Design a trip, using only public transit, from the eastern tip of the island of Montreal to the southern tip of the island, that has the least possible number of transfer points. Assume you can leave at any time during the week, and use any combination of STM buses, metro lines and AMT commuter train lines.
For bonus points, calculate the time between departure and arrival.
UPDATE: Nice to see almost everyone saw through the southernmost-tip trap. It is, in fact, way out west in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and not in Verdun or LaSalle.
Tim gets the correct answer below, with two transfers:
- 410 Express Notre-Dame (AM rush hour only) from 100e/Bureau to Lucien L’Allier train station
- Dorion/Rigaud train to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue station (select times only)
- 251 Sainte-Anne to Ste-Anne and Kent
The disadvantage to this route is that it only works on weekday mornings, and it has to be carefully synchronized to the train. The only route that doesn’t involve more than 30 minutes of wait time at any stop departs at 5:55am and arrives at 7:53am, for a total of 118 minutes (1:58).
Not including the train, the trip would involve three transfers: (184), green line, 211, 251
Outside of rush hour, it adds another: 86, 186, green line, 211, 251
At night: 362, 364, 358, 356 (the fastest travel time: 160 minutes or 2:40)
In other words, not a trip I’d recommend taking daily.
184 Métrobus Bout-de-l’Ile west to
Station Honore-Beaugrand
Ligne verte dir. Angrignon to
Ligne orange dir. Côte-Vertu to
Station Vendome
Gare Vendôme
Train Montréal/Dorion-Rigaud dir. Oues
exit Gare Ste Anne de Bellevue
One bus, two metro lines, one commuter train 136 minutes.
211 bus from end of line in Ste-Anne to Lionel-Groulx
Green line to Honoré-Beaugrand
189 bus from H-B out to Delphis-Delorme in Pointe-aux-Trembles
Before giving my answer I will lay out the following assumptions:
– Walking should be minimized. Tous azimuts would have me walk for 1.4 km at one point; that hardly seems fair.
– The easternmost point of the Island (and also its northernmost) is at Bout-de-I’île park, near the corner of Bureau and 100e avenue in Pointe-aux-Trembles borough.
– The southernmost point of the island is out near is westernmost, along rue Ste-Anne below Montée Ste-Marie, in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.
05:45—410 from Barre/100e terminus to René-Lévesque and de la Montagne—06:44
06:44—A hop, skip and a jump from René-Lévesque down de la Montagne to Lucien L’Allier train terminus—06:49
07:05—Dorion/Rigaud line from Lucien L’Allier to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue station—07:44
07:47—251 from Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue station to Sainte-Anne and Kent Streets—07:53
(If you’re a woman, travelling at night) ask the driver to kindly drop you off at Montée Ste-Marie.
Deprature: 05:45
Arrival: 07:53
Total travel time (not guranteed by the STM, the AMT or myself): 128 minutes. Not bad for end-to-end travel.
The longest you’ll wait in one place is at Lucien L’Allier station (I approximate about 15 minutes, but your milage may vary).
I’m surprised how useless Tous azimuts was in this exercise. The only time it proved useful was in calculating travelling time of the last segment.
See my post regarding Google Transit ;)
I assume you mean:
East: Parc du Bout d’Île in Pointe-Aux-Trembles and
South: Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue.
Weekday morning
184 Metrobus Bout-de-l’Île from 100e av. to Henri-Beaugrand (Green Line)
Green line from Henri-Beaugrand to Lionel-Groulx
211 Bord-du-Lac from Lionel-Groulx to John-Abbot
Travel time: about 150 minutes.
If I only had time, but sounds cool :D
Well, it might help if you gave us what you think of as the furthest west and furthest east points….
Either way, Tous Azimuts on stcum.qc.ca already gives the option to calculate trips with transfers minimized…
I used this:
Origin: 100e avenue / rue Bureau (Montréal [Pointe-aux-Trembles])
Destination: boul. Ste-Anne / rue Lalonde (Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue)
3 options – one with 5 transfers, 2 with 4 – but the ones with only 4 both included more than a kilometre’s worth of walking. The 5 transfer is also the fastest route. The key seems to be to get to Lionel groulx as directly as possible then take teh 211 or 251.
see for yourself.
184 to the green line to the 58: altogether it takes 92 mins.
Oops, should have thought to take the 410 ten minutes later. Does that mean I don’t get the bonus points? (You never said to calculate the *shortest* travel time!)
I should quit while I’m ahead; I’m just glad to have finally gotten full credit for one of these.
These are good fun, Steve. Keep ’em coming!
I’d love to keep this going forever, but I’m starting to run out of ideas. If you have some suggestions (not necessarily the exact questions, but the topics or types of questions), let me know.
So far I’ve had some suggestions for “guess where this is” types of questions, which I’ll probably do a few of, but I want to have a bit more than that. Something that can’t be figured out in ten seconds through a Google Maps search.