Category Archives: Public transit

| Montreal, Public transit, West Island

STM to introduce Old Port bus, 470 gets weekend service

At its board of directors’ meeting this week, the STM approved a handful of important changes to bus service on the island. They include:

  • The creation of a new bus route, 515 Vieux-Montréal/Vieux-Port, which will shuttle tourists between the Berri-UQAM metro station and Old Montreal destinations. This is a much-needed bus for tourists and residents alike. Old Montreal is not friendly to vehicular traffic, and sees relatively little bus service, especially outside rush hour, requiring people to walk from the Champ de Mars, Place d’Armes and Square Victoria metro stations to get there. The 500 number is because the route is expected to take advantage of new reserved bus lanes which the city will install in Old Montreal.
  • Adding weekend service to the 470 Express Pierrefonds route. Originally a rush-hour express bus, its runaway popularity convinced the STM to add midday departures in both directions last October, and then extend the schedule to 9pm on weekdays. Adding weekend service was an expected change, as part of an overall plan for West Island bus service.
  • A small route change for the 194 Métrobus Rivière des Prairies between rush hours (when it currently takes the AM route)
  • Extending the 268 Trainbus Pierrefonds to the Côte-Vertu metro station. The one-way rush-hour-only bus is designed to facilitate transfers to the Deux-Montagnes train line at Roxboro-Pierrefonds. Eastbound, it terminates where the 68 does at Grenet and Gouin. Westbound, it starts at the Roxboro-Pierrefonds train station about 10 minutes after the train’s scheduled arrivals. It’s unclear if the extension applies only to eastbound trips or if westbound trips will be extended as well (and if so, how synchronization with the train will be maintained).
  • Creation of a new 220 Kieran bus route in Saint-Laurent, as part of a corporate partnership agreement. Kieran is a tiny street in western Saint-Laurent on the southern side of the Bois de Liesse. Such partnership agreements are usually created to offer transit service to industrial areas for employees of a specific company.

Unfortunately, the meetings don’t provide much details into these kinds of things, so I don’t have any information beyond what you see above.

Expect the changes to take effect with the next schedule change at the end of June.

| Fun, Montreal, Public transit

Metro party Friday night

McGill students are organizing a metro party on Friday evening, meeting at 9pm at the back end of the platform at Henri-Bourassa metro (why they don’t start at Montmorency is a mystery, but whatever). The Facebook page shows 77 “confirmed guests”, which translates to about 15-20 people actually showing up.

The party is similar to metro parties that took place in March, May and October of last year.

| Montreal, Public transit

New express bus route to Nuns’ Island

480 route

On Wednesday evening, the STM’s board of directors approved the creation of a new express bus route serving Nuns’ Island. According to Le Magazine Ile-des-Soeurs, the line will be numbered 480, and will go between Lucien L’Allier station (Mountain and de la Gauchetière), down René Lévesque and University to the new Bell headquarters at the north end of Nuns’ Island, a 15-minute trip in each direction. The route, which will run toward the island during the morning rush hour and toward downtown in the evening (making it the only express bus that travels away from downtown in the morning), is expected to serve 1300 passengers starting in September.

| Media, Montreal, Public transit

Correspondent’s correspondance

The Journal’s Noée Murchison is really stretching for “investigative” stories. In her latest EXCLUSIVE SCANDAL REPORT, she determines that bus drivers don’t always check transfers, and that metro ticket-takers will stand by while people take multiple transfers from the dispenser.

And while I’m here, why does she insist on referring to herself in the third person? Does she think that makes her sound more serious?

(via mtlweblog)

Also: Way to go LCN, way to show your editorial independence by re-reporting a non-story.

| Montreal, Public transit

STM’s April pass is wrong

If you’re a regular transit user in Montreal you’ve noticed that the STM has been using photos of its metro stations as art on its monthly bus/metro passes.

Unfortunately, someone made an oopsie this month. The caption on the April pass says “Station de métro Square-Victoria”, but it’s clearly a photo of the ceiling of Jarry station.

April bus pass

The reason for the error? They forgot to change it from the March pass, which was of the Square Victoria station.

March bus pass

Oops.

| In the news, Montreal, Public transit

Attention: Un feu dans l’autobus nous oblige à … run for your lives!

Ouch:

Bus on fire

The text, in case you can’t read it:

COOLING IT  Montreal Transit Corp. crew and a city firefighter check a 211 bus that caught fire outside the Lionel Groulx métro station yesterday. The fire was caused by mechanical problems, police said, and no one was hurt.

Death trap? What death trap?

(As I mentioned to a concerned fellow traveller yesterday, nobody is seriously injured in these kinds of fires, since they take a while to get this intense and the buses are pretty well designed to be able to get everyone out quickly. Still, spontaneous combustion is a concern.)

| Montreal, On the Net, Public transit, Web design

Bus schedules formatted for cellphones

Here’s an interesting little website: busmob.com. It scrapes the STM’s website for bus departure times and reformats them in an easy-to-read-on-mobile-phones page.

It’s not perfect (it doesn’t do holidays and other special situations, for example), and in many cases it’s probably easier to call the AUTOBUS number and get the automated voice to tell you departure times. But if for some reason the STM’s website is too cumbersome for your cell, this site might just be useful for you.

UPDATE: And here’s a website that acts as a Google Maps frontend for the STM’s Tous Azimuts service.

| Public transit, West Island

209, 470 buses get extended schedules

The first step in the STM’s plans to overhaul West Island bus service takes effect Monday when the spring bus schedules start.

On Monday morning, two bus routes, the 209 Des Sources and 470 Express Pierrefonds, will take significant steps in the transition from rush-hour to all-day service.

The 209 (PDF schedule) will be an all-day (but still weekday-only) bus, with departures every 25-35 minutes during the whole day. Final departures will be at 10:55pm (from Dorval) and 12:05am (from Roxboro-Pierrefonds). The STM considers this a “trial run” according to the flyer (PDF), to be re-evaluated based on demand.

The 470 (PDF schedule) was turned into an all-day-weekdays bus in October, but that move was immediately criticized by myself and others because there was no service past 7pm. The STM has finally decided to rectify that situation, adding departures every half hour until about 9pm in both directions. That still doesn’t sound late enough (most Fairview buses run until midnight), and it’s still not service on weekends, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The next changes come in June with the summer schedules. They’re expected to include:

  • Operation of the 210 John Abbott bus throughout the summer to service Kirkland’s industrial park and other places along Highway 40
  • Simplification of the route for 219 Chemin Sainte-Marie
  • Extension of the 268 Trainbus Pierrefonds to the Côte-Vertu metro station

UPDATE (March 21): The STM is also making a fuss about modest increases to lines 77 CEGEP Marie-Victorin (PDF flyer) and 86 Pointe-aux-Trembles (PDF flyer)