Why ?
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Not impressive. At least if these supremely ugly drains actually, you know, drained… Makes one wonder what else is half-assed, what we might “discover” once there’s a train zipping by every couple of minutes.
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Are these drains actually permanent btw or are they just temporary? For some reason I was under the impression that they were temporary… they’d be a particular eyesore if they’re meant to be permanent IMHO…
They initially installed temporary ones (black corrugated); they since replaced them by the clog prone ones in @SameGuy’s pictures. So I think we can assume they are the “permanent” ones. That being said I don’t think they can let this poor design or install as is as it completely defeats the purpose of having drainage (and if they could have got away without they would not have installed them in the first place).
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Ah. Idk if it’s just me but I find that these new ones look a lot worse than the black ones but yeah, what matters is if it drains which so far it looks like it kinda isn’t…
This is a brand-new state of the art infrastructure! We were sold that function trumps form, but in this case, we see that we disregarded both!
We made something purposefully hideous (I mean, you gotta put in some thoughts and efforts to produce such a disgrace), and it does not achieve the one thing it is designed to do. Maybe they could propose some NYC-style scaffolding under every drain to protect the pedestrians underneath?
After the old Champlain bridge that did not have a proper drainage system, you would think we learned something. Note to the REM people: we know aesthetics does not bother you, but winter should.
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I’d understand if it were just a single example. But every single one made me want to dig out my axes and crampons from when I was in the ice climbing club at John Abbott in the mid-80s. Each drain had a thick, two-metre stalagmite just dangling there.
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If we look at my picture of the same column from a year ago, it sure looks like the interface at the top is just an unsealed funnel below the drain hole of the concrete guideway…
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That’s what happen when you let engineers design and don’t ensure the architect & designer have their word to hide/make it nicer
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The unsealed funnel might be there in case there’s a blockage. It allows water to just overflow. It is a better solution than having a pipe burst, or an accumulation of ice on the guideway.
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Branching (get it?) a discussion of the Anse segment from a condo project thread to be continued here.
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Hehe, nice pun. Also I know we just branched but wouldnt this convo still fit in a different topic? I think this one is more intended for art/architecture than this talk… in any case,
Sources is in a no-man’s land though, a really terrible walk from any residential areas. And the A440 boulevard has been permanently scrapped.
Fair enough, though while it is true that Sources doesn’t have many nearby residences, I’d still counter that you could pick any point on the rem A40 line and the same would hold due to the low density housing and the highway being a physical barrier (ie none of the A40 stations are really worth walking to). So if nearby residences is a moot point then my next concern becomes the access by bus wherein Sources is probably the only one of the four that’s actually easy to get to in that regard; the three others require a needless several-minute-long detour.
Also I didn’t know that the A440 boulevard got scrapped. It’s a bit of a shame I suppose, though in the long run though i don’t know how big of a difference it would have made if only (realistically infrequent) buses could use it anyways.
Kirkland faces a similarly bleak future thanks to PM
kinda confused by this, ngl. Are you referring to the scrapping of the parking garage, or the scrapping of the urban boulevard?
ignoring the fact that WI residents don’t live in PM’s Utopia, with Bixis and sidewalks and a grid of bus routes, and shops and restos within a hundred metres of our doors, and of our kids’ schools. Boiling it down, it’ll be easier for many people in the West Island to just continue hopping in the family SUV to get where they need to go on a daily basis
This is probably the main reason i’m worried about the ridership/success of the project. Running good bus service in the west island is a big challenge – the quasi-impossibility of it became apparent to me through the forum discussions in the refonte topic. Long walks with a heavy reliance on 30 min waits is quite obviously unappealing, meanwhile it’s only truly possible to run frequnt buses on pierrefonds, sources, st jean, st charles, and maybe hymus; and only the former two have REM stations on them: st jean’s station is really far away and st charles simply has no nearby stations. Hymus has sources REM but as you said it’s in the “useless” part of hymus in a way so it’s not too helpful
including the airport. The airport. The airport that’s in the the West Island, yet won’t be a one-seat ride from anywhere in the West Island.
Ah, so I take it you don’t want to do a 30 minute REM trip to do a 15 minute drive? Jokes aside I think nobody actually expects anyone to use the REM to get to the airport from the west island. It’s way too much hassle to walk with your luggage from home to wherever the nearest bus stop is, board the bus with your luggage, and ride it to whatever REM station then do a 20-30 minute trip. By comparison just about anywhere in the west island will be a 10-15 min drive away from the airport depending on distance… so calling a cab, or asking a friend or family member for a lift is beyond sensible.
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→ Infolettre du REM reçue aujourd’hui:
L’avancement du projet REM en images
Découvez les avancées du projet dans l’Ouest-de-l’Île et les chantiers à surveiller
L’installation des bases de la caténaire avance dans le secteur et se poursuivra en 2023.
Les bases de la caténaire qui serviront à l’alimentation du REM en électricité sont déjà bien visibles aux alentours de plusieurs stations, telles que les stations Des Sources, Fairview-Pointe-Claire et Kirkland.
Les murs-rideaux arrivent!
L’installation des façades permettant de fermer les enveloppes de nos stations Des Sources et Fairview-Pointe-Claire, plus communément appelées murs rideaux, vient compléter les structures du bâtiment installées l’an dernier.
L’aménagement intérieur des stations Fairview-Pointe-Claire et Anse-à-l’Orme va bon train.
Les travaux avancent pour installer tous les équipements de la station (électricité, ventilation, ascenseurs, etc.). L’installation des surfaces vitrées de l’édicule a débuté.
La construction des structures aériennes est maintenant complétée.
Nous avons dit au revoir à Anne et Marie un peu plus tôt cet automne! Ne soyez pas surpris de voir les équipes poursuivre l’installation des équipements ferroviaires au courant des prochains mois sur les structures aériennes.
À venir en 2023:
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Électrification des voies: une fois les poteaux de la caténaire installés, des câbles électriques seront tirés le long de l’emprise lorsque les températures le permettront avant de procéder à la mise sous tension des voies.
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L’année 2023 sera consacrée à la continuité des aménagements intérieurs, l’installation des équipements électromécaniques (ventilation, électricité, etc.) et la finition de l’enveloppe des bâtiments qui accueilleront les futures stations Des Sources, Fairview-Pointe-Claire, Kirkland et Anse-à-l’Orme.
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Verdissement du réseau: au fur et à mesure de l’avancement des travaux, les ilots de végétation intégrés aux stationnements, les places d’entrées et les différents endroits qui marqueront le parcours de l’usager vers la station, viendront accueillir des plantations.
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Kramberger: Problems remain with supporting infrastructure for REM in West Island
Integrating bus lines and park-and-ride options with the new REM stations remains a work in progress along Highway 40.
Montreal Gazette • Albert Kramberger • Published Feb 01, 2023
Construction work runs through the night on the REM along Highway 40 as seen in 2021. PHOTO BY DAVE SIDAWAY /Montreal Gazette
While residential densification near Réseau express métropolitain stations will help encourage West Islanders to utilize the new light rail network, there are several outstanding issues ahead of its anticipated launch.
Integrating Société de transport de Montréal (STM) bus lines and park-and-ride options with the new REM stations remains a work in progress for the West Island sections along Highway 40. There’s still time, of course, as the West Island leg of the REM won’t be operational until at least sometime next year.
The Des Sources station near Hymus Blvd. in Pointe-Claire will have 500 park-and-ride spaces and the the Anse-à-l’Orme station, the terminus of this line in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, is to have 200 parking spots off Ste-Marie Road.
While the Fairview-Pointe-Claire and Kirkland stations will have platforms for buses and kiss-and-ride, paratransit and taxi dropoff spaces, park-and-ride spots have yet to confirmed. There have been repeated calls to offer parking at these REM stations, both of which are next to shopping malls. Complicating matters is that RioCan had announced mixed-use redevelopment plans at its Kirkland strip mall. Cadillac-Fairview also announced plans to build high-rises on a section of a parking lot, a property that is under an interim control bylaw tabled last year by Pointe-Claire city council.
The existing STM bus depot along Brunswick Blvd. just west of St-Jean Blvd. at the Fairview Pointe-Claire shopping centre should be relocated closer to the REM station, which is at the corner of Fairview Ave. and the Highway 40 service road.
Montreal’s $4.4-million project for a new pedestrian and cyclist bridge over Highway 40 linking to the Kirkland REM station is welcomed, but it won’t be operational until 2027. The overpass will be part of Montreal’s Réseau express vélo (REV), a 184-kilometre bike network that will also facilitate access to the future Grand Parc de l’Ouest.
There have also been calls for an improved pedestrian north-south crossing over Highway 40 in Pointe-Claire, which could potentially be part of a rebuilt St-Jean Blvd. overpass or a separate structure to ease access to the Fairview station.
As part of a 400-unit project to redevelop a Dollard-des-Ormeaux strip mall on Brunswick Blvd. just east of Sources Blvd., it was noted that it lies about a kilometre away from an REM station in Pointe-Claire, but the Sources-Highway 40 overpass can be daunting for many pedestrians or cyclists. Again, improved pedestrian and bike access could be part of a rebuilt Highway 40 overpass, or something similar to the footbridge planned for Kirkland.
Last fall, West Islanders were invited to consultations held by the STM with the aim of rethinking the bus network in light of the REM. Hopefully, the STM plans will be implemented in time for the REM start date.
While there are grumblings about densification, lack of parking and adapting bus routes near REM stations, the light-rail system should meet decades of demand for better commuter service in the West Island. Though the public transit system will never meet perfection standards for all, calls for improvements from citizens as well as local municipal officials will have to continue year after year. The REM is a $6.9-billion project that is coming to the West Island, like it or not, so efforts to make it work with densification or improved infrastructure must be addressed.
Sorry, no pics of the ouvrages d’art, but just a heads-up that the overhead wires are going up on this branch along the Doney spur, from the split at HB to just west of des Sources. I imagine they’re also going up along other segments; I’ll be at the Ecocentre on Wednesday or Thursday, so if anyone can see anything in the snow tomorrow, let me know what to look for.
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Catenaries installation has reached the Kirkland station. On the Devisubox camera for the station, we can see that they were completed earlier today:
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I didn’t see any wires up today, just the cantilevers at each post.
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Yeah, nah, the wires are strung to just west of the Des Sources station — though not tensioned. About a third of the posts in the immediate area of the Kirkland station have the cantilever arms up but not yet positioned.
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Ok can confirm the overhead wires are installed and tensioned within the Anse-à-l’Orme depot complex as far as the abutment of the elevated guideway, and partially installed and not tensioned from the abutment to about the level of the old eastbound Ste-Marie exit (roughly the intersection of Ste-Marie and Chemin de l’Anse-à-l’Orme on the north side). It’s really freaky to see fresh, raw copper alloy shining away in the sunlight.
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