Catherine

Minor route change: The STM has finally (partially) clued in to the fact that this bus hasn't followed its assigned route in years because of street closures on Ste. Catherine. A permanent detour, taking René-Lévesque between Union and Berri, bypassing the closure around Place des Arts, has now become part of the official route. But a second detour, between Berri and Papineau during the summer (because of the pedestrianization of Ste. Catherine), isn't reflected in the official route.

This might seem like a minor issue, but the unmarked detour causes a lot of confusion on a route that sees a lot of confused (and, let's be honest, drunk) passengers. Many stops on Ste. Catherine didn't have signs indicating the detour, and many stops on René-Lévesque didn't have signs indicating the 358 stopped there.

Otherwise, the route is unchanged. Its terminuses remain at Atwater to Frontenac.

Reduced departures: Four departures are deleted in each direction (all on Friday, making service every 15 minutes only from 2:30 to 3:30am instead of from 2 to 5am), to bring the total weekly departures from 71 to 67 eastbound and 70 to 66 westbound. Schedules the rest of the week are unchanged.

Review: The importance of the 358 is diminished by all the other routes serving the downtown core, so it's not the end of the world that there are fewer buses on Fridays, but it would have been nice to have a more predictable schedule on Saturday nights. The detour around the Gay Village should also be made official (at least in the summer schedule) if it's going to happen for months every year.

Departures: 133, down from 141

359 Papineau

No changes. Route is the same, along Papineau Ave. from top to bottom, and the schedule is every 35 minutes, seven days a week.

Review: This is one of the few routes that doesn't connect to any major hubs. It wouldn't take much for it to end at Henri-Bourassa and Frontenac, but it doesn't. This also looks like a route that could have benefitted greatly from being extended into the downtown core, but it hasn't been for some reason.

Departures per week: 96

360 Avenue des Pins

Service is now seven nights a week. Departures are now 45 minutes apart instead of an hour. Schedule is identical seven nights a week.

Major route changes: The western part of this route is unchanged, along Pine Ave. to Atwater. But it no longer takes Sherbrooke St. east of St. Laurent. Instead, it continues along Pine, then takes Berri, Cherrier, Amherst and Ontario to get to Frontenac.

Review: The addition of the 356 downtown means this bus no longer has to serve Sherbrooke. This will be a welcome improvement, particularly in the lower Plateau.

Departures per week: 70, up from 15

361 Saint-Denis

No changes. Route is the same, through Old Montreal and up Berri/Saint-Denis/Lajeunessse. Schedule is identical to before.

Review: I admit to some bias because I live on this line and take it home often on non-peak nights (particularly Sundays), but it's annoying that the STM's busiest night route, whose departures can be as little as five minutes apart on Friday and Saturday nights, has such poor service on Sunday nights, with service only every 45 minutes. This is especially annoying because the 358 is every 30 minutes, which means two of every three transfers involve long waits.

Departures per week: 154

362 Hochelaga/Notre-Dame

Major route change: The western terminus is extended from Honoré-Beaugrand to Frontenac, via Hochelaga. East of Honoré-Beaugrand station, the route takes Sherbrooke for a bit before going down Des Ormeaux and back on Hochelaga.

Added departure: Just one, westbound on Saturday nights, making service begin at 1:37 instead of 2:05. All departures remain 45 minutes apart.

Review: Here's a route where the extension is going to make a real difference. Now, if someone wants to party downtown and lives in Pointe aux Trembles, they need to make only one transfer instead of two.

Departures per week: 69, up from 68

363 Saint-Laurent

No changes. Route is the same, up St. Laurent and St. Urbain from top to bottom. Schedule is identical, with service about every 45 minutes, but more northbound on Friday and Saturday nights.

Review: For a bus that goes up the Main, this should come more often during the week. But otherwise, it works, so no need to mess with it.

Departures per week: 102

364 Sherbrooke/Joseph-Renaud

Major route changes: The western terminus has been extended from Frontenac to Atwater via René-Lévesque. The route that was until now named Hochelaga won't even take that street anymore, so it's been renamed. Instead, it takes Frontenac up to Sherbrooke (du Havre when southbound) and Sherbrooke all the way to Honoré-Beaugrand. The route northeast of Honoré-Beaugrand is unchanged, taking various streets (including Joseph-Renaud) up to the Centre de transport d'Anjou.

Reduced departures: One extra departure added to each of Friday and Saturday nights eastbound has been removed from the schedule. Service is at every 45 minutes, seven nights a week in both directions.

Review: The extension of the 362 to Frontenac means this is no longer a necessary intermediary between the 358 and 362 for those who are downtown at night and live in the east end. People who live between Frontenac and Honoré-Beaugrand will now be able to take just one bus from downtown.

Departures per week: 71, down from 73

365 du Parc

No changes. Route is unchanged, along Park, de l'Acadie and de Salaberry (though, for those who haven't taken it in a while, note that it still takes St. Laurent northbound instead of Jeanne-Mance until it gets past the Quartier des Spectacles). Schedule is identical, with service every 40 minutes (30 minutes on Saturday nights before 4:20).

Review: 40 minutes is an odd time between departures, and makes transfers less predictable when the other routes are on a 30 or 45-minute schedule.

Departures per week: 84

368 Mont-Royal

No changes. Route is unchanged, winding its way from Frontenac through the Plateau, Outremont and Côte des Neiges to Côte Vertu. Schedule is identical, with departures every 45 minutes.

Review: This has always been an awkward route, with far too many turns. It's disappointing nothing has been done to make it more direct.

Departures per week: 70

369 Côte des Neiges

Route is unchanged, from Atwater up Côte des Neiges and over to Namur.

Added departures: Service is now at every 20 minutes instead of 30 on Saturday nights northbound, 30 minutes on Saturdays southbound (except first and last departures), and 45 minutes instead of an hour on other nights, in both directions.

Departures per week: 88, up from 75

370 Rosemont

Service is now seven days a week. Friday night schedule is imported to Sunday-Thursday. Departures are every 45 minutes.

Route is unchanged, going from Côte St. Luc to Honoré Beaugrand via Van Horne and Rosemont.

Departures per week: 76, up from 21

371 Décarie

Route is unchanged, going from Atwater through St. Henri, up Girouard and Décarie up to Côte Vertu, and then up to the Centre de transport Saint-Laurent.

Added and deleted departures: The STM isn't advertising changes to this line, and for good reason: there's good and bad news here. Service is now every 45 minutes in either direction seven days a week. This means an increase on weeknights and Sunday nights (where it used to be every hour), but a decrease on Saturdays (where it used to be every half hour). Those used to the 371 departing Atwater like clockwork at :30 past the hour will now have to memorize the new schedule, with departures at 2:15, 3 and 3:45.

Review: For a route that serves a metro line and connects two major hubs, this route has a remarkably sparse schedule. Maybe the people who live along it just don't take night buses. Or maybe they would if it came more often.

Departures per week: 71, up from 62

372 Jean-Talon

Route is unchanged, taking Jean-Talon to Anjou, through the Centre de transport d'Anjou, and up to Rivière des Prairies.

Schedule is mostly unchanged, with departures every 45 minutes. A departure is added westbound on each day so service starts around 1:45 instead of around 2:30.

Departures per week: 97, up from 70

378 Sauvé/Côte-Vertu/Mtl-Trudeau

Service is now seven days a week. Frequency is also bumped up slightly, with departures every 45-50 minutes instead of every hour.

Major route change: As the name suggests, the western terminus has been extended to Trudeau Airport, via Decarie Blvd. and Côte de Liesse (Highway 520). Note that this route does not stop at the Dorval train station, so there's no connection with the 354 bus. The eastern portion of the route is unchanged.

Review: Would it be that difficult to have this bus stop at the Dorval station, so those who want to get from St. Laurent to Ste. Anne don't have to walk across the airport parking lot or take a third bus? Also, there was talk after the 747 airport express bus was launched that a second airport bus would be added along Côte de Liesse. This route would make that less necessary during the overnight hours. But there's still no daytime route that goes from the St. Laurent area all the way to the airport terminal. (UPDATE: Labrecque says an airport express along this route is still in the STM's plans.)

Departures per week: 49, up from 13

380 Henri-Bourassa

The route is unchanged, from Côte-Vertu via Côte-Vertu, Henri-Bourassa and Maurice Duplessis to the Centre de transport d'Anjou.

Added departures: Service is now every 45 minutes instead of every hour.

Departures per week: 70, up from 56

382 Pierrefonds-Saint-Charles

Major route changes: Like its counterpart the 356, this route takes a 90-degree turn in order to serve a major north-south artery. In this case, it goes up Saint-Jean, then down Hymus to Saint-Charles, then down to the Beaconsfield train station, for a connection with the 354. The portion of the route west of Saint-Jean is taken over by the 376.

There's also a change to the other end of the route. The terminus is extended from Côte-Vertu to Namur. This allows for direct connections with the 368, 369 and 372.

Added departures: Service is now every 45 minutes instead of every hour.

Review: The change makes this service kind of U-shaped, and I wonder how many people will enjoy travelling through Pierrefonds to get to Beaconsfield from downtown. But considering how fast night buses are, it's not the end of the world.

On the plus side, the centre of the West Island was a giant hole in night bus service, and it's nice to see a north-south route here. It's also the closest night buses have been to Fairview in a long time. It was once served by the old 376, and though the 382 doesn't appear to serve the Fairview bus terminal itself (which makes sense, since the mall is closed and there's nothing to transfer to), it's nice that there's service in that area again.

Departures per week: 56, up from 45

René-Lévesque Blvd. will get four routes serving it through downtown.

515 bus cuts off useless René-Lévesque leg

On the day side, very little has changed in the summer bus schedules. The only major thing I've seen so far is that, as expected, the 515 bus serving the Old Port has had an underused portion along René-Lévesque Blvd. cut off, so it's now U-shaped instead of a loop. The STM has known for quite a while that this portion of the route was pointless, but kept it anyway, mainly because it was along the route of a proposed tramway.

Unfortunately, the STM is still using a colour-coded system to tell the directions apart, though they are now labelling them East and West. Hopefully this route will eventually start being treated like any other, which will reduce confusion and increase ridership.

What do you think?

Let's start the discussion with something useful: Would these changes make you more likely to consider taking a night bus home than, say, a cab, driving, waiting for someone to drive you or just crashing at a friend's place?

UPDATE: CIBL has a short interview with the STM's Michel Tremblay on the night bus improvements.

Related Posts

• STM to renumber bus routes in January
• STM’s in my lane
• STM adds St. Michel bus route starting Monday
• STM bus route changes coming Jan. 3
• STM launches seniors’ routes in Côte St. Luc, Cartierville

There were a few journalists present, though they seemed more interested in Plateau Mayor Luc Ferrandez's attendance record at city council meetings than yet another reserved bus lane that will take away parking spaces. There were no questions after the presentation.

I can't blame them. Even for someone like me who's interested in public transit, there's little new here that doesn't also apply to every other reserved bus lane in the city.

A city of Montreal truck blocks a bus stop zone as it loads equipment used during a press conference to announce new bus lanes

I couldn't help noticing during the press conference that there was a car parked in the bus stop zone next to the Laurier metro station. It had a rotating light on the dashboard and seems to have been from a private security agent. Later, after the press conference was over, a city of Montreal truck pulled up and parked in the middle of the bus stop zone to load up the podium and other equipment.

The truck ended up blocking the arrival of the No. 46 bus, forcing it to leave its passengers off from the centre lane of St. Joseph Blvd.

There's some irony here.

Night bus overhaul coming

Meanwhile, I asked STM chair Michel Labrecque (supposedly the transit users' representative on the STM's board) about the upcoming revamping of the night bus service which is coming on June 27. Labrecque feigned ignorance, saying something about not being in the right mindset to discuss it (even though he and one of his aides had, in fact, been doing just that). I was told there would be a news conference on June 15 to explain everything, but that they couldn't go into details.

A bit odd since bus stop signs with the new numbers have already started appearing. Through the rumour mill we see that the STM will introduce three new lines - the 353 on Lacordaire Blvd., the 354 from downtown to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and the 376 from downtown to Pierrefonds (via Highway 40). All three routes had previously existed and are being brought back in areas similar to where they were years ago. In addition to this, many existing routes will be modified, mainly to extend them so they serve the downtown core (reducing the number of people who have to take the 358 bus and then transfer). The 355 bus will be one of those adding service downtown. The 356 will also be modified so it heads up Sources Blvd. instead of going all the way to Ste. Anne.

I'll get you more details on those changes after they're announced, after the schedules are released or after I get details from sources, whichever comes first.

Related Posts

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• STM to renumber bus routes in January
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• STM bus route changes coming Jan. 3

The new bus 41 Quartier Saint-Michel/Ahuntsic

The Société de transport de Montréal does its quarterly schedule change on Monday. There are the usual minor improvements to bus schedules.

The biggest change is a whole new line, the 41 Quartier Saint-Michel/Ahuntsic (PDF), whose route is above. It links the Sauvé station on the orange line, the Saint-Michel station on the blue line and upper Pie IX Blvd. (The result is a pretty sharp U shape, which makes it unlikely people will use it for its whole length, and makes you wonder why they didn't just split it in half at Saint-Michel and create two routes.)

Service will be weekdays excluding holidays, from 5:30am to 9pm, with departures spaced about 20 minutes apart.

In other changes to bus schedules and routes:

• 12 Île des Soeurs: Instead of service ending at 6 or 7pm, departures are scheduled up to 9pm, seven days a week.
• 21 Place du Commerce: This morning-only bus linking the LaSalle metro station with the Bell Campus on Nuns' Island will now be bidirectional (though still morning-only, 6am to 9am).
• 46 Casgrain: This tiny route in Mile End adds service between rush hours, at 30-minute intervals.
• 47 Masson: The westbound route will take St. Denis southbound and St. Joseph eastward toward the Laurier metro instead of Berri. Otherwise unchanged.
• 515 Vieux-Montréal-Vieux-Port: Giant gaps are being introduced in the route that heads eastbound through Old Montreal on weekday mornings. Rather than departures every 20 minutes, they're at 8am, 9:20am, 10:40am and 11:40am. Departures at 1:40pm and 3pm are also deleted, leaving 40-minute gaps. (via @stm_info). Westbound service is unchanged, and only a couple of departures are deleted on the weekend. It's another sign of the disappointing lack of popularity in this route.

The next schedule change comes in June. That's when the STM's major overhaul of its night service (including the addition of three new routes) is expected to take effect. The changes were supposed to be approved at the last board meeting but were pulled off the agenda at the last minute.

On the South Shore, the RTL is planning its own changes the following week (starting April 4). They are outlined in pamphlets for Brossard and Boucherville.

Related Posts

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New route for 25 Angus as of Jan. 3, 2011

25 Angus: The most radical change happening Monday is the 25 bus, which is being redirected to the Rosemont metro station instead of doubling the 24 to the Sherbrooke metro station. It now takes Molson, Masson, Iberville and Rosemont. Though still a rush-hour-only bus, the number of departures is nearly doubled, going from five to nine in each direction during each rush hour.

46 Casgrain: The westbound part of this tiny route is being modified. Instead of taking Laurier westbound from Rivard to Casgrain, it takes Saint-Joseph west to Saint-Laurent, and then doubles back to Casgrain along Laurier.

89 Gouin/Perras: This line is discontinued, merged into the nearly identical 48 Perras. About every second departure of the 48 becomes 48X, taking a minor detour via Langelier and Ozias-Leduc

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Route for 262 Côte St. Luc

Last week, the STM launched two new seniors' buses, bringing the total to 10. These routes, served using minibuses, take winding routes through neighbourhoods on select weekdays, stopping at residences, shopping centres, CLSCs and other places that would be of interest to seniors.

The plus side is that seniors get door-to-door service with a driver who isn't rushed by rowdy schoolkids. The minus side is that the routes are slow and the schedule is atrocious: departures are more than an hour apart and service is only offered on some days of the week.

The STM started the seniors' buses with two routes in the west end in 2006 - one in Côte des Neiges and the other in N.D.G. Both lasted about a year before they were canned due to lack of ridership. Still, they soon launched other buses, mostly on the eastern side of the island: Montreal North, St. Michel, Rosemont, Rivière des Prairies, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Mercier, Anjou, and one in LaSalle. Most follow the same idea, offering service between rush hours on two or three weekdays. And for some reason, the STM has deemed these successful enough to keep them around longer.

Now they're coming back to the west side, going after an area that has a lot of seniors and not much public transit.

The 262 Côte St. Luc (PDF) starts in the area around the Cavendish Mall, then down Cavendish and Côte St. Luc Road until Westminster. From there it heads non-stop to the Carrefour Angrignon shopping mall (though not to the nearby metro station). It has four departures in each direction on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The 263 Bordeaux-Cartierville (PDF) passes through the residences near Acadie Blvd. on the east side of Highway 15, then goes along de Salaberry, O'Brien, Gouin and Laurentian, and non-stop to the Place Vertu shopping centre. Again, no stop at a metro station. The bus also has four departures in each direction, but on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The buses are designed and marketed for seniors but accept regular fare and passengers of any age (though this isn't made abundantly clear and even some drivers have apparently been under the incorrect impression that it's reserved for those over 65).

I've never been one one of these routes, and I don't know what their ridership figures are like, but fortunately we're only talking about a minibus or two for six hours two or three times a week, so the cost is fairly low for each route.

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The Société de transport de Montréal went all out announcing a new gimmick this week. It's called "10 minutes max network" and it seeks to reassure transit users (and potential transit users) that buses within this network will arrive in no more than 10 minutes from when you get to a stop. Affected bus lines (there are 32 in all, or 31 if you count the 106 and 506 as one route) will have this graphic added to stop signs.

It comes into effect with schedule changes on Monday morning.

There are, of course, some caveats: It's only between 6am and 9pm, only Mondays to Fridays (excluding holidays), and for 21 of the 32 routes, it only applies in one direction at a time (6am-2pm in one direction, 2pm-9pm in the other).

Affected routes:

• In both directions: 18, 24, 51, 67, 69, 80, 105, 121, 139, 141, 165
• One direction at a time: 32, 33, 44, 45, 48, 49, 55, 64, 90, 97,103, 106-506, 132, 161, 171, 187, 193, 197, 211, 470*

UPDATE: A blogger has created a subway-style map of these routes here.

Even under those rules, I spotted quite a few cases where it didn't apply, particularly at the edges of those time blocks. A departure might be set for 8:45pm, and the next one after 9pm. I guess "close enough" is good for the STM here.

Despite my criticisms though, looking at the before and after schedules for the affected routes, there are serious efforts at improving service (at least during these time blocks - with a few exceptions it seems very little effort has been made to improve service after 9pm or on weekends).

Most of the routes on the lists are the STM's most highly trafficked. In many cases, no change in schedule was needed to comply with the "10 minutes max" rule. In others, the headway was already as low as 12-15 minutes, so bringing it down to 10 wasn't a huge deal.

But changing the headway from 12 minutes to 10 means going from five departures an hour to six.

There is also significant improvement for 7pm-9pm, when many routes which had headways of up to 20 minutes now see the number of departures as much as doubled.

Some highlights:

• 24 Sherbrooke: Mid-day weekday departures are now 10 minutes apart instead of up to 20, making this bus a true alternative to the metro. Sunday service is also improved, with afternoon waiting times reduced from 20 minutes in both directions to 11 minutes eastbound and 15 minutes westbound.
• 32 Lacordaire: Improvements from 8am to 2pm southbound and 7pm to 9pm northbound. In both cases, the wait between buses has been reduced from 15 minutes to 10.
• 48 Perras: Westbound, between 7:40am and 1pm, departures that were between 20 and 30 minutes apart are now 10 minutes apart. After 4:30pm, departures are no more than 15 minutes apart. Eastbound, departures were 15 minutes apart between 2pm and 7pm, and are now 10 minutes apart from 2pm to 9pm.
• 49 Maurice-Duplessis: In the late morning and early afternoon, service is doubled, with departures now 10 minutes apart rather than 20. In the evenings, they're now 20 minutes apart instead of 30.
• 51 Édouard-Montpetit: Westbound from 8am-9:30am, departures go from being 15 minutes apart to less than six (a big help to Concordia students wanting to get to Loyola for morning classes). Eastbound, departures from 5:30pm to 8:30pm go from 20 minutes apart to 10.
• 90 Saint-Jacques: Eastbound, headways of about 20 minutes after 9am become 10 minutes until 2pm, and don't increase significantly until after 4pm.
• 97 Mont-Royal: Westbound, from 9am to 2pm, headways are reduced from 20 minutes to 10, and from 2pm to 4pm they're 15 minutes apart. In the mornings, some buses will start from Mount Royal and Fullum (but those east of there will still get service with a wait of no more than 10 minutes).
• 103 Monkland: From 7:30pm to 9pm westbound, headways drop from 20 minutes to 10. There's also noted improvement in weekend schedules.
• 132 Viau: Northbound, headways drop from 15 minutes to 10 from 7pm to 9pm. Southbound, they drop from 15-17 minutes to 10 from 9am to 2pm.
• 187 René-Lévesque: Westbound from 8am to 2:30pm, buses are now 10 minutes apart instead of 20. Same improvement eastbound from 7pm to 9:30pm.
• 193 Jarry: From 6:30am to 5:30pm westbound, wait time has reduced from 12-19 minutes to 10 or less. On Saturdays, from 10am to 3pm, the waits drop from 15-16 minutes to 8 minutes.
• 197 Rosemont: Westbound, from 9:30am to 5:30pm, buses go from being 17-18 minutes apart to 10 or less.
• 470 Express Pierrefonds: Westbound, headways that were 10-20 minutes during the day are now 10 minutes or less from 6am to 9pm. On Sundays from 1pm to 6pm, they're now 20 minutes apart instead of 30.*

The "controversy"

The media are focusing a lot on complaints from the union about the new service, mainly because a union representative disrupted the elaborate press conference the STM held. The union's complaint is that this sounds like a guarantee (it's certainly being presented that way) and if a bus doesn't show up in 10 minutes for whatever reason, it's the bus driver that's going to take the verbal (and possibly physical) abuse from angry transit users.

It's a good point, and I have sympathy for drivers who suffer such harassment on a daily basis (mostly for reasons that are entirely out of their control), but it's not so much a complaint against the service improvements as it is against the way the STM has turned them into a gimmick and kind-of guarantee as a PR move.

New "Navette Or": 260 Anjou

The STM has decided to add an eighth bus route to its seniors' shuttles. The 260, which has five departures in each direction midday on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, travels the area around the Galleries d'Anjou. The map and schedule are online (PDF).

470 gets earlier weekend start

In addition to the improvements as part of the "10 minutes max" plan, the 470 is also seeing yet another increase in its operating hours. It will now start earlier in both directions on weekends.

Eastbound, the first buses will depart at 4:37am instead of 6:19am on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Westbound, the first departures from Côte-Vertu will be at 5:30am instead of 6:40am. During those early hours, buses will be 30 minutes apart.

515 drops to offseason schedule

Now that the summer festival season is over, the 515 bus to the Old Port sees a dramatic drop in service. Instead of waiting 10 minutes for a bus, they're now 20 minutes apart, from 6:40/7am to 9:40pm, seven days a week. (Note that service also ends at 9:40pm instead of 1am.)

Train synchronization: Big press for a handful of additions

The STM is making a lot of hay about added service to bus routes serving West Island train stations and how much better that is for West Island transit users. They throw out a bunch of big numbers showing how much bus service there is now, but they don't provide much for comparison.

I looked at the before-and-after schedules for each mentioned bus route, and the results are not exactly breathtaking. Though the two rush-hour-only trainbus routes do get large increases in service, the rest are only adding a departure or two.

• 200 Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue: Two more departures westbound (6:46am, 8:12am from Fairview, arriving at Beaconsfield station at 7am and 8:29am respectively), one more departure eastbound PM (other buses rescheduled to accomodate between 4pm and 6pm)
• 217 Anse-à-l'Orme: Three departures added eastbound between 6am and 8:30am. Two departures added westbound PM (others rescheduled to accomodate)
• 261 Trainbus Saint-Charles: Departures jump from 5 to 9 southbound AM and northbound PM
• 265 Trainbus Ile Bizard: Departures jump from 4 to 7 eastbound AM (meaning about 20 minutes between departures) and 4 to 9 westbound PM (the latter increasing the service hours to 3:30pm-6:53pm)
• 268 Trainbus Pierrefonds: One extra departure eastbound, arriving at Roxboro station at 7:56am (four minutes before the 8am train). The 8:20am departure is pushed up to 8:07am so it arrives in time for the 8:35am train, but this also means 43 minutes until the next bus. No new departures westbound, except second bus of the day is held back by five minutes so it arrives at Roxboro-Pierrefonds after the 7:13am train.

By my count, it's a total of 25 new departures across five bus lines, or 2.5 per line per direction. (The STM's count is apparently 26, so I guess I missed one somewhere.)

What's more, in many cases other departures are simply rescheduled earlier or later to better meet the train, which means the time between buses is no longer uniform. Take, for example, the 268, whose departures from the western terminus are now at 7am, 7:20, 7:31, 7:50, 8:07, 8:50, 9:20, etc. The time between buses is as little as 11 minutes and as much as 43 minutes in that time span whereas before it was a much more predictable 20-30.

Maybe people won't mind that too much, but it's really annoying if you miss that 8:07 bus.

Less peak service on the 80

Mere months after trumpeting the fact that the 80 and 535 would both run during rush hours (instead of the 80 disappearing in favour of the 535), that has quietly been reduced on the schedule. The 80 will still run with the 535 southbound during the morning rush hour, but northbound departures disappear from 7 to 9am and in both directions from about 5pm to about 6:30pm. The 165 southbound also loses departures between 5pm and 6pm weekdays.

Even less service on 183

The 183 Gouin Est, known best for being the bus that has an hour between departures, essentially loses its rush hour. Instead of departures every 30 minutes weekday mornings and afternoons, they're every hour from 6am to 9pm.

Minor changes

• 55 Saint Laurent: Northern terminus moved from Esplanade/Chabanel to Louvain/St-Laurent. Route is unchanged.
• 80/129/535: The routes have now officially changed so that buses take St. Laurent northbound until Ontario, and then westbound to Jeanne-Mance. No more buses through the new Place des Festivals.

New technology on the 467

The 467 Express Saint-Michel is a testing ground for some new technology the STM is installing. Not only was the route itself the result of some serious research into reducing travel time, but ways are being found to bring them down even further. The city is installing priority traffic lights along St. Michel Blvd., which has already seen the addition of reserved bus lanes.

The STM is also using the 467 as the first bus to test an automated stop announcement service. You can see it in action in the above video. Like the metro does underground, the buses have electronic displays that show what the next stop is, and an audio message is played for the benefit of people who can't see the display (or whose eyelids may be too heavy to keep open).

New taxi service in Baie d'Urfé

The STM launched a new collective taxi service in Baie d'Urfé this week (for those unfamiliar, collective taxi services are routes with such little traffic they're served by taxis, but the fares remain the same as a regular bus or metro ride). It's timed to work with the Baie d'Urfé commuter train station. The big downside is that people must reserve their place on the taxi at least an hour in advance. The big upside is that without a set route, it has stops all over Baie d'Urfé.

*UPDATE (Nov. 1): The Gazette's Max Harrold gets the STM to admit it screwed up on the 470 schedule, which has the morning rush hour westbound instead of eastbound.

Related Posts

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The problems are familiar to this blog's readers: the route is confusing with its yellow and blue signs, travels through an area of town (René-Lévesque Blvd.) already served by plenty of transit services, doesn't do enough to attract and inform tourists, it tends to get stuck in Old Montreal traffic, people in Old Montreal tend to prefer to walk to their destinations to and from nearby metro stations (particularly in the summer), and the new residential developments it was supposed to serve (like the new Griffintown) haven't yet emerged.

But Riga brings up an interesting point through his access-to-information request and interviews: The STM knew way back in 2007 that a circular route taking René-Lévesque Blvd. would be a waste of money:

A March 2007 study, also obtained under access to information, suggested that the route eventually chosen, particularly the section along Rene Levesque Blvd., would "increase operating costs" and duplicate service offered by "numerous other lines."

The federal Old Port of Montreal Corp., which took part in the study, favoured the longer route that used Rene Levesque, and that was eventually accepted.

Riga quotes STM planning head Michel Tremblay saying this summer would be a "last chance" for the 515, after which the STM would re-evaluate the chronically underperforming bus route.

The article also says there have been no studies or surveys conducted for the 515 bus since its launch. So I guess I just imagined this detailed survey that was presented to a public consultation by the city last year based on a study of the 515's use by passengers in 2008. Either that or the STM was unaware of it, which seems silly.

Riga also has some supporting documentation on his blog, which shows the STM predicting some huge spike in ridership in June that hasn't materialized.

UPDATE (April 30, 2011): Andy Riga has more info in The Gazette, saying that cutting this useless stretch would save $882,000 a year.

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• On the 515
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19 Chabanel / Marché Central is a quick shuttle between the Crémazie metro station and Marché Central along Chabanel.

Unfortunately for eager Marché Central shoppers, it only runs after 8pm on weekdays. The idea, I imagine, is to take over from the 54 bus once it stops running at 7:30pm. The 54 connects Marché Central with Crémazie via St. Laurent, but also has parts east and west of those two places that the STM has probably judged aren't worthy of service past 8pm.

The 19 will have 10 departures eastbound and 11 departures westbound between 8pm and 12:30/1am, Monday to Friday.

Those wanting to access Marché Central on weekends will still be stuck with the 179 from Acadie station, or taking a short walk from stops of the 100 (on Crémazie) or 146 (on Meilleur).

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The STM's summer schedules are out, and very little is changing on June 21 (except for the new No. 19 bus, which I've written about separately).

Otherwise, there are a three schedule changes and one route change worth noting:

80, 165 to run concurrently with 535: The Parc and Côte des Neiges buses currently stop running during rush hour, making room for the 535 reserved-lane bus, which makes a giant U around the mountain and runs along both axes. I've always found this a bit bizarre, because it means a long time between driver breaks, and nobody is realistically going to travel down one and up the other. The stretch along René-Lévesque Blvd. connecting the two is filled with mostly empty buses even at the height of rush hour, which empty and fill up at the Guy-Concordia and Place des Arts metro stations.

The STM is helping to alleviate this by having the 80 and 165 buses run during rush hour along their 535 counterparts. This means they can maintain the same level of service along the heavy-use axes (the STM even says service will improve), while cutting down on all those empty buses along René-Lévesque. Those who use the 535 along René-Lévesque or otherwise make use of the 535 between the two metro stations can still do so, and buses will still run every six minutes or less.

120 extended to Dorval station: The 120 Lachine/LaSalle, a recently introduced bus connecting Angrignon metro to Lachine, has been extended westward to terminate at the Dorval train station instead of 55th Ave.

470 to run until 1am: This one is as predictable as it is long past due. The agonizingly slow progression of service on the 470 Express Pierrefonds will finally be complete as late-night departures are added, meaning the route will run past midnight seven days a week. Despite Marvin Rotrand using every excuse to call this route a "home run", it's taken more than five years from its launch in 2005 as a rush-hour-only route until it finally got all-day service. Midday service was added in 2007, then service was extended to 9pm weekdays in 2008, then weekend service was added a few months later.

Currently, the final departures are about 9pm weekdays and about 6:30pm weekends in both directions. Starting June 21, final departures from Côte-Vertu metro westbound will be 1:58am on Saturday nights (Sunday mornings) and 1:30am all other days, to coincide with the last metro trains arriving at Côte-Vertu. Eastbound, the final departures will arrive at Côte-Vertu around 12:30am Saturdays and midnight on other days.

A few weeks ago, on a trip to Pierrefonds, I had to take the 64 bus from Côte-Vertu and transfer to the 68 in Cartierville. I noticed about a dozen people making the same transfer, even though it was about midnight on a weeknight. Many of those people will be better served by this service, as will many who now drive, take commuter trains or don't travel at all because they can't take the two-hour trip.

On a side note, this will extend the hours of the Fairview bus terminal by an hour (from 1:20am to 2:20am) on Saturdays and half an hour (1:20am to 1:50am) on other days. Currently the 207 bus is the only one with a departure after 12:35am. Its 1:20am departure takes transfers from the last westbound 215 bus, which leaves Côte-Vertu at 12:40am (in fact, the STM has the same bus and driver do both departures). People who live in the middle of the West Island will be able to leave almost an hour later and still get home.

UPDATE (June 23): The STM's press release about the 470 also says that starting August 30 the first departure will be timed to meet the first metro train at 5:30am. This will mean at no time will there be a metro that is not met by a 470 bus.

747 service every 10-12 minutes: The runaway success of the 747 airport express bus, which is pleasing everyone but cab drivers, has convinced the STM to boost its service during the day. During the day between 8am and 8pm, service intervals will be 10-12 minutes instead of 15-30 minutes, in both directions, seven days a week. Early morning, late night and overnight schedules are unchanged.

The STM says it will also be installing more fare machines at the airport, at Station Centrale and other touristy locations that dispense proper fares for the 747. Passengers can pay the $7 fare on the bus, but the fact that the machine doesn't accept bills or give change makes it incredibly inconvenient for many travellers.

The STM says machines at "a dozen or so" metro stations will also be able to give out the fare, which works as a 24-hour pass for the entire STM system. I'm not sure why they can't just have all machines give this out. Not only can a trip to the airport start from anywhere, but a $7 day pass can be useful for people who have no intention of using the 747. A couple of weeks ago, some out-of-town friends came by for a day trip, and were told by a metro attendant that to get the $7 day pass they had to buy (each) a $3.50 Opus card (the old scratch-style tourist passes are no longer being sold). It's silly to ask a tourist to buy a smart card they might use once or twice when the 747 bus hands out disposable cards that do the same thing at no extra cost.

Other changes, like the creation of a new bus (No. 19) that serves Marché Central, will have to wait until the fall, it seems. Turns out the 19 is launching this summer after all.

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What - and where - is this?

UPDATE (April 27): John is the first to get this right below: This is the inside of what used to be a bus shelter on Pie-IX Blvd., specifically the one at Jarry St.

I didn't know it when I posted this question, but it's actually somewhat of a trick one. You see, the objects in this photograph aren't there anymore.

For those of you who haven't been to Pie IX Blvd., it has a unique history.

In 1989, the city decided to implement a partial reserved lane system on Pie IX Blvd. In fact, it would be the city's first reserved bus lane of any kind.

It made sense - Pie IX is a wide thoroughfare and its bus route - the 139 - was among the city's busiest.

But a reserved lane would disrupt car traffic, and at the worst possible time: rush hour.

So the city came up with what some urban planner no doubt thought was an ingenious plan: instead of reserving a lane in the same direction as rush-hour traffic, they'd reserve a lane on the opposite side of the street, and have the buses travel contra-flow. It's like what goes on during rush hour on the Champlain Bridge. In the morning, there would be three car lanes open heading south, and one reserved bus lane heading south on the opposite side of the median. That leaves two lanes for traffic (including buses) heading north.

Because the buses would be travelling on the opposite side of the street, passengers would get on and off at the centre median. Special shelters were setup with doors that aligned to the front and back doors of the bus, and ushered the passengers to the intersection where they would cross safely at the light.

The Jarry St. shelter as it used to look (image from Google Street View)

These shelters didn't exist anywhere apart from Pie IX Blvd., and even then there were only 10 of them, at major intersections between Monselet St. and Laurier Ave. (at the southern terminus, the bus stops at the metro station as normal). Not only was the bus that served them a reserved lane bus (assigned a number in the 500-block to denote its significance, No. 505), it was also an express, stopping at about a quarter of the stops of the 139.

Even before the buses started running, there was some concern from residents, particularly in Montreal North, about safety. Lots of precautions were taken. In addition to the special shelters designed to discourage jaywalking, cones would be setup between the contra-flow lanes and regular traffic. Overhead lights would tell drivers to get out of the reserved lane. Left turns would be prohibited at most intersections. Drivers - who all received specialized training for this particular route - would be warned in advance if there was a stalled vehicle or other obstacle, and would be directed into the regular flow of traffic at the next intersection. The buses themselves would be retrofitted with special lights to warn oncoming traffic.

The reserved lane idea quickly spread. Within months there were reserved lanes on Henri-Bourassa, Sauvé, Crémazie, and a year later they were added to Côte des Neiges and Park, although none of these were contra-flow lanes.

On Pie-IX, there was a traffic spike as thousands of passengers realized they'd save more than 10 minutes with the new bus service. For a decade people made their way to these shelters and were whisked off to the metro.

That all came to an abrupt halt just before 8am on June 12, 2002, when Annie Gervais, a 32-year-old wife of an STM bus driver, was struck and killed by one of those buses as she crossed the reserve lane.

Gervais's death came less than a year after another pedestrian was struck and killed on the reserved lane. And there were other similar incidents in the late 1990s, all involving buses travelling on the reserved lane. What might have been seen as a freak (or at least isolated) accident suddenly became a problem. (The fact that a bus driver was personally affected by this death is also cited as a reason for this being a turning point.)

The day after Gervais's death, the reserved lanes were shut down pending an investigation. The city and STM promised they would only be reopened when they could be assured they'd be safe.

They were never reopened.

The 505 bus kept running, though, this time "en bordure". Regular bus stops were installed on the curb at the same points as the shelters (even if this meant a stop coming after an intersection instead of before). Eight years later, the 505 buses still say "en bordure" on their displays. The shelters were left up, some with signs telling people to use the bus stop on the curb - it was expected the system would come back some day, as soon as it could be made safer.

But human nature can't be conquered so easily. When crossing a street with a median, you look in one direction for the traffic. Cones or no cones, it's not a given that everyone will remember that traffic is going in both directions before you get to that median.

So for eight years the shelters stood empty. Until last December, when the city announced it would go another route on Pie IX. Bus rapid transit would involve two lanes, reserved at all times. Still in the centre of the street, but apparently designed in such a way as to make them safer.

Partially dismantled Jarry St. shelter, in a photo taken April 1, 2010

That meant the existing shelters would have to go. The big central median would be replaced with two medians on either side of the reserved lanes.

The shelter at Jean-Talon was the first to go. Jarry was next. The other eight are still standing, though won't be for long.

The now empty concrete median, in a photo taken April 26

I happened to pass by the Jarry shelter after its roof, windows and front and back doors had been removed. The shelters were all locked to prevent people from getting in them (and waiting hours for a bus that would never come). Without a door, there was no lock, and I could walk freely up and down the now non-shelter shelter.

Inside the Jarry St. shelter - note the "embarquement" and "débarquement" signs in green and red.

Less than a month later, it was all gone. All that remains is a strange looking median with gaps in its wall.

Pie-IX median as it looks now at Jarry

UPDATE (Aug. 4): Metro catches on to this story and reports that the AMT has removed the last of the shelters.

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What bus stop is shared between the most bus lines?

(Note that for the purposes of this question, a terminal with multiple stops is not considered one stop.)

UPDATE: Steve Hatton is the first to get the right answer.

STM bus stop at René-Lévesque and Mansfield (westbound)

This stop at René-Lévesque Blvd. and Mansfield (that's the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in the background) has 10 bus lines serving it as of March 29:

• 150 René-Lévesque, the "regular" day route serving the street
• 358 Sainte-Catherine, the night bus (the eastbound service is on Ste. Catherine St., which is why the stop across the street doesn't have the same number of bus routes)
• 410 Express Notre-Dame, an east-end-to-downtown express bus
• 427 Express Saint-Joseph, the new express from Saint-Joseph Blvd.
• 430 Express Pointe-aux-Trembles, similar to the 410
• 480 Pointe-Nord/Île-des-Soeurs, the rush-hour bus connecting downtown with the Bell campus on the northern tip of Nuns' Island
• 515 Vieux-Montréal/Vieux-Port, the underused loop bus connecting downtown with the Old Port
• 535 R-Bus Du Parc/Côte des Neiges, the reserved-lane bus that uses Montreal's two busiest axes during rush hour
• 747 Express Bus, the new airport express
• 935 Trainbus Blainville, the STM-operated but AMT-administered shortcut for Blainville train users

Of those 10 routes, two are less than a month old and two others are less than two years old. Before last week, the answer would have been (unless I'm mistaken) the stop at Brunswick Blvd. and St. John's Blvd. outside the Fairview mall in the West Island, which is served by nine routes all coming out of the terminal.

Kellergraham points out an alternative that also has 10 routes serving it.

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Take the folks at Transportation Research at McGill (TRAM). They don't just do this as a hobby, chasing after buses with their cameras. They actually study public transit, and their work has results.

When the STM decided it would make a lot of sense to setup a limited-stop express line on St. Michel Blvd., it partnered with TRAM to perform some serious analysis of the plan.

TRAM first used data about existing passengers on the 67 line to estimate time savings in this rather academic-looking document (PDF), even providing different scenarios of where the 467 should stop for maximum efficiency.

After the 467 was put into service, they went back and looked at the average run times for both the 67 and 467 after implementation, and asked passengers to fill out a survey (PDF).

In October, Masters student Julien Surprenant-Legault produced this report (PDF) on the before-and-after numbers.

He explains:

I became involved after the 467 service's implementation on March 30, 2009. [Professor] Ahmed El-Geneidy and I evaluated the accuracy of the previous estimatess, quantified times savings, and assessed customers' satisfaction. We finished the study at the end of July 2009. The study that we have done is unique and is opening a new field of research; therefore, no comparable study presently exists.

As for the results, the estimates were 11% to 19% savings for run time on route 467, and the actual ones are 13%, which is in the expected range. Savings could have been higher without the introduction of the OPUS card, an electronic payment system that slightly slowed boardings. Still, the STM made some improvements to the payment boxes in order to speed up boardings; also, people now have had some time to adapt themselves to the new system. The trip on route 67 originally took 35 minutes, which decreased to 34 minutes after the implementation of route 467. Route 467 run time is 31 minutes (savings of 4 minutes 20 seconds).

A slide from Julien Surprenant-Legault's presentation about the effects of the 467 express route

Surprenant-Legault theorizes (correctly, I believe) that the major reason the improvements weren't as high as predicted was because of the introduction of the Opus smart card between the before measurements and the after measurements. As I've written about before, the Opus card and magnetic-stripe card require additional seconds for each passenger, either to hold the Opus against the reader or insert the card into the slot, wait for it to read, print out a validation and then spit it back out. Instead of passengers boarding two seconds apart, they now board five or six, making the whole trip slower.

One interesting finding in the study is about passengers' perception of time savings:

For route 467 riders, a statistically significant difference exists between their estimates and the actual savings. Real travel time savings were on average 1.5 minutes per trip, while users estimated them within a range of 6.9 to 11.9 minutes. For route 467 riders, a statistically significant difference exists between their estimates and the actual savings. Real travel time savings were on average 1.5 minutes per trip, while users estimated them within a range of 6.9 to 11.9 minutes.

If we assume this same phenomenon could be replicated on other lines, it means making a lot of passengers happy with not much investment.

You can get more about this study from this presentation (PDF) given by Surprenant-Legault.

Transportation Research at McGill hosts weekly seminars about transportation issues. Surprenant-Legault kicked off the winter 2010 session with the presentation mentioned above. The last one of the season is Thursday at noon, featuring Sébastien Gagné, Kevin Beauséjour and Jocelyn Grondines of the STM's planning department. The presentation is in Room 420 of the Macdonald-Harrington Building on McGill's main campus, and is free and open to the public.

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The STM will be introducing three new routes and extending a fourth during its quarterly schedule change (links go to Planibus PDFs):

• 120 Lachine/LaSalle (Mon-Fri all day): Though not officially an express bus, this is being billed as a faster alternative to the 110 Centrale that connects Lachine with the Angrignon metro station. It has 18 stops compared to the 110's 53 stops. Western terminus is Victoria and 55th Ave., passing through the Lafleur-Newman bus terminal, and then the Angrignon metro. Its eastern terminus is actually the Carrefour Angrignon. Service on the 110 bus is not being reduced.
• 196 Parc Industriel Lachine (Mon-Fri daytime): An STM bus that connected nowhere with nowhere now goes somewhere: the eastern (northern?) terminus has been extended from Cavendish and Côte-Vertu to the Côte-Vertu metro station. There's also a minor kink about halfway through the route that takes Joseph-Dubreuil St. to 32nd Ave.
• 427 Express Saint-Joseph (Mon-Fri westbound mornings, eastbound afternoons): An express doubler for the 27 Saint-Joseph during rush hour, this bus keeps going after it reaches the metro, going down St-Denis and Berri and then René-Lévesque to terminate at the Guy-Concordia metro station. This will minimize transfers (taking many workers straight to their offices) as well as take some pressure off one of the most congested sections of the metro system during rush hour: the orange line between Laurier and Berri-UQAM. Only 32 departures each day, but it's highly targetted to rush hour, with a headway of only 10 minutes. Service on the 27 is unaffected. (UPDATE: Seems Plateau mayor Luc Ferrandez has some concerns about this bus)
• 747 Express Bus (24/7): The airport express bus, discussed in more detail in this post.

Metro cars may have fewer seats

Though it was reported back in January, it seems more certain now that, with all the delays pushing back the new metro car contract, the oldest cars still in service, the MR-63s used on the green line, will need to be kept longer and get an interior redesign to fit more people.

Unfortunately, the only way to fit more people into a confined space like this is to remove seats. The STM was to have put two prototype cars in service yesterday - one removes single seats near the ends of each car, while the other removes single seats near the centre of each car (removing double seats, like was done when the MR-73s were refitted, apparently isn't feasible with these cars because of all the equipment underneath the double seats).

Obviously, not everyone is happy about the idea of squishing even more people into these cars and taking away the cherished single don't-have-to-touch-anyone seats. Discussions are already under way at MetrodeMontreal.com and the Canadian Public Transit Discussion Board about it.

All-articulated bus routes in June

The Gazette's Andy Riga has gotten Marvin Rotrand to tell him that three lines - 121 Sauvé-Côte-Vertu, 467 Express Saint-Michel and 535 R-Bus Du Parc/Côte des Neiges - will be served only by articulated buses as of June. Articulated buses will also be used on the 80 (Du Parc), 139 (Pie-IX), 165 (Côte-des-Neiges) and 67 (Saint-Michel) within a year, with studies about whether to expand them to the 18 (Beaubien), 24 (Sherbrooke - downtown), 105 (Sherbrooke - NDG), and 197 (Rosemont). Aside from having high ridership, the routes also need longer stop zones to accommodate the longer buses.

New daycamp fare

Buried in Riga's piece is mention of a new type of fare the STM will be introducing on June 1. A daycamp fare will cost $12 and cover a trip for adult and 10 children under 13. (Children 5 and under already ride free with a fare-paying adult). This is similar to the family pass they brought in in 2008, which allows kids to ride free with their parents, but only on weekends and holidays.

This new fare will be welcome news for all those who take large groups of children on public transit, but will probably suck for a lot of people if this means more armies of prepubescent kids board STM buses around the island.

Service disruptions reported on Twitter - twice

In case you missed it, the STM is now finally reporting on the status of the metro system using Twitter and Facebook, as well as on their homepage. So far it has reported only one disruption - the green line going down on Sunday.

Annoyingly, the reports on Twitter and Facebook are all done twice - once in English and once in French. Nevermind that the STM hasn't been the most English-friendly organization on the planet in the past, but why not just setup two accounts if you're going to do that?

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The Société de transport de Montréal had a whole thing today, inviting members of the media out to the airport to show off their new bus route. I was tempted to go, but I don't get up before noon unless I really have to.

The route is the 747 Express bus, which finally provides a direct, non-stop link between downtown and Dorval Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. It replaces an awkward public transit travel itinerary that involved taking the metro to Lionel-Groulx, hopping on the 211 or 221 and squeezing in with all the West Island kids, then either waiting half an hour at the Dorval train station or walking across the entire airport parking lot to get to the terminal.

It also replaces La Québécoise's Aérobus shuttle service between the bus station and the airport that used to run every half hour and cost $16. (And that was already much cheaper than the flat-rate $38 for a cab from downtown to the airport.)

More details from Cyberpresse, The Gazette, CTV, CBC, Rue Frontenac, Metro, the STM's press release, the airport's press release (PDF), or the Planibus with route and schedule (PDF).

The route enters service on Monday, March 29, and will be the STM's first 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year bus service.

The fares

Probably the most confusing thing about this bus will be the fare structure. Even though this is an STM bus run by the STM and accepting STM passes, you won't be able to pay a standard single fare or use a single-fare ticket to get on (which, because this is a trip into and out of town, is what many people using it would want to do).

Instead, the single-fare price is set at $7 (still less than half the old airport express), and in exchange you're given a one-day pass to use the entire STM network. Or you could just buy a one-day tourist pass, which is accepted on the bus and also costs $7.

All unlimited-use passes (tourist passes, weekly passes, monthly passes) are accepted on the bus at no extra charge.

I guess the STM is trying to get some money out of tourists with this, but it just seems unnecessarily confusing. Many tourists will want the tourist pass anyway when they're coming in to town, so it won't make much of a difference for them. Those heading out of town, meanwhile, will have no use for a one-day pass once they're on a plane.

Expect drivers of these buses to have to exercise a lot of patience explaining the fare structure.

The STM says transit passes will be on sale in the airport, so those who want a three-day pass or weekly pass will have that option before they get on the bus.

The stops

Nine stops westbound and 10 stops eastbound, including the two terminuses.

Going toward the airport:

• Station Centrale bus terminal (inside the terminal)
• René-Lévesque and St-Laurent (Chinatown)
• René-Lévesque and Bleury
• René-Lévesque and Mansfield (Place Ville Marie, Central Station)
• René-Lévesque and Peel (tourist information centre)
• René-Lévesque and de la Montagne (Lucien-L'Allier station, Bell Centre)
• René-Lévesque and Bishop
• Lionel-Groulx metro
• Trudeau airport

Going toward downtown:

• Trudeau airport
• Lionel-Groulx metro
• Guy and René-Lévesque
• René-Lévesque and Drummond (Bell Centre)
• René-Lévesque and Peel (tourist information centre)
• René-Lévesque and Mansfield (Place Ville Marie, Central Station)
• René-Lévesque and Jeanne-Mance (Complexe Desjardins, Complexe Guy Favreau)
• René-Lévesque and St-Laurent (Chinatown)
• Berri-UQAM metro
• Station Centrale bus terminal

The schedule

The schedule of this new bus is an improvement on the one it's replacing:

• Every 20 minutes during morning and evening weekday rush hours
• Every 30 minutes during midday and late evenings
• Every 30 minutes on weekends
• Every hour overnight between 1am and 5am

Depending on the time of day and traffic conditions, the entire trip from one terminus to the other is expected to take between 35 and 50 minutes (about half that for trips between the airport and Lionel-Groulx).

It's unclear at this point how this bus will affect other STM buses, like the 211 and 221 that shuttle between Lionel-Groulx and the Dorval train station, and the 204 bus that stops at the airport terminal.

The bus

The bus itself will be special, though very familiar to STM users. The outer design will have an airplane-chevron logo and the bus number painted on the body. Inside, the bus will be equipped with three luggage racks (one above each front wheel, and one just opposite the rear door), each with two shelves. This means the bus will have fewer seats than a standard bus of its size, but the ride will be more convenient for people with heavy bags.

The STM has modified eight buses for this route. With a route length of just under an hour and a minimum headway of 20 minutes, that would mean six buses in service during rush hour with two spares.

The fallout

Despite its confusing fare structure, since the bus is replacing a service already in place, and because people have been demanding better airport shuttle service for years, the demand is clearly there. The bus might not see dozens of passengers for every trip, but it won't be empty all the time either.

The STM estimates the bus will attract between 1,000 and 2,500 riders daily. With about 100 departures a day, this would mean about 10-25 people per bus on average.

As the ADM points out, this service will also be useful for airport employees who work at odd hours. I've seen a few of them half asleep on the 356 night bus (which stops at the airport) trying not to get thrown up on. Those employees aren't going to spend $16 one-way for the Aérobus, but they will take the STM's express bus if it comes with their monthly pass.

This service also doesn't preclude the creation of a train link between downtown and the airport. Both the STM and the airport still believe such a rail service is essential. But this bus will help bridge the gap until the rail dream becomes a reality.

The scandal

One group has already called foul in all this: taxi drivers. They're calling this a "catastrophe" for the industry, and complaining that they weren't consulted about it. Some are suggesting that the STM's move should be considered illegal competition from a government agency with the private sector.

Not that I don't have sympathy for taxi drivers, but this just exemplifies the fact that some industry somewhere will have a problem with just about anything the government does, especially when it makes our lives easier and saves us money.

(UPDATE March 17: Taxi drivers took their protest to city hall, though it's highly unlikely they'll be able to get anything changed at this point)

With that caveat in mind, I'd rate this service an about-fscking-time.

UPDATE (March 29): The service launched at midnight. CTV's Herb Luft talked to some of the first passengers, and noted that the bus doesn't accept bills, which is kind of silly when the fare is $7. He also points out that the stop doesn't say where at the airport passes can be bought.

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Route of the 21 Place du Commerce (in blue)

The STM has released fall schedules for its bus network, which take effect on Aug. 31. Two significant changes are worth noting:

• The creation of the new 21 Place du Commerce, which provides one-way morning-only service from the LaSalle métro station to the Place du Commerce and Bell campus on Nuns' Island. The idea is apparently to provide quicker access from Verdun to the Bell campus in the busy morning rush hour. Workers presumably have more time in the afternoon rush and can take the 12 bus like everyone else.
• The 209 Des Sources bus, which you'll recall is now an all-day bus (Monday-Friday only) has been extended to the terminal at Dorval Airport. This helps with a big complaint from users who before would have to wait up to half an hour at the Dorval train station because the only bus to the airport was the infrequent 204. (This extension was on the summer schedule for the 209, but for some reason is only being announced now.)

A minor change (I'm sure there are others): the 350 Verdun/LaSalle night bus now ends at Newman and Airlie instead of the Monette-Lafleur terminus.

Proof-of-payment system

According to the schedule set in May, the STM is supposed to move to a proof-of-payment system starting Sept. 1. This means that you must carry your Opus card or ticket with you at all times in the metro system or on buses, otherwise you can be fined. (I assume there will be a grace/warning period before any actual fines are given in this way.)

New map

If you haven't seen it yet, the new 2009 system map (WARNING: 10MB PDF file) currently being installed in metro stations is more colourful than previous versions. Among the changes, dated June 22: "rapid transit" routes (express and reserved-lane buses) are shown in green, and Monday-to-Friday-all-day buses are given their own category in the legend, separate from seven-day routes and rush-hour-only routes.

Open house

And while I have your attention, the STM is having an open house at its Legendre garage in Ahuntsic on Sunday, Sept. 13. Registration and the tour are free, and there are shuttle buses from the Crémazie metro station that will bring you there, since there's no parking on site.

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The solution? Colours!

Isn't it obvious? The blue sign is for the bus that takes the clockwide route, toward Berri and then down to Old Montreal. The yellow sign is for the counter-clockwise route that goes through Old Montreal and then up to Berri. This is consistent with the schedules which have a yellow route and a blue route on them, unless they're copied in black and white, in which case they only have one direction visible.

So now not only has the STM invented a new colour for the 515 (recycled from a failed experiment), they've invented another one too! A light blue that's just different enough from the standard dark blue to be both confusingly similar and confusingly different.

Of course, this won't solve the confusion inherent in the route's design, and will just create more. This is the first time the STM is using colours on stop signs to indicate direction, and it's a break from the standard. If transit users need anything, it's a standard framework from which to understand how things run. This idea laughs in the face of that.

The STM should do as I suggested and drop the part of the route between Berri and Peel, which is redundant to not one but two metro lines (and the 150 and 15 buses) and therefore the least-used part of a little-used line. Then they can have proper East/West designations and the confusion will be gone.

Of course, what's really going to piss people off is that in order to fit these two stops, the city had to remove 10 parking spaces along Peel (not that the bright red bags with no parking signs on them stopped drivers from parking there anyway, as you can see).

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• 70 Bois-Franc gets a significant boost in service to complete its schedule. Service now extends to midnight, seven days a week (before it ended about 7pm), and intervals during rush hour drop from 30 to 15 minutes in both directions.
• 119 Rockland adds Sunday service in both directions. Previously it was a Monday-to-Saturday bus.
• 164 Dudemaine's western terminus is extended by two blocks, ending at Steinberg St. instead of Bois-Franc, to serve an area the STM considered to have inadequate service.
• 174 Côte-Vertu Ouest gets midday service on weekdays at half-hour intervals, as well as four new departures in the evening, extending its service from 6pm to 8pm.
• 209 Des Sources now stops at the Trudeau Airport via the Dorval train station.
• 210 John Abbott adds a stop inside the Kirkland shopping centre that includes the Colisée, for all the John Abbott students who want to watch a movie after school (or instead of?). The STM cites safety as a reason for this stop, which replaces one at Jean-Yves and the service road.
• 219 Chemin Sainte-Marie gets the same modification, but only in the westbound direction.
• 361 Saint-Denis moves to a summer schedule with more departures, particularly on Sunday nights when intervals drop from 45 minutes to 30.
• 515 Vieux-Montréal-Vieux-Port takes on a summer schedule, which reduces wait times from 20 minutes, seven days a week to 13 minutes on weekdays and 10 minutes on weekends.

UPDATE: The Gazette has a story on the changes based off the STM press releases. Both misspell "Bois-Franc".

Meanwhile, the AMT is reducing service on the new schedule for its Nuns' Island express bus, increasing intervals from 20 minutes to 30. Mitigating this news somewhat is that the STM has just approved a new bus route, probably to take effect in the fall, connecting Nuns' Island with the LaSalle metro station.

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The Réseau de transport de Longueuil, which handles public transit in Longueuil and its merged and demerged suburbs, is making a big effort to add service in a new schedule which began on Monday, especially in St. Bruno, which it had served with a handful of bus and collective taxi lines through an agreement with Veolia Transport. The contract (which the RTL points out predates its own existence) expired on Sunday, and the RTL is taking over service directly.

Among the additions, some of which are outlined in the press release:

• 55: One new departure in the afternoon rush hour
• 73: Two new departures in the afternoon rush hour
• 80: Two new departures in the afternoon rush hour
• 98: This route, which had previously only served St. Bruno locally, has been extended to Terminus Longueuil (but only during rush hours). A section on Grand Boulevard has been cut from its route, and will be served instead by the T99 taxi service.
• T-20: Two new departures in the morning rush hour
• T-89: Service extended to Saturday and Sunday rush hours
• Other service improvements have been made on routes 20, 47, 91, 92, 99, 132, 192, T-23, and T-99
• Other changes have been made to schedules on routes 10, 14, 15, 21, 30, 31, 34, 37, 38, 42, 44, 48, 49, 54, 73, 78, 85, 115, 132 and 142
• Two lines, 93 and T94, have been removed from service. They both served St. Bruno and are being replaced with added service to other lines

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Welcome to the Saint-Michel Express

The biggest change comes to the 67 Saint-Michel, the STM's single busiest line, which like its counterparts along Côte des Neiges, Parc and Pie-IX will get a little brother. The 467 Express Saint-Michel takes the same route as the 67, but with only 15 stops. The STM estimates this will cut 10% off travel times (via CPTDB), thanks to the help of two McGill urban planners (thanks Dave). Other measures, such as a reserved bus lane (coming this summer) and priority traffic lights (coming in 2010), are designed to shave another 5-20% off.

The route will have 126 departures from 6am to 7pm in both directions, Monday to Friday.

The 467's stops are:

• Henri-Bourassa
• Fleury
• Sauvé
• De Louvain
• Émile-Journault
• Robert
• Jarry
• Villeray
• Saint-Michel metro
• Bélanger
• Beaubien
• Rosemont
• Masson
• Saint-Joseph
• Joliette metro

72 extended to Côte-Vertu and Fairview

The 72 Alfred-Nobel, which connects the Saint-Laurent industrial park with the Du Collège metro, is having its route extended on both sides. On the western side, the route will end at the Fairview terminus (via Hymus), and on the eastern side, continuing on Decarie up to the Côte-Vertu metro (where all the other West Island buses stop). Service intervals will also drop slightly for this route, which operates Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm.

Other notable scheduling changes I stumbled across

• 12 Île des Soeurs: Dramatic increase in weekday departures, which are now 23 minutes apart instead of 30 during most of the day.
• 16 Graham: New eastbound departure at 7:20am
• 68 Pierrefonds: Service intervals westbound on Saturdays drop from about 22 minutes to about 16 minutes in the afternoon, with more buses in the morning and afternoon going all the way to Timberlea/Anse-à-l'Orme. Eastbound Saturday mornings a departure is added at 8am. And for some odd reason, the 1:40am westbound departure on Saturday nights (half an hour later than the rest of the week, consistent with a later metro closing time) has been eliminated.
• 150 René-Lévesque: Weekday departures are now 31 minutes apart instead of 30, in order to remove a departure from the schedule.
• 173 Métrobus Victoria: Service intervals decreased from 20 to 15 minutes during high-traffic times (eastbound during the morning rush hour, westbound during the afternoon rush hour)
• 201 Saint-Charles-Saint-Jean: Midday Saturday service intervals drop from about 32 minutes to about 22 minutes between departures.
• 207 Jacques-Bizard: An annoying schedule quirk for this predictable (every half hour on the half hour) schedule has been partially removed. After 10pm, the departures in both directions would happen every hour instead of every half hour. Those who didn't look at the schedule closely enough might get stuck wondering why the bus didn't come. On weekdays, the departures return to being every half hour, but still every hour after 10pm on weekends.
• 209 Des Sources: Added departure northbound at 11:39pm. Previous final departure was at 10:55pm
• 215 Henri-Bourassa: Between 9am and 12pm Saturday mornings, time between westbound departures drops from 30 minutes to 20.
• 480 Pointe-Nord Île-des-Soeurs: Service intervals drop from 15 minutes to 10 minutes at rush hour peak
• 515 Vieux-Montréal-Vieux-Port: Service intervals increase from every 13 minutes to every 20 minutes during the day (it's unclear if this reduction in service is a seasonal thing, as more people are expected to walk places in warmer weather, or if it's a reaction to how little the bus is used)

Notice anything I haven't seen? Comment below.

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