747

[emdx]

Dorval airport (l'Aéropet) is 10 miles from downtown Montréal, and never was an easy place to get to.

Back then, there was the infamous Murray-Hill monopoly; no taxis could pick-up fares at the airport, only Murray-Hill limousines could do that. The situation eventually prompted the famous Murray-Hill riot, where the son's owner managed to shoot dead an undercover cop whilst cab drivers were burning the place down (of course, being a rich man's son, he got away with murder – such is justice in the banana republic with snow-plows that is Canada).

Going there by car, you had to negociate the notorious Dorval circle, which is currently being rebuilt with two ramps to/from autoroute 20 that will enable airport traffic to bypass the circle.

Going there by cab, you face a $50 bill.

Going there by bus, you had to use either the expensive "Aérobus" that would often cancel departures (so to use the buses on more lucrative charters — that's why they lost the airport contract; allegedly, they only wanted the contract so they could have a foothold in the airport to pick up groups with their charter buses), or use unwieldly 2-transfer trips to the Lionel-Groulx or Du Collège métro stations.

Now the STM offers patrons the very creatively numbered bus line "747" that links the airport directly to downtown Montréal (if you consider — as it is officially done so — that Lionel-Groulx Métro station is downtown):

The fare is $7.00, which is more than twice the ordinary $2.75 cash fare ($2.21/6 tickets or $2.10/10 electronic tickets), but is the day-pass fare. A day pass with a twist, as it is good for 24 hours since the time of issuance, rather for the operating day it is issued on (the fare bylaw was suitably amended). This is the first 24/7 bus line in Montréal; the bus will operate every hour at night, in the dead of night. Very handy for employees and those early charter flights (although how to get to the downtown bus stops at night is left as an exercise to the reader).

Day, 3-day, weekly and monthly passes are accepted without fuss. You can travel between any two stops (except the stops on Berri which are marked «descente» (exit only). The bus could prove useful to get back home (I live near Lionel-Groulx) once done clubbing in the winter…

The bus service uses 8 specially made buses, fitted with luggage racks. They are run-of-the-mill, perfectly normal, mundane, ordinary "T-Drive" Novabuses, with a different seating arrangement, numbered from 30-149 to 30-157. The livery is the standard new, boring, window-blocking unimaginative chevron augmented with the silhouette of a jet aircraft.

So, without much fanfare, I headed with a fellow terrorist to the Aéropet to catch the first departure towards Montréal at 0h00 on March 29.

First surprise: the buses (all three lines that stop at the airport, 204, 209 & 747) now go in the "restricted" pickup area; the driver has to wait for a gate to go up before entering, and we slide by the taxis and limos and other shuttle buses all the way to the west end of the airport, where all stops have been moved from the east end.

Here is the beast, wetted with a little drizzling rain:

Right next to it is the ticket booth, wich still has the Aérobus schedules.

We learn that the tickets will be sold by the exchange office, right inside, near the door (why not at the newsstand right next to it?). Chatting with a STM employee, they do not seem to deem feasible the installation of an automatic ticket machine in the airport itself… (Perhaps it's a good thing, because the horrible user interface would most definitely puzzle many newcomers).

Passengers can also buy the ticket/pass on board, subject to the usual "exact change" policy that has been the mainstay since 1974.

The bus is rather disappointing for a shuttle trip that can last about an hour:

Very few seats, lots of floor space, too many side-looking seats. The luggage racks are over the front wheel wells and accross the back foor. 6 fold-down seats are in the wheelchair area; I suppose the STM has received complaint from dragster-type wheelchairs, hence the area that goes from the front wheel well all the way to the backdoor.

The layout is, from the front to the back on the driver's side, rack, 4 side seats, 2 double seats, rack, 5 side seats and the long bench in the back. From the right side, 6 fold-up seats in the dragstchair are, back door, 5 side seats and the bench.

In short, it's the usual stupid "new" bus layout, with a twist. Heaven forbid passengers may want to look outside of the us. And the driver will be happy to be shielded from the scorching stare of passengers, being safely hidden between the luggage racks.

(I bitch a bit because it so happens that this bus may be convenient to me for going to work, as the other bus I use stops at the airport, so I will definitely take it often).

So, departure time arrives, and at midnight, we leave for Lionel-Groulx. Thanks to the non-traffic, we are there less than 20 minutes later. We then proceed to the next stops, while we chat with the driver. Some people get off at Mansfield, another at Jeanne-Mance (the stop has been moved at the last minute, as the driver's instruction state that the stop was 1 street earlier on Anderson) and one at St-Laurent (probably to grab a last-chance hot-dog at the Montreal Pool Room, which is history since today).

Getting at Berri, another passenger gets off at the Métro stop at Ste-Catherine, then we go up Berri, noticing an extra stop on Berri right where the taxicabs wait "good luck for us using that stop!", quips the driver.

His instruction say that we should go around Ontario and down St-Hubert, so we ignore the gaping new entrance for the new bus terminal, and we try a garage door that stays closed. I have to get off to warn cars that the bus has to back-up as we have to go further.

We get into the bus terminal lane, halfway on the city block, then peek into another open door into the new bus terminal that is clearly not used…

Finally, we spot the bus bay #17 to which we proceed. We arrive at 0:34; the trip took a bit more than 30 minutes, sans traffic.

History has been made: this is the first time a STM bus gets in the Voyageur bus terminal:

The last passenger gets off, and we chat with the driver and the operations chief.

The bus is really new: only 237 km on the odometer…

"It was 200 km when I took it out of the garage", says the driver.

On the wall, right next to the door, is a normal bus stop bolted to the brick:

We then get to catch the last Métro at 0:58, but the terminus door is locked. Very smart. We have to find an opened door and run to another Métro entrance. I tell the booth attendant how stupid it is to lock the Métro door before the last Métro, but she says "that's what the rules say".

Ahhh, the rules, the ultimate refuge of the dismotivated.

So, this was how transit history was made very early monday morning: now, Montréal is a normal city with normal good service to/from the airport.

* * *

But outside of making history, how will the new bus line fare in everyday use? This is what I attempted to find out later monday.

I caught up the 16:00 departure from Lionel-Groulx to see what gives.

An ordinary bus shows up about 8 minutes late, with about 20 people on board, ¾ of them with luggage taking up the aisles.

A sign has been put in the windshield to supplement the glaring destination sign to say that this bus goes to the airport…

All the "nice" seats (well, there are not really any nice seats on a 30-xxx bus) are taken, so I go reluctantly sit in the back on the engine. It's noisy, hot and my feet don't touch the ground. I feel like a kid on his first bus ride. Very annoying. Plus you can't see outside, courtesy of the stupid decals outside.

I get on with 4 other people with luggage. The last on board has to ask other passengers for change.

The bus goes swiftly to the 10-15 highway, which runs fast until we hit Spaghetti Junction where the ramp to highway 20 slows to a crawl. The crawl lasts until Lachine, for no discernible reason.

The driver could have used an alternate route; after 20 minutes, some passengers started to look edgy.

After Lachine, we speed-up and are at the airport in less than 30 minutes.

To go back, I board to bus early, just to watch how people cope with the new service. The drivers are happy to explain everything to people (I wonder how long it will last), and some people struggle paying with change. Loading luggage in the racks creates a queue outside the bus, but the bus leaves on time nevertheless.

Going back, it took 20 minutes just to reach the Dorval circle, courtesy of the rush-hour traffic. Oddly enough, the trip to Lionel-Groulx takes only 15 minutes from there; there was no traffic to speak of. I got off at Lionel-Groulx and head home.

Tuesday, I'll give it a full try. I go to Berri, and the bus shows up 10 minutes late. About 15 people get on board, half of them with luggage. There is no traffic downtown, so we're quickly at Lionel-Groulx after picking up people at about every stop. The trip to the Aéropet was swift, as traffic had yet to pick-up.

In the airport, the STM has setup a temporary booth where an employee hands out pamphlets in french, english and spanish. Outside, the operations chief and the driver takes turn explaining people about the service. The Aérobus booth is empty, and the remaining schedules have been ripped-off the windows…

For the return trip, it is still entertaining to see people boarding with luggage, and trying various combinations loading the luggage rack. Some people leave their big luggage in the aisle, go claim a seat with a small tote bag, then go back to put their luggage up on the rack. A few more shuttle between their luggage and their tote bag.

A cute (albeit plumpish) filipina stewardess gets on board and gets to sit right next to me, managing to cram her wheel-on suitcase and tote bag and purse and shopping bag between the seat and the front seat, her sitting sideways (I know she's filipina because she pulled her cellphone and proceeded to tell her boyfriend about her exiting trip to Toronto, without realizing that I got the general drift of her conversation in tagalog).

On the way back, we leave on time with a frenchman complaining that there are no seats left. The driver offered him to sit on his lap, or wait for the next bus. That cracked him up, and he stood up, chatting with the driver all the way to Lionel-Groulx, which we reach in 20 minutes. Very commendable, especially as we left the Aéropet at 17:00. Half the people get off and go take the Métro. I notice that they have moved the stop closer to Atwater avenue.

The standing frenchman gladly takes a seat, then the driver gets off with his bag, and starts chatting with other drivers.

The bus stayed there for a good 10 minutes; the now-sitting frenchman eventually gets off to ask why the bus is waiting…

"Oh, that's because it's early, we had no traffic, so we came here earlier than scheduled. We'll leave in about 5 minutes".

Hearing that, about 6 people get off with their luggage, but not the now-reseated frenchman.

Then another driver gets on, and we get underway. We stop at about half the stops, and we slalom between stopped bus on the reserved bus lane on René-Lévesque and ordinary rush-hour traffic.

It took 50 minutes to get from the Aéropet to the Voyageur terminus.

A time point at Lionel-Groulx is pretty stupid; not many people will take the bus there and further down the line either, so it would make sense to let the bus go on and catch-up time at the end of the line.

So that's it, that's what I've seen with the service.

The premium price is a bit disconcerning, especially if you're flying out, but if you fly in, you get 24 hours of service, which is not too bad. But the route is highly practical; one seat ride to most of downtown is nothing to sneer at (Yes, Toronto, I'm ಠ_ಠ you!).

Let's just hope the STM will be able to keep consistent service once the novelty wears off. But this, only time will tell.

[ProchaineStation]

Great write up EMDX, I was about to check this route out but you gave every detail about it that I don't think it's necessary anymore.

(Yes, Toronto, I'm ಠ_ಠ you!)

[M. David]

I took my first ride on the 747 towards the "Aeropet" today with Ayeobe and his friend Veronica today. Our experience did not get off a good start, as the bus was several minutes late. However, that was due primarily to some kind of demonstration that had been going on downtown today, and the ensuing traffic. As a result, the line was long and the bus was crushloaded.

Anyway, our bus was 29-153, #4 run. It took a while for us to get to Metro Lionel-Groulx. I'd say it was about 10 - 15 minutes. After that, instead of going onto the highway, we took the St. Partick detour often used by routes 211 & 221 during rush hour. This added some additional time to our commute. The highway portion, however short it was, was actually the fastest part of the route.

We got to the airport more than half an hour after we left Metro Lionel-Groulx. It wasn't the most enjoyable ride, and some of the passengers we spoke to weren't very happy with the service. I, for one, see it as a good thing. This service was a long time in the making, and is very convenient. We may not have had the most enjoyable ride because of the traffic, the random detour, and the crushloadedness of the bus, but I see the 747 as an advantage for those travelling to the airport.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are some pics from today.

29-155 departing Station Centrale d'Autobus

29-153 at the Aeropet

29s 153 & 149 at the Aeropet

29-149 at the Aeropet

[80-040_Guy-Concordia]

I took the 747 today from the airport to Guy and Rene-Levesque but my journey started at Fairview Terminus. There I thought of a creative way to get back by first taking the 204 to the airport then hoping on the 747 to downtown, initially I thought it was going to add time to the trip compared to using the 470 + metro but when I arrived I realized it actually saved time! I may of been lucky on this trip, the 204 arrived exactly when the 747 was boarding and there was no traffic anywhere but there was a 5 minute stop at L-G where a driver swap took place.