Tag Archives: STM

| Montreal, On the Net, Public transit, Technology

More mobile options for bus times

STM Mobile screenshot

STM Mobile screenshot

via Patrick, a new iPhone application has been launched called STM mobile that scrapes the STM website for bus arrival times and keeps track of favourite stops for easy access. It costs $0.99 through the Apple AppStore.

For those without an OMGcool iPhone, there’s the free busmob.com service, which does the same but through a light-weight website instead of an application.

Or you could just call AUTOBUS from your phone, or check the posted schedule, but that won’t make you cool.

UPDATE (July 31): Pierre-Nick has a review that’s mostly positive, but points out that it doesn’t use geolocation to find the closest stop.

UPDATE (Aug. 2): CFD has an interview with the program’s creator.

UPDATE (Aug. 7): The Gazette’s Roberto Rocha has an article about STM Mobile and busmob.com and how the STM is planning its own mobile schedule service for the fall.

UPDATE (Oct. 24): There’s also this very basic service which does pretty much the same as busmob.

| Opinion, Public transit, West Island

Bus route suggestions on the cheap

To complete my public-transit-in-the-news trifecta, The Gazette’s Henry Aubin has some suggestions about how the STM can help improve the network cheaply, based on readers’ comments:

  1. The MTC should do more to ensure that buses don’t reach bus stops well before their scheduled arrival time: That all depends on what “do more” means. Inspectors check after buses at busy stops to make sure they’re all on time. Individual buses are supposed to keep to their schedules, and in some cases will take breaks in order to keep from moving on too early. But it’s unrealistic to expect an hour-long bus route to be accurate to within one minute at all stops. A simple traffic light or two would be enough to put them off schedule (and often it does).
  2. More posted bus schedules would be handy. No schedules are posted for six to eight bus stops on some routes. What routes? I’ve never seen that many stops between posted schedules. And aside from the fact that every bus stop in the network has a code you can use to call using a cellphone and find out when the next bus comes, the STM has added schedules (and maps) to most of its shelters, as well as stand-alone schedules to many stops. That number is increasing, but there are many less-used stops that don’t have schedules posted.
  3. More generous hours for bringing bicycles on the métro would help certain commuters. Sure, but at the expense of others. The STM limits bicycles on the metro during rush hours and events (such as the fireworks) when the system is too crowded to support them safely. When the network has to choose between allowing a bike on a train or letting three or four people board, it will go with the people.
  4. The MTC could do more to synchronize the routes. Again, what does “do more” mean here? Synchronizing routes sounds very simple, but it’s extremely complicated. Each bus will connect with maybe dozens of others. They can’t all be synchronized in every direction so that every transfer has a minimum wait time. There are some specific areas where individual routes’ schedules could be improved for better synchronization (the 371 and 382 is a personal pet peeve of mine – a delay of a minute over a half-hour route can mean the difference between zero wait time and an hour in a dark outdoor terminus in the middle of the night), but in most cases they do they best they can.
  5. Fewer routes should be part of the Fairview Mall hub-and-spoke system; more should be either east-west or north-south, with transfer-friendly co-ordination between them. The STM has already agreed with this and is transitioning away from the hub-and-spoke system for the West Island. I don’t necessarily agree – I like the idea of a terminal where you can switch from any line to any line, but I guess I’m missing something.
  6. As well, some heavily used routes could cut travel time by avoiding meanderings that benefit relatively few people – the 211 bus’s deviation onto small Dorval streets, for example. I always found that deviation a bit odd, but it does serve the mall at Dorval circle. And the rush-hour 221 skips it for people in a rush. But sure, go ahead and change that.
  7. Other routes could be eliminated entirely, with the resulting savings plowed into new routes or into more frequent service on existing routes (such as) keeping only the 202 and reconfiguring it (to eliminate the 203). The 200 and 205 could be killed. (Notice a West Island bias here?) Well, the 203 is currently the only bus serving Lakeshore General Hospital, so I hope that would be part of the reconfiguration. The 200 is the only bus between Fairview and Ste. Anne de Bellevue on the weekend, but I wouldn’t cry if it disappeared (it doesn’t run after 7pm right now anyway). As for the 205, it is the only bus serving the rather large Rive Boisée area of Pierrefonds. Without it, people would have to walk up to 1,500 metres to the closest bus stop.

But hey, that’s just my opinion.

| Montreal, Public transit, Slow News Day

STM drivers do OT: The horror!

Matinternet has a piece about an Info690 report that plagiarizes (without attribution) an OMGclusive article in the Journal de Montréal this morning that says bus drivers in Montreal are doing a lot of overtime, a few of them even doubling their salary with all the extra work they do.

I guess this is news for some people. If you’ve ever seen an STM driver’s schedule (four hours on, two hours off, three hours on, etc.), you’d start to understand a bit better.

The articles, of course, offer no solutions to this problem. The STM is doing the best they can to hire more drivers, but that takes time, and the number of retirements is creeping upward at the same time as the transit agency wants to add more service.

| Montreal, Public transit

STM to add evening service to downtown routes

Last week at its board of directors’ meeting, the STM approved a plan to extend service hours to five bus routes serving the downtown and near-downtown areas:

All of these routes are 7-day daytime routes, but their service ends before midnight (the 31 and 138 have their last runs as early as 7pm). Though the STM hasn’t said what exactly the extended service hours will be, expect these routes to have added evening service seven days a week, starting at the next schedule change in September.

Also at the meeting, the STM approved a new senior shuttle service for Montreal-North, St-Michel and Rosemont. I guess the stunning failure of the previous senior-shuttle experiment hasn’t fazed the transit authority.

| Montreal, Public transit

Billets à la carte, aux billets

The STM has discovered problems in the rollout of their new magnetic cards and have quietly pulled them out of service. The main problem, as anyone who has seen them in action can attest to, is the time it takes for the magnetic cards to be sucked into the machines, checked, stamped and ejected (though STM employees say there are other problems too).

This is especially problematic on buses, where it can take five seconds to go through the whole process. Multiply that by a dozen tourists (who are unfamiliar with the system) boarding, and you could be spending unnecessary minutes at a stop.

Aside from the time factor, the cards are also not intuitive. Having to take the card back is a dramatic enough departure from the current system that it serves to confuse people and slow the process down further. Plus there’s the issue of their disposal. Many find their way onto the floors of buses and metro stations since they’re only good for one or six uses.

So I guess it should be unsurprising when I went to get my bus pass this month that the young lady in front of me refused to get the new smart card with her monthly pass (the smart card, which is contact-less, is not affected by these problems) saying that not all the buses are properly equipped to handle them.

My refusal to get the smart card and instead opt for the magnetic monthly pass was for the simple reason that it cost less. The smart card required a $3.50 one-time fee in addition to the cost of the pass. When the STM starts incorporating the cost of the card into the cost of the pass, then I’ll consider buying it.

| Montreal, Opinion, Public transit

On the 515

I hopped on board the new 515 Vieux-Montréal/Vieux-Port bus today before work. The new bus route is part of a number of changes that were made as the STM introduced its summer schedule on Monday.

The trip, which goes in a circle from Berri metro down to St. Laurent and de la Commune to Peel and up to René-Lévesque, took about 20 minutes, with most of the delays due to traffic (it was the afternoon of St. Jean Baptiste day, so traffic in Old Montreal was probably higher than normal).

The fact that it was only the bus’s second day of service explained a few of the kinks that still need to be worked out, which probably led to the fact that I was the only person on board the bus for the entire trip:

  1. Traffic. Especially in areas around Notre Dame, Saint-Laurent and de la Commune. The eventual idea is to make de la Commune no-parking and install reserved bus lanes. There is currently one that runs for a few blocks in the western part (where it’s pointless), and it needs to be extended back eastward. The turns at Saint-Laurent and de la Commune are particularly difficult for a 40-foot bus to try and maneuvre.
  2. Confusion. Unlike most STM buses, this one runs in a circular route. In both directions. In such a situation, trying to say what the destination of each direction is becomes difficult, because both directions will eventually get you there. Both eastbound and westbound stops on de la Commune, for example, could say they’re in the direction of downtown, because they are. It’s just one goes up Berri and the other goes up Peel. The confusion is made even moreso by situations like in the photo below where buses in both directions stop at the same stop. So riders have no clue whether the bus they’re getting on is going in the direction they want it to.

You’ll also note the signs have yellow backgrounds. The STM is still trying to figure out what to do with that colour. Once upon a time, they were used to denote special senior’s routes in the west end, until that pilot project was cancelled due to suckage. Then it was used for special shuttles. Now they just use it for any route they think is cool. But it gives the impression that this route is strange in some way, like it needs a special fare or something.

Despite its problems though, I believe in this bus. Old Montreal is woefully underserved by public transit, and the metro is too far to reach everywhere by foot. A bus which runs every 10 minutes will be useful not just to tourists visiting the Old Port, but to residents who want to get downtown quickly.

| Montreal, Public transit, West Island

STM to add more off-peak bus service starting Monday

The STM’s summer schedule starts next Monday, and the Planibus schedules were posted online today. As expected, there are many service improvements, especially to increase service outside of rush hour on weekdays (links go to PDF schedules).

The following bus routes will be extended to full-day service (meaning Monday to Friday, excluding holidays, during morning and afternoon rush hours and the time between them) at 20-minutes-or-less intervals from about 6am to about 6:30pm:

The following bus routes will move to a one-direction-until-noon, another-direction-after-noon schedule, with 20-minute intervals off-peak, until about 6:30pm:

Other changes:

  • 11 Montagne will have added service in the evenings to coincide with the opening hours of Mount Royal Park. Service will now run until midnight instead of 9pm. However, the western part of the route after 9 will go to Côte-des-Neiges and Queen Mary instead of up Ridgewood, which is kind of silly since the 166 detours up Ridgewood after 9pm. Why not just keep both on their original routes and save everyone the confusion?
  • 210 John Abbott ceases to become a seasonal bus linked to John Abbott’s schedule, and gains all-day weekday status. It will have a 25-minute interval between 6:10am and 5:45pm westbound, and 6:45pm and 6:20pm eastbound. Its route will also be modified to take Sainte-Marie Rd. straight from Highway 40 instead of continuing to Morgan Rd.
  • 219 Chemin Sainte-Marie loses a loop on Sainte-Marie west of Morgan Rd. to EMS Technologies near Meloche.
  • 268 Trainbus Pierrefonds undergoes a radical change to both route and schedule: The route will be extended up Grenet St. to the Côte-Vertu metro station in both directions. Eastbound departures continue every half hour until 3:50pm, and westbound departures from Côte-Vertu are every half hour from 8am to 5:45pm (more frequently during the afternoon rush hour)
  • 505 R-Bus Pie-IX becomes 505 Express Pie-IX, which better reflects its role not as a rush-hour reserved-lane replacement for the 139 bus, but a limited-stop express bus that acts as a second option during rush hours.
  • 515 Vieux-Montréal/Vieux-Port is a new shuttle between Dorchester Square, Berri metro (and the Station Centrale bus terminal), and de la Commune St. The circular route – in both directions simultaneously – takes René-Lévesque, Peel, de la Commune and Berri/St. Denis. Departures are every 13 minutes (10 minutes during weekend afternoons, 20 minutes in the late evenings), seven days a week from 7am to 1am.

Other changes, such as the 480 on Nuns’ Island and weekend service on the 470 Express Pierrefonds, will come in September.

Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments. I haven’t found anything yet on the Old Port bus that’s supposed to come.

| Montreal, Opinion, Public transit

The nitty-gritty of public consultations


Whoever said “there are no stupid questions” has probably never been to a public consultation meeting, where anyone from the general public, gifted only with a lot of free time, can ask any un-pre-screened question to important-looking bureaucrats in front of an audience.

Last week, I went to a public consultation of the STM in Côte-des-Neiges, hoping there would be some interesting developments to report about transit improvements to the area (and Montreal in general). I figured that even if the presentation was a bust, some of the questions from the public would spark interesting answers.

Naturally, I was disappointed.

But perhaps I’m being unfair calling them stupid questions. Because many of them weren’t questions.

Instead, they were 10-minute diatribes about how someone was late to work one morning and the bus didn’t show up that one time, or general demands for things the representatives there were obviously powerless to do anything about. Other demands seemed illogical or contradictory. Few of them were useful.

The meeting gave me quite a bit more respect for Marvin Rotrand, a city councillor and vice-president of the STM, who has to sit through these kinds of meetings on a regular basis, and clearly recognized many of the people he called up to speak as people who regularly take advantage of opportunities to speak their minds.

Still, some interesting tidbits did emerge from the hours-long meeting:

  • Starting next month, service on the 11 Montagne route will be extended to midnight from its current 9pm daily, since services on the mountain are open until midnight. The bigger problem of buses unable to climb the steep Ridgewood Ave. during winter will hopefully be solved in the future by improvements to the buses.
  • Service on the 103 Monkland will be improved outside of rush hour starting in September.
  • More Abribus bus shelters are being installed on the network in NDG/Côte-des-Neiges, to bring the ratio from 37% to 40% of stops.
  • Hampstead Mayor Bill Steinberg was particularly concerned about the 51 Boulevard Edouard-Montpetit bus route because he says it has a tendency to block the intersection of Queen Mary and Ellerdale (I’ve taken the bus through there many times and never seen it happen, but whatever). He wants it rerouted via Stratford and Cote-St-Luc to somehow avoid this problem, and he wants a guarantee that no articulated buses will be used on the route.
  • Five buses will be added to the STM’s busiest rush-hour route, the 535 R-Bus Du Parc/Côte-des-Neiges, starting in September, in order to deal with crowding problems. 200 articulated buses (beyond the current test vehicles) will come into service starting later next year as the STM simultaneously increases its fleet from 1700 to 1950 buses.
  • The STM is looking at installing bike racks on buses.
  • One testy issue was about strollers. Moms are upset because there isn’t enough space on crowded buses for their giant strolling machines. In response, rather than asking clients to use simple foldable strollers, they’re turning the wheelchair area on low-floor buses into wheelchair/stroller areas.
  • First-generation LFS low-floor buses (16, 17 and 18 series buses from 1996-98 which are considered lemons if not death traps) will be phased out by 2010. It’s unclear whether their retirements will come before those of the high-floor Classic buses which preceded them.
  • Among the recommendations from the public:
    • Limited-stop bus service between the two legs of the orange line (along Van Horne, Jean-Talon, Sauvé/Côte-Vertu, for example), doubling up on existing local routes. This may seem unnecessary because of the existence of the blue line, but I have found it easier to take the 121 between Sauvé and Côte-Vertu than to take a metro detour through three trains.
    • Spend more money cleaning up bus shelters, because “once in a while isn’t good enough.” No recommendations, of course, on where this new money should come from. Higher fares? Higher taxes? Less service? All of those sound really appealing so we don’t see as much litter.
    • Setup commuter train stations at Namur and Canora along the Montreal-Blainville line.
    • There should be more reserved lanes so people can get to their destinations faster
    • There should be fewer reserved lanes because they take away parking and hurt local businesses
    • Bus stops should be spaced further apart so the buses stop less
    • Bus stops should be spaced further together so people don’t have to walk as much
    • Bus fares should be raised so that more money can be put into better services
    • Bus fares should be decreased so that the poor have access to transit
    • Poor people should have a special poor-people’s pass
    • All non-PSA advertising should be removed from buses and metros (again, no recommendations of what should replace the loss of revenue or what services should be cut)

Another West Island-specific consultation will take place in Pierrefonds on June 11.

UPDATE (May 24): For the record, The Suburban also covered this meeting.

| Montreal, Opinion, Public transit

Nuns’ Island hates public transit

As if trying to find a way to sound more like elitist suburban NIMBY snobs, residents at the southern tip of Nuns’ Island have apparently complained to the STM that they have too much bus service. They complain about the noise and dust generated by the buses.

I know buses are loud. I hear them outside my living room window every day. But I’ve never thought to complain about them, nor have I ever experienced dust problems (do they shed?)

Perhaps the noise and dust problems in the area might be due to the fact that it’s one giant construction zone for upscale condos? The photo above is one of many new skyscraping condo buildings going up in what was once empty space near a park.

The STM, after considering numerous half-assed schemes to placate residents and needlessly inconvenience public transit users, has concluded that it’s not reducing service to the area. The article doesn’t make clear which side Claude Trudel is on, since he’s both the Verdun borough mayor and the chairperson of the STM board of directors. Let’s hope he and his constituents realize this is the best option for everyone involved.

Especially when you consider that one bus on the road can replace dozens of SUVs.

| Montreal, Public transit, West Island

Some details of STM bus service improvements

In today’s Gazette, reporter Linda Gyulai has some details about improvements coming to west end bus service coming next month, in advance of tonight’s public meeting in Cote des Neiges. None seem as dramatic as the changes I talked about last week, but they’re still interesting.

| Montreal, Public transit

STM wants you to vent

On Wednesday evening, the STM is holding a public meeting to show off some planned “improvements” to the public transit network and “discuss” people’s concerns about the system in Montreal.

In other words, let’s get ready to grummmmmblllllllllllle!

The meeting is at the Intercultural Library at 6767 Côte-des-Neiges Road, just across from the cinema near Goyer St. It starts at 7pm and is expected to end at 9.

Expect a lot of discussion about the overall service improvements (despite nagging bus shortages). Also, expect grandma to go on for 20 minutes about how that bus was too full that one time.

| 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.