I went to the open house of the bus redesign (as I’ll be a future resident of Verdun soon!), and I learned a bit how they plan their redesigns.
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I asked them several times about the bus stop spacing, and they said their goal eventually is to remove stops for frequent bus lines, as people get on and off at every stop, and keep the stop spacing the same as it is now for “local” infrequent bus lines. They said they might not have the exact bus spacing they want with the redesign now, but eventually they plan to remove stops to speed up travel times (depending on budget, as they have to move bus shelters).
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They also told me how with the REM coming, they’ve had to speed up their bus redesigns. In NYC, they give the maps of their redesign a year in advance. I asked when the next section of the redesign for the West Island would be completed, and they told me it’s still being worked on so they’re not sure. Essentially, they’re working on several redesigns now because of the REM, and would like to spend more time on the redesigns but don’t have the time. After West Island is Côte-des-Neiges/TMR/Westmount which will be also be the “sped up” redesign. This means it won’t be to the quality of changes that they want, such as reduction in bus stops.
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There are eventual plans on combining multiple routes to create “frequent corridors” as I’m calling it. They didn’t give me any more info but just told me that is a plan.
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The STM wants MTQ to make a new bus only exit at the Saint-Pierre interchange to connect to rue Victoria when the interchange will be redone (at some point). They talked with MTQ several years ago about this, but never heard back from them and haven’t received any updates.
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There might be plans at some point for a bus to connect between Angrignon and Concordia Loyola Campus/Côte-Saint-Luc, if there is demand for it. In their studies they found not many people drove between these areas or took transit, although they said that could be because there is a singular road and a literal cliff preventing people from travelling between these two places
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If you look at the Verdun area, you’ll notice there is a bus on almost every street (north/south). They didn’t want this and wanted to just use one or two buses that would be frequent, but residences and specific people kept pushing this so now we have buses on every street as is the case now…
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I asked about a bus lane on rue Wellington around rue Bridge which gets regularly backed up during rush hour. They said how the city plans to make rue des Irlandais and pont Victoria connected as one street, so rue bridge wouldn’t be a main road used to get onto the bridge (cars would go via Bonaventure expressway). I knew the city was doing this, but hoped there would be a shorter term solution. I hope they plan to make this change soon.
Several of the people I talked to mentioned @coledev’s work as I mentioned the bus stop signs, it’s great hearing people at the STM know of the work we are doing.