Here's what there is to expect as far as schedule changes this weekend and next:

STM (Montreal, including the entire metro)

Details from the STM's website. For details on adapted transit or customer service, consult their page.

Note that from Dec. 24 to Jan. 8, the STM offers its Family Outings plan, which allows an adult to bring up to five children under 12 to ride for free with a fare-paying adult. (Normally this is allowed only during weekends and statutory holidays.) This does not apply to the 747 bus.

• Saturday, Dec. 24:
  • Buses and metro service will follow a regular Saturday schedule.
• Sunday, Dec. 25:
  • Most bus routes will run on a Sunday schedule.
  • Metro trains will pass about every 10-12 minutes on the green line and every 10 minutes on the other lines.
• Monday, Dec. 26:
  • Most bus routes will run on a special schedule.
  • Metro service will run on a special schedule, with additional trains added to the Orange and Green lines from 8:30am to 7pm to accommodate rabid Boxing Day shoppers.
  • Monday to Friday shared taxi service will not be in operation.
• Dec. 27-30: Normal weekday schedules for all services.
• Saturday, Dec. 31:
  • Buses, metro and taxi service will follow a regular Saturday schedule.
  • Once again, there's no extension of metro service despite how many people are out celebrating New Year's Eve, but because it happens to be on a Saturday people get a half-hour more than usual. Last trains of the night leave the two blue line terminuses at 12:15am, in all five directions from Berri at 1:30am and from Longueuil at 1:30am.
• Sunday, Jan. 1:
  • Bus routes will follow Sunday schedules for the most part.
  • Metro trains will pass about every 10-12 minutes on the green line and every 10 minutes on the other lines.
• Monday, Jan. 2:
  • Bus routes and metro trains will follow a special schedule.

Note that Opus cards can be recharged at any point after Dec. 20.

STL (Laval)

As usual, the STL offers free transit on its buses on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

• Saturday, Dec. 24: Saturday schedule. Free service on all routes.
• Sunday, Dec. 25:
  • Sunday schedule for all routes.
  • The following will only have service from 11am to 9pm: 12, 20, 25, 27, 28, 31, 33, 37, 39, 40, 45, 46, 58, 61, 63, 65, 66, 74, 144, 804 and 903.
  • All other routes will have full regular Sunday service.
• Monday, Dec. 26: Saturday schedules in effect for all routes.
• Dec. 27-30: Regular weekday schedules for all routes.
• Saturday, Dec. 31: Saturday schedule. Free service on all routes.
• Sunday, Jan. 1:
  • Sunday schedule for all routes.
  • The following will only have service from 11am to 9pm: 12, 20, 25, 27, 28, 31, 33, 37, 39, 40, 45, 46, 58, 61, 63, 65, 66, 74, 144, 804 and 903.
  • All other routes will have full regular Sunday service.
• Monday, Jan 2: Saturday schedule for all routes.

RTL (Longueuil)

Like the STL, the RTL is offering free service for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and is asking for donations in lieu of fares.

From their PDF guide:

• Saturday, Dec. 24 (free service): Saturday schedule for all routes
• Sunday, Dec. 25: Sunday schedule for all routes
• Monday, Dec. 26:
• Saturday schedules for most routes.
• Saturday schedule with additional departures on lines 8, 35, 45, 80.
• Weekday schedule for taxi lines T22 and T89.
• Dec. 27-30: Regular weekday service for all routes
• Saturday, Dec. 31 (free service): Saturday schedule for all routes
• Sunday, Jan. 1:
• Sunday schedule for all routes
• Monday, Jan. 2:
• Saturday schedules for most routes.
• Saturday schedule with additional departures on lines 8, 35, 45, 80.

AMT (commuter trains)

The AMT offers free trips on the two lines that operate on Christmas and New Year's - Dorion/Rigaud and Deux-Montagnes.

From their website:

• Saturday, Dec. 24: Regular Saturday service on all lines
• Sunday, Dec. 25:
  • Sunday service on Montreal/Deux-Montagnes and Montreal/Dorion (all trips are free)
• Monday, Dec. 26:
  • Saturday service on Montreal/Deux-Montagnes
  • Sunday service on Montreal/Dorion
  • No service on other lines
• Dec. 27-30: Regular weekday service on all lines
• Saturday, Dec. 31: Regular Saturday service on all lines
• Sunday, Jan. 1:
  • Sunday service on Montreal/Deux-Montagnes and Montreal/Dorion (all trips are free)
• Monday, Jan. 2:
  • Saturday service on Montreal/Deux-Montagnes
  • Sunday service on Montreal/Dorion
  • No service on other lines

Customer service at the AMT will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Related Posts

• Transit fares for 2012
• Fagstein’s 2010-11 guide to holiday transit
• 2009-10 guide to holiday transit
• Transit agencies aren’t giving enough notice of fare increases
• Fagstein’s Guide to Holiday Transit

The STM's press release (sent on Friday, which made Métro's Mathias Marchal wonder if it was trying to get hidden in news coverage) talks about all the additional service it provides in exchange for this modest increase, and they're not making it up - there have been significant increases in transit service over the past few years. But for most users, that increase isn't enough - buses and metro trains are still packed during rush hour, and still don't seem to come often enough outside of it.

No more six tickets or CAM Longueuil

Two fares disappear completely from the grid for 2012. One is the CAM Longueuil, a compromise set up for 2011 that allowed users of the Longueuil metro station to transition from a regular STM fare to a Zone 3 fare.

People who use the Longueuil metro station (but who don't use the RTL network) will go from paying $82 a month ($49 reduced fare) to $117 a month ($70 reduced fare, $93.50 intermediate fare). This represents a 43% increase, or a whopping 91% increase for students 18-25.

The other item gone from the fare table is the six-trip package. Originally designed to be a single disposable magnetic card that could be used six times, the STM quickly started giving out six individual tickets when it noticed that careless users would discard their ticket after one use.

There is still the 10-ticket package available, but that requires an Opus card. This means that people who don't want an Opus card (say, tourists) must buy tickets two at a time or use the "Carte occasionnelle" one-day or three-day tourist pass.

Fare progression chart

Here's a chart showing the STM's fares over the past five years:

I'll leave it to you to decide if these increases are too much in the short or long term.

UPDATE: Here's some progression tables for Montreal's other transit agencies:

AMT

I value my sanity, so I won't do the entire fare table. I'll limit this table to the most popular fare, the TRAM fare, for each zone. (Zone 8 doesn't have any train stations, but does have some bus service). The full 2012 fare table is here (PDF).

The AMT says it will also maintain the "discount" allowing people using the Hudson train station, which is in Zone 6, to use a Zone 5 pass. This policy has been in place since Hudson (and Rigaud) were moved from Zone 5 to Zone 6 on Jan. 1, 2005.

STL

Slight hikes in all categories, including an increase in the cash fare from $2.80 to $3, which is equal to the STM cash fare and the cash fare to enter the Laval metro stations. It also brings it back up to the level it was in 2007. The fare was reduced in 2008 to encourage more people to use transit.

The full list of fares is here.

RTL

The full fare table for 2012 is here.

*In 2009, the RTL eliminated transfers and reduced single fares. (All other fares moved to electronic cards.) As of then, cash fares no longer allowed transfers, hence the reduction in price.

Related Posts

• Transit agencies aren’t giving enough notice of fare increases
• AMT fares going up too
• Fagstein’s 2011-12 guide to holiday transit
• Fagstein’s 2010-11 guide to holiday transit
• 2009-10 guide to holiday transit

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

A new bus stop sign design was shown off with a new shelter design

Last fall, the STM showed off - with great fanfare - a prototype for a brand new bus stop shelter, which it installed on René-Lévesque Blvd. near Jeanne-Mance St. Installed along with it, a few feet away, was a prototype for a new bus stop sign pole, as seen above in this photo I took last week.

Cool, I thought, but as hip as it looked, it also meant losing a lot of information, such as what metro/train stops a bus will go to, whether it's a rush-hour-only bus or express bus or night bus, and the bus stop code. All this information was moved to a panel lower down that has schedules and other info.

More importantly, I thought, it's going to be more complicated to add routes to this totem pole, and you can't indicate detours or disruptions in service like you can by slipping one of those temporary bus stop covers over the traditional signs.

With the new night bus network taking effect on Monday, adding four new routes to this stop (and the deletion of this leg of the 515 bus, which also took effect Monday), I passed by on Sunday to see if they had updated the totem pole.

The STM has replaced its prototype totem pole stop sign with a regular one

As it turns out, they've taken it down and replaced it with a regular bus stop sign.

On the shelter itself, there is also a list of bus routes that stop there. I remarked that it seemed limited to nine routes (the exact number that stopped there at the time). Now it will need to fit 12.

A list of stops on the shelter remains unupdated

So far that sign (and a similar one on the inside) remains unchanged, which could lead to some user confusion. (Then again, you can't really read it at night, so maybe it doesn't matter that the night buses aren't listed there.)

Hey, it's a pilot project. Sometimes these things fail. I could point out that I saw these problems the first day I saw this new design, but instead I'll just hope the STM has learned its lesson.

UPDATE (July 5): Andy Riga talked to the STM, which downplayed the significance of the totem pole and said it was not part of the new bus shelter design pilot project. "It was a suggestion of the designer to put an element of clientele info," Marianne Rouette told Riga. "So, as it was not intended to be permanent, we came back to the bus stop model we currently use."

Related Posts

• New bus shelters are so sharp it hurts (UPDATED)
• The metro car contract: a depressing timeline
• Front-seat driver
• More 515 confusion
• So green that stuff is growing on the walls

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

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• 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

• STM’s service improvements are actually service reductions
• STM to renumber bus routes in January
• STM’s night bus overhaul increases service by 73%
• STM adds St. Michel bus route starting Monday
• 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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• STM’s night bus overhaul increases service by 73%
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• STM bus route changes coming Jan. 3
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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

Related Posts

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As I have in previous years, I ask that you have some sympathy for the bus, metro or train driver, station attendant or other employee who has to work during the holidays - some on Christmas morning, some through midnight on New Year's Eve - just so that you can get you from point A to point B in the dark, wet, snowy mess that is the last week of the year.

STM (Montreal, including the entire metro)

(Mainly from the STM's website):

• Friday, Dec. 24:
  • Buses and metro service will follow a regular weekday schedule.
  • Taxi service runs as normal.
• Saturday, Dec. 25:
  • Most bus routes will run on a Saturday schedule.
  • Metro trains will pass about every 10-12 minutes on the green line and every 10 minutes on the other lines.
• Sunday, Dec. 26:
  • Most bus routes will run on a Sunday schedule.
  • Metro service will run on a regular Sunday schedule, though additional trains will be added to the Orange (8:30am-7:30pm) and Green (8:30am-5:45pm) lines to accommodate rabid Boxing Day shoppers.
• Dec. 27-30: Normal weekday schedules for all services, though customer service and paratransit service have special hours and provisions for this week.
• Friday, Dec. 31:
  • Buses, metro and taxi service will follow a regular weekday schedule.
  • Once again, there's no extension of metro service despite how many people are out celebrating New Year's Eve. Last trains of the night leave the two blue line terminuses at 12:15am, in all five directions from Berri at 1am and from Longueuil at 1am.
  • Night buses with a special Friday night schedule (including the 358 Sainte-Catherine) will run on that schedule.
• Saturday, Jan. 1:
  • Bus routes will follow Saturday schedules for the most part.
  • Metro trains will pass about every 10-12 minutes on the green line and every 10 minutes on the other lines.
• Sunday, Jan. 2:
  • All services will follow regular Sunday schedules.

Note that Opus cards can be recharged at any point after Dec. 20.

STL (Laval)

As usual, the STL offers free transit on its buses on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve (PDF).

• Dec. 24: Saturday schedule. Free service on all routes.
• Dec. 25:
  • Sunday schedule for all routes.
  • The following will only have service from 11am to 9pm: 12, 20, 25, 27, 28, 31, 33, 37, 39, 40, 45, 46, 58, 61, 63, 65, 66, 74, 144, 804 and 903.
  • The following will have full regular Sunday service: 17, 24, 26, 42, 43, 48, 50, 52, 55, 56, 60, 70, 73, 76, and 151.
• Dec. 26: Regular Sunday schedules in effect for all routes.
• Dec. 27-30: Regular weekday schedules for all routes.
• Dec. 31: Saturday schedule. Free service on all routes.
• Jan. 1:
  • Sunday schedule for all routes.
  • The following will only have service from 11am to 9pm: 12, 20, 25, 27, 28, 31, 33, 37, 39, 40, 45, 46, 58, 61, 63, 65, 66, 74, 144, 804 and 903.
  • The following will have full regular Sunday service: 17, 24, 26, 42, 43, 48, 50, 52, 55, 56, 60, 70, 73, 76, and 151.
• Jan 2: Regular Sunday schedule for all routes.

RTL (Longueuil)

Like the STL, the RTL is offering free service for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and is asking for donations in lieu of fares.

From their PDF guide:

• Dec. 24 (free service):
  • Regular weekday schedule for lines 91, 92, T22, T89
  • Saturday schedule for lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 29, 32, 41/43, 49, 50, 54, 61, 74, 75, 88, 132, T18, T20, T48 and T92 p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia}
  • Special schedule for lines 8, 13, 17, 20, 23, 123, 35, 42, 44, 45, 54, 73, 77, 80, 81, 83, 99 and T77 (see PDF flyer for complete schedule) p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia}
  • No service on other lines

• Dec. 25:
  • Sunday schedule for all routes
• Dec. 26:
  • Sunday schedule for all routes
• Dec. 27-30:
  • Regular service for all routes according to the day of the week
• Dec. 31 (free service):
  • Regular weekday schedule for lines 91, 92, T22, T89
  • Saturday schedule for lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 29, 32, 41/43, 49, 50, 54, 61, 74, 75, 88, 132, T18, T20, T48 and T92
  • Special schedule for lines 8, 13, 17, 20, 23, 123, 35, 42, 44, 45, 54, 73, 77, 80, 81, 83, 99 and T77 (see PDF flyer for complete schedule)
  • No service on other lines
• Jan. 1:
  • Sunday schedule for all routes
• Jan. 2:
  • Sunday schedule for all routes

AMT (commuter trains)

The AMT offers free trips on the two lines that operate on Christmas and New Year's - Dorion/Rigaud and Deux-Montagnes.

From their website:

• Friday, Dec. 24: Regular weekday service on all lines
• Saturday, Dec. 25:
  • Sunday service on Montreal/Deux-Montagnes and Montreal/Dorion (all trips are free)
  • No service on the other lines
• Sunday, Dec. 26:
  • Saturday service on Montreal/Deux-Montagnes
  • Sunday service on Montreal/Dorion
• Dec. 27-31: Regular service on all lines according to day of the week
• Saturday, Jan. 1:
  • Sunday service on Montreal/Deux-Montagnes and Montreal/Dorion (all trips are free)
  • No service on the other lines
• Sunday, Jan. 2:
  • Saturday service on Montreal/Deux-Montagnes
  • Sunday service on Montreal/Dorion

Customer service at the AMT will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Related Posts

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• Transit fares for 2012
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These Métro newspaper stands will be replaced by ones distributing 24 Heures

A 10-year deal that has given a huge competitive advantage to one of Montreal's two (officially) free daily newspapers is about to come to an end.

The Société de transport de Montréal announced today that 24 Heures, the freesheet owned by Quebecor's Sun Media, has won its bid for exclusive distribution access in the metro system in a five-year (extendable) deal that starts on Jan. 3. As of that point, it will replace Transcontinental's Métro, which has had this exclusive access since it began publishing in 2001.

It's hard to overstate how important this is. Even though the two competing papers were launched virtually simultaneously, have the same type of content and even share similar design styles, this distribution deal meant that Métro could fill stands inside each station and let people pick the paper up throughout the day, while 24 Heures had to settle for being able to hand their paper out to people outside metro entrances. The result was that Métro at one point had four times the readership of 24 Heures.

Since then, the numbers have evened out a bit, but Métro is still significantly ahead of 24 Heures in the quest for eyeballs.

The exclusivity deal angered Quebecor so much that it tried to go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada to fight it. That battle was lost in 2005. Deciding that if you can't fight them, might as well join then, 24 Heures then signed an exclusivity deal with the Agence métropolitaine de transport for distribution in train stations in 2006. And now it gets the metro deal as well (and it's very happy about that).

The deal with the STM also includes a requirement to offer a page in each issue to the STM to communicate with its users. (The STM will need to change its format a bit, since the new newspaper is smaller.) And expect that there will be a provision for recycling their own newspapers, similar to what Métro had. (Does that mean the recycling bins will be orange instead of green?)

In a Twitter post, Métro promised that it would still be found "everywhere" and would beef up its human distribution staff. It also said it would not reduce the number of issues it prints or cut any staff. In the next day's paper, it devoted its cover page to an ad saying "Métro sort du métro" and used Page 2 to explain the situation to readers:

Métro, Dec. 17, 2010, Page 2

As much as this is a loss for Métro and a win for 24 Heures, the big winner here is the STM. Though no details of the contract have been released, expect the monetary value to be higher than it was under Métro (where it was about $500,000 a year - link via Andy Riga). Quebecor wanted this, and it ponied up the money to make it happen. Métro's Daniel Barbeau said that they "weren't ready to renew the contract at any price."

On the plus side, Métro announced today a new columnist, René Vézina, a contributor to Les Affaires.

More coverage in:

• La Presse
• Presse Canadienne
• 24 Heures
• Trente
• The Gazette
• Le Devoir
• Rue Frontenac

And analysis from Steve Proulx, who wonders why transit users were no part of the decision on what newspaper would be distributed inside the metro system. Meanwhile, Pierre-Luc Daoust says this isn't nearly as big a deal as everyone is making it out to be.

UPDATE (Dec. 20): Métro has started warning readers of the change on their distribution bins:

UPDATE (Jan. 6): La Presse on the change, talking to the people who hand out the papers. It says, notably, that Metro-branded recycling bins in the stations won't be removed right away.

Related Posts

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The STM is giving a bit more notice this year than last of its fare hikes, but that's not going to make too many people happy about the news, since, of course, they're going up again, along with other city taxes.

In addition to the usual incremental increases in all fares, the STM is adding a couple of new ones to encourage occasional transit users.

One is a simple two-for-one-and-five-sixths, offering two fares for $5.50 instead of $6 when bought together. The idea is that if you're going somewhere by public transit, you're probably coming back the same way, and it makes sense to encourage this, even if it's only 50 cents off. (It also means if you buy two tickets at a time, you'll pay the same price per ticket as you did in 2010.)

The second new fare is more interesting. Called "Soirée illimitée", it permits unlimited travel after 6pm (it's not clear how late this goes) for $4, which is only $1 more than a single-trip fare. A day pass, allowing unlimited travel for 24 hours from the point of purchase, will cost $8 on Jan. 1.

And, as previously announced, people who use the Longueuil metro station won't be able to use their regular CAM passes as of Jan. 1. The deal with Laval means that the fare required for that station will increase gradually until it matches AMT Zone 3 rates. For now, the STM is selling what it calls the "CAM Longueuil" for $82, the price of a Zone 1 TRAM.

The tourist passes (allowing unlimited travel for 1 or 3 days) have gone up, but are still slightly below 2009 levels after the STM reduced them last year.

Here's the table, compared to last year:

And for fun, since all the media are doing it, here's what the regular fares were in 2001, 10 years ago:

• CAM: $48.50 (now 50% more)
• CAM hebdo: $13.50 (now 63% more)
• Six tickets: $8.50 (now 68% more)
• Single fare: $2.00 (now 50% more)
• Tourist (1 calendar day): $7 (now 14% more)
• Tourist (three consecutive days): $14 (now 14% more)

You can read the full 2011 budget here (PDF).

UPDATE: Fee tables from the AMT, STL and RTL, mostly modest increases of a buck or two. Note that the RTL's cash fare (which doesn't allow transfers) will be $3.10 instead of $3.

Related Posts

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A prototype of the new STM bus shelter at René-Lévesque Blvd. and Jeanne-Mance St.

On Monday, the Société de transport de Montréal made a big splash of this rectangular glass box, inviting the media to take pictures and witness a dramatic unveiling. This is the model of a new style of bus shelter that the STM is planning to replicate hundreds of times.

Michel Labrecque, the STM's chairman, said the biggest thing about it is the look, and how the aesthetic design of the shelter will draw more transit users in. People want to wait in something "sharp", he said, something that looks more like the future than the stone age.

The shelters will cost between $14,000 and $16,000 about $12,000 each, not including the development cost, which will bring the total price for 400 shelters to $14 million. Even then, it's significantly more than the price of existing shelters.

After installing three prototypes (the other two will come next month), the STM will seek input from users before making the order for the rest.

Not wanting to pass judgment before I saw it myself, I decided to pass by the shelter on the day after the big announcement, when all the TV cameras, PR people and giant tarps had long gone (and when the weather wasn't so rainy).

Users line up next to the "totem pole" near the shelter

The first thing I noticed was how the shelter was empty. Everyone was waiting for the bus at the stop more than 10 feet away.

Nobody's using the shelter while waiting for the bus

I stood nearby observing the behaviour of transit users waiting for one of ten buses that stop here at the beginning of the afternoon rush hour. I stayed for a little more than half an hour, watching as about 50-60 people waited for and boarded buses.

In that time, only one person entered the bus shelter. Everyone else waited at the "totem pole" - and because the natural tendency of bus lineups in Montreal is for them to start at the flag and expand upstream, the line moved away from the shelter instead of toward it.

Now, the weather didn't exactly encourage people to seek shelter. It wasn't raining, it wasn't particularly cold or windy, and nobody had to wait that long for their bus.

But for something Labrecque considers so "sharp", this shelter seemed to prompt very few people to want to actually use it. I heard plenty of comments about the design from people chatting with their friends and colleagues (mostly positive), but I don't think the purpose of this thing is to be looked at.

I also noticed that the shelter seemed pretty small. About the same size as its predecessor. There's another version of the design that doubles the interior space, but I think it would have made sense to install it here.

Shelter features

Here's what you'll find in this new shelter.

At the entrance to the shelter, an orange strip indicates ... something

Like many shelters downtown, the entrance to this one is on the side opposite where the bus stops. I imagine this was done for safety reasons - to prevent people from stepping out into the street and accidentally getting hit by a bus. But it forces people to walk away from a bus when it approaches. This makes it more likely the driver will think the person isn't interested in getting on and drive right by the stop. It would make more sense to back the shelter a bit further from the curb and put the entrance on the side facing the bus.

Like in previous shelters, a network map is attached to the glass wall

The map is glued to the wall instead of being in a glass enclosure

If you touch the map, you'll find it has a rough texture to it, probably a result of the anti-graffiti coating they've given it. It's also glued to the glass, while the previous design had a paper map behind a glass casing. This will probably make it more difficult for maps to disappear from the shelter, but it will also make it more difficult to replace the map when it gets updated.

Near the roof inside, a list of bus routes that stop here

A similar list outside

The shelter has a list of the routes that stop here - separate from the totem pole which replaces the old bus stop sign. The design of the list of buses on the shelter seems to suggest a hard limit of nine routes per stop. In order to fit more of these coloured boxes, a second row would need to be added or the boxes would need to be made smaller. Of course, there are very few stops in the city with as many bus routes passing through, but they exist. And it doesn't seem crazy to think they might add a 10th to this stop.

Motion sensor in a half-sphere under the ceiling

Lights in the shelter are to be controlled by motion sensor, so they don't waste energy unnecessarily. That makes sense, but it's worth pointing out that the previous shelters were lit by having large backlit ads, something the ad company would not want dimmed just because nobody's in the shelter.

The bench seats two

It's unfortunate to see that despite making changes to improve the design of the shelter, the bench is still basically the same. The seat (the brown part) is made of some plastic-like material that remains comfortable even in the cold. The metallic parts appear to be aluminum, which conducts heat very easily and will be cold as hell during winter.

It's pretty rare that I see people use these benches. Maybe there's a psychological reason, maybe they're too small or people think they're too dirty. Whatever it is, this design doesn't seem to be making it more inviting.

A solar panel on the roof provides power

To emphasize how green the STM is, this shelter has a solar panel on top which provides power that's used to light it at night. The STM says some will be solar-powered and others connected to the electrical grid.

The totem pole

A "totem pole" shows a colour-coded list of buses that stop here

The second part of this new design is the "totem pole", which replaces the old bus stop sign. It also has schedules for each bus attached to it.

In the case of the stop at René-Lévesque and Jeanne-Mance, this pole is inexplicably about 10 feet away from the shelter.

The first thing that comes to mind when looking at this is to wonder what the colours mean.

As a transit buff, I know that dark blue is for regular routes, green is for express routes, and light blue is for special routes (the 515 is a tourist bus that goes to the old port, and the 747 is the airport express bus). There's also black for night buses and gold for seniors' buses. But there's no way to discover this at the stop. So the colour backgrounds become this secret code that only the elite few can decypher.

The detoured 15 Ste. Catherine bus stops here

Another disadvantage to this new design becomes apparent when I notice two things. First of all, the 15 bus is stopping here, even though it's not listed on the totem pole or the shelter. It's stopping here as part of a (long-term) detour because of construction on Ste. Catherine Street.

The schedule for the 80 bus shows it doesn't stop here

Secondly, the 80 bus is listed as having a stop here, but it doesn't.

The route for the 80 bus was changed because of all the construction around the Quartier des Spectacles to make a temporary detour permanent. Instead of taking Jeanne-Mance, the bus now takes St. Laurent until Ontario and then heads back to the Place des Arts metro. But because of construction at St. Laurent and Ste. Catherine, the bus has been detoured back onto its original route - Jeanne-Mance now being open to through traffic.

Under the old design, the STM would slip a specially-designed detour flag on top of the bus stop sign, indicating which buses stop there and which have been detoured. Under the new design, people have the impression that the 80 bus stops here unless they think to look at the schedule.

A typical schedule and route map, this one for the 535 bus (that doesn't actually stop here)

The 535 schedule, meanwhile, gives no indication that this stop has been moved.

I don't know if the STM is developing a small condom to put over the flags of bus routes that have detours, or if it'll just paste something over its schedule, but the potential for confusion seems to be larger.

A list below the schedules gives the text line and other information on how to get bus schedules electronically

The verdict

Perhaps I shouldn't be too hard on it because it is a prototype and those things always have unforeseen issues. It also does look very nice.

But aside from motion-sensor lighting, which isn't exactly a top priority right now, there's little here you can't find in existing shelters at half the price.

Image consultants, which I can only imagine the STM has too many of right now, always want to change things so people will pay attention to what's new. But all that's changed here is the look.

There are serious improvements that can be made to bus shelters to make them more attractive to riders. It starts with being heated in the winter, then having schedules at a glance inside the shelter (which isn't the case here), and a comfortable place to sit and wait (which also doesn't exist on the tiny bench).

The improvements here are bells and whistles at best and at worst a waste of money on fulfilling some industrial designer's wet dream.

If you asked bus users or potential bus users would make them more likely to use the bus, I doubt "make the bus stop sign more sharp" would rank high.

Blue and yellow lines!

The fact that nobody wants to use this shelter right now should be clear evidence that this design is ill thought out.

UPDATE (Nov. 11): La Presse's Lysiane Gagnon goes way over the top in her criticism, calling these "des abribus de millionnaires" - as if the super rich would use an unheated shelter to wait for a bus in the middle of winter. Take that with the same grain of salt as her suggestion that nobody uses bike paths in Montreal, or that Bixi is a financial disaster.

UPDATE (Nov. 25): Curious about how this shelter works at night, I revisited it a few days later after dark.

The new shelter at night: Neat, but not very bright

What struck me was how dark and uninviting it was. The picture above is brighter than how the scene actually appeared (I needed a pretty long exposure).

Recessed lights provide minimal brightness

There are lights in the ceiling of the shelter (supposedly they're motion-controlled, but I didn't see them turn off or on while I was there). But compared to the previous CBS Outdoor shelters with the domed roof and giant backlit ad, it felt kind of dark.

You'll note that the part of the shelter that lists information on the buses that stop here and the bus stop code is unlit.

The totem pole is completely unlit

The problem is worse when it comes to the nearby totem pole that lists the buses that stop here and their schedules below. It's completely unlit, which not only makes it seem like it's inactive after dark, but also makes it hard to read the schedules.

On the side facing the sidewalk, the schedule is impossible to read because it's so dark

I'm not exaggerating how dark it is here. Even with my pretty good night vision, I couldn't read the schedule on this side.

The side facing the street is barely readable thanks to the street light

I had better luck on the other side, but even then it wasn't easy. Someone with poor eyesight would struggle with this.

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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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Just to recap:

• May 2006: The Quebec government announces it's going to hand a $1.2-billion contract to build new metro cars to Bombardier without putting it out to tenders. It reasons that Bombardier is the only company that can build the cars in Quebec on rubber wheels. Competitor Alstom immediately points out that it could have done the same.
• June 2006: Alstom sues.
• January 2008: A judge rules in favour of Alstom, which he says has a right to bid on the contract.
• February 2008: The Quebec government starts from scratch, opening up bidding for the contract.
• November 2008: Bombardier and Alstom submit a joint bid on the contract. Being the only bidders, they quickly get it.
• November 2009: The Quebec government decides to double the scope of the contract from 340 to 765 cars, replacing not just the oldest cars but the entire fleet.
• December 2009: Chinese company ZhuZhou comes out of nowhere and demands to be able to bid on the new contract. ZhuZhou promptly sues. A Spanish company, CAF, does the same.
• January 2010: A judge rules that because of the expanded scope of the contract, these new companies should be allowed to bid. The STM puts out a call for interest, but competitors argue it's rigged to ensure that Bombardier-Alstom gets the contract. ZhuZhou says it will sue.
• March 2010: Both China's ZhuZhou and Spain's CAF express interest in bidding for the expanded metro contract.
• May 2010: Bombardier-Alstom sues.
• June 2010: A judge rules against Bombardier-Alstom, saying the STM can put out a public call for bids on the expanded metro contract.
• July 2010: The STM decides to start from scratch for a third time, opening up bidding for the expanded contract
• October 2010: The Quebec government decides it will start from scratch a fourth time, and just hand over a $1.3-billion contract without putting it up for bids. It cites the urgency of acquiring new cars. CAF says it will sue.

(Projected):

• January 2012: A judge rules that the "urgency" argument doesn't hold up, and orders a call for bids on the new metro car contract. Bombardier-Alstom sues.
• March 2012: The STM puts out a new call for bids, and 12 more companies come out of the blue to express interest.
• May 2012: The STM picks Bombardier-Alstom as the winner of the bid. ZhuZhou, CAF and a bunch of other companies promptly sue.
• September 2012: A judge rules something, but nobody reads the judgment and everyone just announces they're going to sue each other.
• October 2012: The Quebec people sue the government for incompetent mismanagement of their funds.
• December 2012: The world comes to an end. All evil dies in the apocalypse. Civil courts stop functioning, and all lawsuits are dismissed.
• April 2025: The first new metro cars are delivered. Quebec Premier Patrick Huard participates in a photo op and pretends it was all his doing.

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I'm not necessarily in favour of spending millions of taxpayer dollars on massive air conditioning systems for the three or four weeks a year they'll be useful, but I have to admit this Projet Montréal video is damn funny.

(The original, for those who haven't seen it)

You can find the party's dossier on the subject on its website. It includes those pictures of people holding up giant thermometers on the metro.

If only all public policy discussions involved dancers (and am I the only one who thinks it's a missed opportunity that we don't see Richard Bergeron, Luc Ferrandez and Peter McQueen prancing around a fake metro car?)

(via Projet Montréal on Twitter)

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A woman sits on the bus driver's armrest greeting passengers

Maybe I'm being a bit of a prude, and insufficiently open-minded. And I know it can get boring when you're driving a bus late at night.

But it just seems somewhat ... inappropriate to have someone sitting with you in the driver's seat as you're driving the bus. Not only does it look rather unprofessional when people start to board the bus, but I'm pretty sure the people who tested the bus for safety don't recommend people sit there.

There's a seat right by the front door, and at this particular moment it's unoccupied. Maybe you can sit there instead. Don't worry, your conversation shouldn't suffer.

UPDATE (Oct. 2): After having a similar experience - this time with children - Gazette reporter Anne Sutherland has written a story about bus driver behaviour, which appeared on Page A3 of Saturday's paper:

Bus driver story by Anne Sutherland on Page A3 of Saturday's paper

The photo becomes officially my first freelance photo for The Gazette. Of course, had I known that would happen when I took it, I would have tried to make it a lot better (and taken it at a higher resolution).

Me!

The story also quotes me briefly about my experience:

Here’s another, I hope, rare example of bad behaviour by bus drivers:

Montreal blog Fagstein posted a photo taken Sept. 17 of a female passenger riding on the armrest of a male driver’s seat.

“This was on the 361 bus at 2:30 in the morning,” said blog author Steve Faguy, who works as a copy editor at The Gazette. “The woman was sitting there the whole time, about 30 minutes. If the guy had to do some kind of emergency manoeuvre, he can’t do it with her on his lap.”

New media is awesome and all, and I work at the Gazette and put together a bunch of pages every day, but there's still something about seeing a piece of paper with my name on it delivered to over a hundred thousand households that makes me a bit giddy. Running my first photo about a third of a page (I've cropped out the ads) on A3 of the Saturday paper ads icing to the cake.

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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.

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This isn't the first time the STM has come up with this idea. In 2008, it tested a train that had a high-pitched beeping sound. I imagine it wasn't received very well, considering how annoying that beep can be when heard over and over again.

The sound they've come up with this time - you can listen to it in .WAV format (WAV? Really STM?) on the STM's website - is a vocal warning with the famous doo-doo-doo sound of departing trains in the background.

This is significant because the doo-doo-doo sound associated with Montreal's metro system is endangered.

The sound is heard on the MR-73 trains used on the blue and orange lines (a similar sound is heard on three MR-63 trains with middle elements from a specially-designed train). It's not an artificial or intentional creation, but rather a byproduct of a current chopper that regulates power going to the electric motor. This chopper has five stages, which give off sound at different frequencies (three of which are audible by most people).

In new trains that will be built hopefully sometime before the next millennium, the motors will have a much more advanced power regulation system that will result in a continuous frequency change rather than discrete notes. It will sound more like a car engine accelerating than the metro we know now (assuming it makes much sound at all - new trains are supposed to be much quieter).

There has been suggestions among transit fans of artificially emulating the sound by just playing a sound file when the trains start moving, but that seems a bit silly and unnecessary.

Using the three-note sound for a door chime, on the other hand, makes sense. It's a pleasant sound, instantly recognizable, and has a bit of heritage value, I'd argue.

Assuming the STM sticks with this sound for its new trains, we won't have to worry about doo-doo-doo going the way of the dodo.

UPDATE (Aug. 13): I happened to be on the train that's testing this new chime. The doors begin closing at the word "fermons" in "nous fermons les portes," which on the plus side means there's little additional delay caused by adding the warning, but on the minus side means that by the time someone who hasn't heard the notice understands what it says (by the time it gets to the keyword "portes"), it's already obvious that the doors are closing, and the warning becomes unnecessary.

I kind of agree with the commenters below: keep the chime, but lose the voice.

UPDATE (Nov. 12): I was on this train again today, and noticed that they've done exactly as I and others have suggested. The sound remains the same, but the voice announcement has disappeared completely.

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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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