Former ADM DG James Cherry wanted an express rail shuttle between the airport and GC via the 20. That notion was discarded outright by the government, the city, and just about every study, as it simply wouldn’t be “rentable” as you say. For a medium-sized large city with a relatively small airport – let’s not kid ourselves – it makes way more sense to include an airport station as part of the city’s integral rapid transit network.
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That is why it would have been better, IMO, to transform the Vaudreuil-Hudson line to a sort of REM that catches all commuter rail flow. But that’s kind of a dream, so yes, I would post plans on that field, but not so seriously.
Back to the bus shuttle, this would have been a key factor for time schedule if the bus would quit right to highway at Gare Centrale via Saint-Antoine. With bus lanes on the highway, that would probably faster than the REM to go to the airport.
Yes but it would still be an express shuttle serving a relatively tiny catchment (“bassin” in French). Montreal is not just downtown.
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A bus shuttle can develop itself easily. Let’s say 747’s ridership is full, there could be another bus line going to Berri-UQAM (Gare d’Autocars) straight by the highway on St-Laurent/St-Denis exits.
Same for Lionel-Groulx.
It’s still exchanging eight quarters for a dollar. Building out dedicated busways for the segments downtown and west of the 138 would be prohibitively expensive, to get those same 5300 riders to/from Mansfield x RL in 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes. By adding a branch of a brand new Metro line to the airport, you’ve now given rapid transit access to a huge area, with a one-seat ride into a catchment of more than a half-million potential riders, and a two-seat rail ride to more than three quarters of the city and suburbs. The Airport branch isn’t what made the new line cost $8 billion.
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i don’t agree. For an aeroport, comfort is key is even more important than time of travel. Many people are from travelling from oversee with important jet lag, and lat thing they want is to be shacked left and right on a bus.i think this is the main reason we also have 5k riders on 747. a bus remain a bus and it not sexy for many people.
Also the REM with different stop offer way more advantage than direct link to Downtown even if it not the fastest. People will just catch the REM to the closest station to their home and then take a taxi or have somebody to pick them. For someone in CDN, he catch the REM to EM then taxi home.
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The Vaudreuil line operates on CP tracks that link Montréal and Toronto. Lots of freight traffic there. Would be difficult to convert this right of way.
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What takes more time to build becomes more expensive. We can see it with the blue line. Plus, it is a 2,5 km tunnel, that’s the only underground part of the REM. I don’t know what is the real cost the airport branch, but I would say it is around a quarter of the total bill.
Probably true. I don’t know really, but I believe it is this way. But how come so many commuter rail lines are using these tracks?
Between Gare Montréal-Ouest and Gare Lucien-L’Allier, a lot of passenger train lines goes there (lines 11, 12 and 14), plus the Via Rail I guess.
Exactly. It’s not about just spending money for glitz, or an express rail shuttle would be fine for the purpose. But those who suggest that our NovaBus LFSes are “perfectly adequate” to get locals and visitors to and from the airport either haven’t travelled to pretty much any big city outside North America, or they are okay with our rough buses on our terrible roads, or don’t mind sweating like a horse in a non-air conditioned bus (29-xxxx I’m looking at you) after having spent perhaps all day travelling.
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They are telling on themselves as BRT shills.
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Is is true that our roads are bad and our buses too. But they don’t have to be bad. A reserved lane could be as smooth as the SRB Pie-IX and the buses could be greater than the Novabus we got, like the Brisbane buses.
And let’s not forget the economic prospects of the Technoparc which will have a station along the airport branch. I know many people in tech who refused employment opportunities there because it’s an absolute PITA to reach by public transit. That branch which is already under construction will make it a much more attractive employment center.
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Ça aurait pu être une station sur la branche West Island près du boulevard Hymus et de l’autoroute 40 (cadran sud-ouest) et ça ferait l’affaire du Technoparc.
Technopark is beyond miserable to access.
I did my math and it’s quicker for me to board from Fairview transfer at boie-franc and leave at Marie-Curie than to take the 72 from Fairview as a anti-rush bus network both morning and night… And the 72 anti-rush is a sardine can ALWAYS…
the 225 is ok ish but it’s still slow and it leaves you at a unprotected service road (also don’t tell me to take the 225 west. That overpass is a death wish).
I also know that i could go to Sunnybrook and take the 283 south but it’s a taxi… I’m not going to transfer at boie-franc to Sunnybrook just to take a taxi south
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Agreed, as the segregated bus/taxi/Uberway between the 138 and 15 is as smooth as concrete gets in Quebec. But if we add those segregated segments from YUL to the 138 and the Glen Yards to GC, we’ve still only spent a rather inordinate sum on adding an express shuttle bus that only serves the core around GC, with those whose origins or destinations lie further afield needing to navigate from there back to wherever they really need to be. An airport station along part of a metro backbone allows much more efficient use of the system for a much larger percentage of the public that needs to get to and from that airport.
If we are truly bent on getting people out of cars and off the roads, we have to consider that the airport complex is one of the largest employment poles in the metropolitan area, with some 20,000 workers directly associated with the airport. In combination with the continuing growth of passenger numbers, the potential ridership of a far-reaching metro system’s airport branch is significantly greater than any single end-to-end express shuttle to downtown might ever be. Adding bus lines radiating out from the airport, or adding transfers with more bus lines from the downtown terminus won’t actually help alleviate congestion or improve the transit experience.
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Fun fact, last summer when I was getting on the bus at the airport after a transatlantic flight, I went to board the 747 and I was in line behind an older German couple. They looked a little confused and they asked the driver when boarding “I thought there was a metro train in your city?”
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I don’t understand your point about buses not resolving road congestion. Buses are a solution for road congestion. I would never think for a second that buses are a parasite for highways. On the contrary, it helps a lot. The old Champlain Bridge without its center-reversed bus lanes would probably result to more car traffic.
I don’t understand where you got the perception that the demand for the 460 is poor? It is almost always packed and has good frequencies in peak hours due to the office parks and businesses in the area:
With the airport branch opening, I think the rem has the potential to convert certain users of the 460, users who wouldn’t traditionally have taken the 747.
Most of those buses don’t go to the airport. Most of them stop at Gare Dorval. Check it for yourself.
