That’s… not really good.
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If the frequency is high enough it’s fine, but definitely not good for a 2/hour bus…
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Also there’s no guarantee we’ll have RTL shuttle buses that work with navigation apps, so it’ll probably mean people just have to know where the buses are, even if you do directions and it says there’s no option (because they are updating it to show the REM not running). This leads to quite a bad reputation towards the REM and CDPQ….
Wait a sec…
721 Brossard-Du Quartier-Gare Centrale
That’s a brand new shuttle* , you used to be forced to take the 720 from IDS or Panama to go to du cartier
*The New shuttle being them adding du cartier to The Brossard direct
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No schedule and half hourly sounds like a baaaaaaaaad mix im not gonna lie…
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I should clarify, that part of my message is not good news lol. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t provide schedules for any of these schedules.
Why have the buses stop outside the bus terminal too and not inside? They built this whole new bus terminal, and the shuttles that will be used until September are all outside? Wouldn’t it make sense to at least temporarily move them all into the bus terminal so people can wait there, and give them schedules like there used to be before the REM?
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Yes it is new.
Certains réseaux fonctionnent de la sorte en effet. Beaucoup plus logique selon moi.
Took the bus shuttles this morning, here is my “review”. Apologies in advance for the long, rambling nature
- I got to Bonaventure at 7am, there was no signage inside the station indicating that there were shuttles operating. I left via the place bonaventure exit, and at the entrance to the REM there was an A-frame temporary sign detailing all the days it was closed, and the replacement service. This was not very clear, as demonstrated by a gentlemen before me tried to open the doors to the platforms before noticing the sign.
- outside, each individual shuttle route has it’s own stop along the sidewalk, and they are individually marked. I attached some photos below. The buses also clearly mark their destinations.
- When I got to the stop, there was an employee directing people, as well as shoveling snow. A 721 bus was already waiting, and a 722 (the bus I was taking) arrived after about a minute, followed right after by yet another bus. They seem to be timed to arrive/depart somewhat close together, but I could not tell you definitively. The Opus reader on the bus was turned off.
- My bus idled at bonaventure for about five minutes, and the trip to Panama took about 22 minutes. This was slightly longer than expected, and caused me to miss my transfer at Panama (I left 15 minutes early this morning to account for the shuttle delay, that is still not enough unfortunately). When we got to Panama, there was quite a long line waiting for the next bus out, presumably to GC/Bonaventure. At Panama they had these very small signs with the information, as well as staff and arrows directing people to buses. I will attach a photo of a sign below.
Overall, I dont hate the shuttles, but they could definetly improve the signage, especially within Bonaventure Metro. I also think they will definitely have to increase the frequencies of the buses, especially the GC-Panama bus.
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REM messed up their GTFS so it still shows departures for trains that aren’t running. Imaging this happening when there’s no service at all… how are people supposed to know there’s no service?
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Sad observation. It also means that the displays show a -static- schedule, and not the actual times?
It seems to be a mix. They use scheduled time most of the time, then when it has the light green line (that’s animated) under it, that’s live.
I thought the green line meant “imminent arrival”.
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That might actually be what that is, I’m not sure. When the train was running slowly after the Costco, the displays showed the live time with the green line, and below it the next scheduled train, which eventually caught up to the live time because of the trains running slowly. The screens basically glitched out between 0 and 1 minute until the train arrived. So there is some live time but not sure how exactly
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The RTL 720 shuttle bus does have a schedule, the bus driver said how they were 4 minutes late, but they didn’t let me take a photo of their schedule and said it depends on the traffic. It’s crazy to me they don’t just share the schedule.
Also instead of doing the simpler purple route, the bus went all the way around doing the blue route to get onto the highway from Île-des-Sœurs station:
The route take just 15 minutes to Panama instead of 30, there was an STM bus they’re using for shuttles as well (even into RTL territory). This could be the reason why there’s no GTFS, but I think CDPQ should release their own data just to have schedules of some kind. It’s not great waiting outside and hoping a bus will come
Transit Tracker has the 568 available as tracking, for some reason this one is far into Brossard:
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It isn’t the end of the world for this to be the case for a few weekend hours, but if it’s still like this during the full summertime shutdown, it’ll be catastrophic for users. I hope they wake up soon.
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The shuttle does stop at William for cité multimedia? Just curious…
I’m not sure, but more people were taking the 168 downtown from Nun’s Island than waiting for a shuttle with no schedule
Also forgot to share, they (STM? REM?) seem to have shoveled and salted every part of the bus loop at Nun’s Island except where the shuttle buses stop:
There was only two other people that took the shuttle bus to Panama, I don’t think people will be depending on this route (I will be heading downtown from now on during shutdowns I think)
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Good news: RTL is working on GTFS and having schedules for the shuttles, which will be available in a few weeks. I’m assuming they’re monitoring the average travel times first, this will be great once it’s available.
Additionally, as I shared before, REM will also have live data (at some point in the near future, later than I said before). This will mean tracking live trains, but also hopefully removing departures for trains that aren’t running. This past weekend the REM showed it was running normally the entire time
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This should be told to the news of how bad it is.