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STM Best Transit System in North America


2020

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Just came across this article while browsing Yahoo this evening. Now I am not a resident of Montreal but my preception is that the STM is quite average in terms of service frequency. When visiting Montreal though I do miss the type of TTC service that I have become so accustomed to. I would like to hear the opinons though of the Montreal Transit Fan community, do you agree that the STM is the best run transit property in North America given the large subsidies from the Province of Quebec and if not why?

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/pop...;src=canadanews

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Just came across this article while browsing Yahoo this evening. Now I am not a resident of Montreal but my preception is that the STM is quite average in terms of service frequency. When visiting Montreal though I do miss the type of TTC service that I have become so accustomed to. I would like to hear the opinons though of the Montreal Transit Fan community, do you agree that the STM is the best run transit property in North America given the large subsidies from the Province of Quebec and if not why?

TTC bus service isn't terrible, but it's far from perfect. The streetcar and subway service I find is quite superior though. My main gripe about the TTC was that there was no visible schedule at the stops, infact, the stops are hard to find, especially when you're not from Toronto. The maps are confusing, and it's quite easy to get lost in the subway if you don't know exactly where you're going, because following the arrows will just take you around in circles.

Montreal bus service on the West Island can be better, but if you're looking at downtown service with buses that pass every 2-5 minutes during rush hour, you really can't go wrong. And each stop has a schedule, it clearly states which bus goes where, and almost every bus route in Montreal will stop at a metro station, unlike Toronto, where the buses will follow the street they are on, and most don't meet at a specific central location to transfer to other routes.

I see Montreal's improvements in service over the last few years, and they're constantly striving to get better all the time. They're also creating routes to appease the seniors, with the "Navette Or", and "10 Minutes MAX" service. As well as the reduced headway in the metro.

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I think it has to do more with the rebranding/remarketing/reinvention of itself and getting out of the dark ages with service adjustments, more hrs, more kms that got the APTAs attention. The reality on the street is more different of course, ask any client who gives a damn about these showoff pretentious and meaningless awards when they're facing a gap or a service slowdown. I would hate to imagine how the STM would run without said subsidies. With the weight that the STM carries, the rest of the players in Quebec don't stand much of a chance, even puny little STL can't do much even though they have GPS and real time bus tracking, something that isn't yet at the STM.

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TTC bus service isn't terrible, but it's far from perfect. The streetcar and subway service I find is quite superior though. My main gripe about the TTC was that there was no visible schedule at the stops, infact, the stops are hard to find, especially when you're not from Toronto. The maps are confusing, and it's quite easy to get lost in the subway if you don't know exactly where you're going, because following the arrows will just take you around in circles.

Montreal bus service on the West Island can be better, but if you're looking at downtown service with buses that pass every 2-5 minutes during rush hour, you really can't go wrong. And each stop has a schedule, it clearly states which bus goes where, and almost every bus route in Montreal will stop at a metro station, unlike Toronto, where the buses will follow the street they are on, and most don't meet at a specific central location to transfer to other routes.

I see Montreal's improvements in service over the last few years, and they're constantly striving to get better all the time. They're also creating routes to appease the seniors, with the "Navette Or", and "10 Minutes MAX" service. As well as the reduced headway in the metro.

I don't think the TTC needs schedules at most stops as most routes run every 10 minutes or better 7 days a week. Secondly, I don't see how anyone could get lost in Toronto's subway and if so they don't stand a chance in NYC's subway system. Thirdly, there's only 2 bus routes in Toronto that don't go to a subway station. Lastly the reason why most routes don't meet up at a central location is because the TTC runs using a grid system, unlike MTL which uses a mixture of the hob and spoke layout and a grid system layout, like Chicago.

While the STM might not run as frequently as the TTC, I do believe they run much more efficiently than the TTC and I do think the STM is a good system even though it has its shortcomings.

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I don't think the TTC needs schedules at most stops as most routes run every 10 minutes or better 7 days a week. Secondly, I don't see how anyone could get lost in Toronto's subway and if so they don't stand a chance in NYC's subway system. Thirdly, there's only 2 bus routes in Toronto that don't go to a subway station. Lastly the reason why most routes don't meet up at a central location is because the TTC runs using a grid system, unlike MTL which uses a mixture of the hob and spoke layout and a grid system layout, like Chicago.

While the STM might not run as frequently as the TTC, I do believe they run much more efficiently than the TTC and I do think the STM is a good system even though it has its shortcomings.

True, but I'm talking from an out-of-towner perspective. As are probably the judges for this award.

I'm not a regular visitor of Toronto, even though it's really not that far away to me, I've been there less than a handful of times in my life, and my transit experience there was that they have nice buses, but since there are no predetermined schedules, it's hard to know reliably when to wait for one, and what bus to wait for, since there are no bus numbers at any of the stops. Route #6 had 3 New Looks on that route when I was there, and I waited about an hour or so to see each one pass. I waited almost 30 minutes for one, then 10 minutes and then 15 minutes. The streetcars and subway system on the other hand I find run quite regularly and are pretty reliable, even if the streetcars are bumpy and stop abruptly and the subways are very noisy and fill the stations with smoke. I was fanning with a few friends and we made that comment regarding Montreal wanting to opt for steel wheeled trains over rubber.

I like the NYC feel of the TTC subway though, and I'm really not too crazy about how Montreal has tried to super-modernize everything with new sound systems and huge screen panels and those yellow bumpy platform borders. But I believe that the selection committee took all of those advancements into consideration when selecting the best transit agency in North America.

Heck, the TTC is using subway signaling technology from the 1920's, and there were times we had to stop mid-station at a red signal, which reminded me of how Montreal's metro used to be like 20 years ago. It was a very hot day and the trains were sweltering hot, they had fans blowing, and it was comparable to Montreal's metro, and I thought the TTC subways all had AC now.

Anyways, I enjoyed the New Looks in service, but waiting 45 minutes for a bus that never showed with close to 100 people near Queen Street E, while about 5 passed on the other side reminded me of waiting for a West Island bus in Montreal, except there was no InfoSTM to contact to find out when the bus was supposed to pass, or if there were any delays in service, such as a detour or accident.

Montreal has all of those creature comforts now that we didn't just a few years ago, and all of these latest investments and ideas have probably weighed heavily on the decision to choose Montreal as the best in North America.

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It's not only on the level of passenger service.

Just by the way the STM tackled the question of hybrid buses speaks volume of the extreme competence of it's engineers. When other cities tried them and dismissed them as humbug, the STM had a more intelligent look at it.

Not only they have found ways of running the hybrid buses the most efficient way possible, but the hybrid buses research has managed to boost the performance of regular diesel buses by as much as 8% by simply regulating the radiator fan in order to keep the engine at the most optimal temperature. So imagine how hybrid buses are even more efficient because of that!!!

And the automatic GPS transmission programming that changes according to the street profile the bus is on is another stroke of genius.

The same comment goes for the automatic train control, whose simplicity is remarkable (I banged my head on the wall when I learned how stupidly simple it is), yet it offers total precision of train stop (±5 centimeters — out of 150m trains, this makes .03% accuracy), and this has been going on for more than 30 years, during which the WAMATA has been unable to make it's own ATC work reliably.

Just go stand at Lionel-Groulx, west end of the Honoré-Beaugrand (line 1) platform, and look at the westbound trains below your feet. Every single one stops at the very same spot; only the tip of the sharfernberg coupler is visible from above once the train stops. And this goes on train after train after train after train.

QC-STM_20101024-131049_26606_Lionel-Groulx.jpg

(This is my all-time favourite spot in the system to watch trains go by. —Yeah, sorry for the crappy picture, but if you want to catch a subway train full speed in the tunnel, even with a f1.8 lens, you kinda need to boost the sensitivity)…

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  • 3 months later...
The little ribbons have been stuck everywhere! On metro butterfly doors and even on buses! Not to mention the PR billboards on platforms.

Not just on the metro's butterfly doors; I rode a metro with a big APTA award sticker outside!...

Exactly like this one:

http://metrodemontreal.com/forum/viewtopic...p=180464#180464

At this pace, APTA will decern the STM the Best annoying campagn in north america next year !

LOL! :lol: I think the STM is TOO proud of its award! :P

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