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Express Metro's

Let's say for special events, like the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix, Already the Metro's from the Laval stations are already jammed with racing fans, remember this event gets over 120 000 tickets sold and over 200 000 tourists come for this event. most almost all need to take the metro to get to the island. and most use hotels in Laval. So Express F1 Grand Prix, picks up from the Laval stations, Henri Bourassa maybe even Cremazie and Jean Talon and do an express all the way to UQAM. Unless they use the tail tracks to get directly to isle Jean Drapeau.

This would ease congestion on the orange line.

I remember in 2008 it was soo packed that there was police tape blocking the tracks, 20 officers in the station packing us in like sardines. with there tasers on hold!

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Express Metro's

Let's say for special events, like the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix, Already the Metro's from the Laval stations are already jammed with racing fans, remember this event gets over 120 000 tickets sold and over 200 000 tourists come for this event. most almost all need to take the metro to get to the island. and most use hotels in Laval. So Express F1 Grand Prix, picks up from the Laval stations, Henri Bourassa maybe even Cremazie and Jean Talon and do an express all the way to UQAM. Unless they use the tail tracks to get directly to isle Jean Drapeau.

This would ease congestion on the orange line.

I remember in 2008 it was soo packed that there was police tape blocking the tracks, 20 officers in the station packing us in like sardines. with there tasers on hold!

Good idea, but they would need extra tracks for that.

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  • 5 weeks later...
I don't see why? I see chauffeur eleve drivers who sometimes need to stop in the tunnel to wait for trains to leave the stations and make space ahead of him to test the train.

you would need extra tracks if train intervals are lower than whatever time it takes to ride 'express' from jean-talon to berri.

so, this being a week-end, if you were to do this at a time of the day when intervals are of 6-8 minutes, you would need to cross all 6 stations in under that time. considering you would have to slow down quite a bit when passing stations, i'm not sure if it can be done ? also, those trains would have to be well identified to make sure passengers boarding at the stations it does stop do know that it may not stop are their usual stop. also, to truly make this an express track, it would have to connect to the yellow tracks directly, or else all advantage to travellers is lost. i'm not sure if this can be done efficiently with passengers on board, or if the connections even exist.

those train have to be pretty damn crowded to justify something like that ... i remember taking trains to work on grand prix weekend, with all those people in f1 gear and all that (who were obviously going to ile notre-dame) .... it was alot for a saturday / sunday morning, but nothing crazy ... then again, if you have sizable groups whom you would know would all leave towards the site at the same time, you could schedule departures at the top of every hour for say, 3 hours, and announce it - express to f1 from montmorency at 10:00. or from jean-talon, or pie-ix, or snowdown - whatever. then those trains would fill up to the brim and make no stops all the way to jean-drapeau (or berri), perhaps occasionally having to halt in tunnel to allow for trains ahead to clear the way, etc ...

wouldn't be as fast as a true express route, but might be a bit faster anyway.

-A new metro line under Saint-Michel

ligne7.png

wow ... your ideas are strikingly similar to those i've been posting to various transit related forums for some months now... you even seem to share my idea of renaming bonaventure to bonaventure - gare centrale ! .. and this is a good thing - shows that i'm not alone wanting this, and gives me hope it may one day come to fruition ;) ...

just a thing about where you chose to branch off the white line - personally i prefer frontenac because at that site the line is already pointing in the right direction. it also allows for better coverage of the rachel / hogan / iberville area, whereas straight up from prefontaine alot of land is still undeveloped. i don't have any hard data to back this up - but i suspect alot of the east bound traffic on the 97 bus route is for people that try to reach these areas which are bit too far to be considered walkable, and a station there would probably ease traffic on that line quite a bit.

from there that station the white line would then easily reach st-joseph, and then continue on to pie-ix or straight up on st-michel if you wish.

it also seems you have stopping the line at place des arts - which seems a little odd to me. i would see it continue all the way to atwater (and beyond, actually, into NDG). this way, the downtown stretch of the track would get double the traffic as would the white & green lines - which just makes sense to me.

great to see more & more fantasy threads popping here & there ... mass transit in this city could certainly do with alot more original thinking these days ..

umm ..

^^^ i didnt mean those to be in the same post, but ok ..

i'm not sure which bulletin board software this forum uses, but it's quite different than what i'm used to.

oh well :( ..

..

ok i see what's happening. makes sense, i guess.

B)

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  • 3 months later...

What I would do to improve public transport in Montréal.

*No person working for the STM, STL, AMT or any other public transit authority would be allowed to go on strike. Period.

*Increase the hours of "rush hour" from 6:00AM to 10:00AM and 3:00PM to 7:00PM.

*On the Deux-Montagnes Line, create an overpass for commuter trains to by-pass CN's Saint-Laurent subdivision just south of the Montpellier station, where CN operates a freight line with moderate usage.

*Create a commuter train using the Doney Spur Train Line (its starts at highway 13, near highway 40, heading west to around St. Jean).

*Stops at St. Jean, Sources, Delmar, Douglas-B-Floreani and finally at the Bois-Franc Train station. Either the Bois-Franc would be the terminus or the train would continue all the way to Central Station.

*Terminus at Bois-Franc would be there only if the Metro is extended to Bois Franc.

*Create an underground tunnel connecting Train Station at St. Jean and the Fairview Bus Terminal and with an entrance within Fairview itself (maybe with a moving side walk, because it will be around 600M to 750m away)

*As an option, also create the station at Fairview but underground, right under the bus terminal that is there.

*Create a commuter train to/from Valleyfield.

*Starting at Lucien-L'Allier, Vendom (Metro), Montreal West, Lasalle, Kahnawake, one or two Stops in Chateauguay, Beauhamois, Melocheville, St-Timothee, at least two stops in Valleyfield and the last one in Les Coteaux.

*ALL off-island Montreal stops will have parking. Add a few official parking spots (5-10) to the LaSalle station as well. The ones that are there now are not official.

*On the Montreal/Delson-Candiac line, open a new train station at Kahnawake. Clear some of the trees that are under the overpasses that are there and you can have parking.

*Extend the blue Metro line to Galleri D'Anjou. Make sure that there are two extrances. One within the mall itself with the other at the bus terminal.

*Extend the orange Metro line to Gouin.

*Stops at the Bois-Franc train station, with a stop somewhere on O'Brien halfway between Bois-Franc and Core-Vertu (maybe near Parc Cousineau), a stop at Salaberry/O'Brien and the final station at Gouin.

*Extend the line further north to Laval. Perhaps have it connect to the other end of the Orange line.

*Build a short version of Highway 440 from Gouin to Highway 40 OR build a urban boulevard to/from the same places (effectively creating another St. Jeans or St. Charles). In either case, make sure that Antoine Faucon and Pierrefonds blvd. connects to it.

*Have it continue accross the forested area between the 40 and the 20 and then connect to the 20 itself as well as avenue Woodland.

(Not public transit, but come on, I wanna get something out of this list too!)

You can see a map here: http://www.sigmawave.com/jason/new_road.jpg

*Create a high speed commuter train connecting the Dorval Airport to Central Station in Downtown.

*Have the train Stop at Central Station, Metro Place St. Henri, St. Jacques/Avon, Lachine train station, the Dorval Circle (Train & Bus terminus), and finally to the Airport itself.

*Create a commuter train connecting Lachine to Central Station in Downtown.

*Have the train Stop at Central Station, Metro Place St. Henri, St. Jacques/Avon, and as many stops along Victoria as needed, with the train going as far west as possible. Possibly even going as far as the airport.

*On the Deux-Montagnes Line:

*Create a new train station at Edouard-Montpetit Metro.

*Create a new train station in the new Rapids-Du-Cheval-Blanc. Make sure the route of the 213 is modified to have its new terminus at the Train Station. NO normal parking will be created at this station (only a few handicapped spaces). This station will NOT be built on the Park that is there.

*Connect Rue St-Louis to Rue Perron. Create a new Signal Crossing over the train tracks so that rue Perron can connect to Riverdale.

*At Sunnybrooke Station, create a new parking lot just south-west of the exsisting lot.

(This was actually already done as of Winter 2008)

*On the Blainville Train line:

*re-open the St. martin Train Station and add as many parking spots as possible.

*Create a new Train Station at Salaberry.

*Create a new Train Station, in Laval, at boul. Cartier.

*At Chabanel, create some offcial parking for the station.

*Create a new Train Station near the Namur metro and Cote-Des-Neiges

*Create a underground Tunnel to connect Both highway 15s together bypassing highway 40 altogether.

(ok so this is not directly public transit either. I just hate that space in between the two 15s.)

*Extend the Delson/Candiac line to St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu with two stops.

*Create a station in St-Philippe.

*Create a new Commuter Train line. This one goes to Marieville.

*Starts at Central Station then at Saint-Lambert. Next stop Montee St-Hubert (near the corners of Boul. Kimber & Maricourt), one or two stops in Chambly, one in Richelieu then finally at Marieville.

*Create parking lot at Montee St-Hubert near open green area next to Parc Gerard Carmel.

*Create a station for this line where the tracks meets Autoroute 30. Create the parking lot here instead of at Montee St-Hubert.

*On the Dorion/Riguad Line:

*Create a proper parking lot for the Beaurepaire train station.

*Return the train to Riguad instead of stopping at Hudson, but make sure there are at least TWO departures/returns per day.

*Around the halfway mark between Beaconsfield and Pointe-Claire, create a train crossing that would connect Avenue Cartier and Avenue Donegani. Either make this a full blown train crossing or at the every least very least a train crossing for pedestrians &cyclists. If that is deemed to dangerous, then perhaps a small overpass (just for pedestrians & cyclists) or an underground tunnel (either largest enough for cars or again just pedestrians & cyclists).

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Hmmm, for some reason, I missed a lot of action here.

Really, I don't see what the problem is! A while back I read in The Gazette's SQUEAKY WHEELS about a tourist from Tennessee who had the same issue, and the STM responds that if it's in French, then it's not an emergency. WOW!!! THAT'S A REAL HELP!!!! LEAVING THEM CONFUSED IS THE WAY TO GO, HUH!!!They need to understand that it's not about language, but it's about customer service.
Do they do announcements in french in Toronto? No. So why should we do announcements in english here?

Note: any answer along the line “yes, but english is yadda yadda yadda” will trigger a big flamewar and many people’s feelings will be genuinely hurt. When it comes to language issues I **will** be a real bitch. Consider yourself warned.

Since the inception of the 467 last year, I think that some other major routes should have limited-stop equivalents as well.

Examples:

  • 405 & 424 Sherbrooke
  • 421 Sauve / Cote-Vertu
  • 461 Van Horne
  • 465 Cote-des-Neiges
  • 490 Ave. du Parc (only because 480 is already taken)
40 years ago, I remember express buses that had little green flags, and, on buses so equipped, little green lights on each side of the destination sign. You had to pay 2 tickets to board them, or a ticket with your transfer. The one I remember went straight from downtown to Montréal-Ouest (first stop near the station).
Rail

- Train service to Fairview Pointe-Claire via the CN Doney Spur

Why? The Rig^h^h^h Hudson line runs less than 3 km from Fairview. It would make more sense to have a big bus terminal (à la Dorval) where the Pointe-Claire station (ex Lakeside station) and have buses go from there.

Of course, you’d have to have decent train service, though…

One thing that could make sense, though, is a streetcar line running from montée St-Charles to the Sunnybrooke train station, via the Salaberry hydro corridor. If we manage to grow the brains to use tram-trains, they could go all the way to Central Station.

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Why? The Rig^h^h^h Hudson line runs less than 3 km from Fairview. It would make more sense to have a big bus terminal (à la Dorval) where the Pointe-Claire station (ex Lakeside station) and have buses go from there.

3 KM is a long way to walk. Yes I know, I can just take the bus.

Of course, once I get to Fairview its yet another bus. Maybe even two depending on where I am going....

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transitmap2030.jpg

I like your map, but it needs to be tweaked a little bit.

1) We need a Metro Station on the Orange line at boul. Gouin, before the metro goes to Laval.

2) We need a Metro Station on the Orange line at boul. Levesque or Cartier once it gets into Laval.

3) We extended the Green line to Lachine but not all the way to Dorval? Really? Come on.

4) The Yellow line really does need to make a stop at McGill.

I am certain other people can tweak it more still.

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transitmap2030.jpg

Well.. I for one really truly hope that they never ever loop the Orange line in Laval... Other than being confusing for travelers (inner loop, outer loop), it can be much more successful if we do this:

Keep Montmorency as the East terminus and have the west side extend north underneath Grenet (Montreal) and Chomedey (Laval) and terminate at Carrefour Laval beneath the current Carrefour Terminus and considering that terminus is currently served by over 10 bus routes, many people would be transfering to and from the metro there.

There would be stations at :

(Montreal side) - Poirier (Grenet & Poirier)

- Bois-Franc (Bois-Franc Train Station)

- Salaberry (Grenet & Salaberry)

- Gouin (Grenet & Gouin)

(Laval side) - Chomedey (Chomedey & Levesque)

- Notre-Dame (Chomedey & Notre-Dame)

- Lacroix (Chomedey & Souvenir)

- Saint-Martin (Chomedey & Saint-Martin)

- Centropolis (Daniel Johnson near the Centropolis)

- Carrefour (Beneath Terminus Le Carrefour)

This is only one part of a fantasy plan I have for the metro that I'm creating using mostly Google maps... It may not be completely realistic but it's really just a fantasy and a hope to one day see the metro greatly extended.

The full plan even includes a new metro line for Laval which would create a sort of loop by using connections between the future Laval metro line and the orange line, without creating confusion.

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Circular lines are nothing but operating nightmares; without a terminus, it is impossible to keep the trains on schedules and avoid bunching-up. As it happens, all circular lines have to implement a virtual terminus at a given station.

There is also some issues with wheel wear, but with rubber-tyred trains with differential axles, this is not really a problem.

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I propose a 415 express bus from Metro Montmorency to Terminus Panama via Autoroute 15. Of course, it would be partly funded by other agencies such as the STL, RTL, and possibly the AMT. Because of the traffic, it might be advisable to run the route only between rush hours and possibly also on evenings and weekends. During rush hour, other STM and RTL routes as well as the metro wouldn't take that much longer than a congested 415 bus.

The stops:

Metro Montmorency

Autoroute 15 / Salaberry (northbound)

Cote-de-Liesse / Montpellier (southbound)

Metro Namur

Decarie / Queen-Mary

Autoroute 15 / Sherbrooke

De La Verendrye / De L'Eglise

Metro De L'Eglise

LaSalle / Wellington

Metro LaSalle

Ile-des-Soeurs / du Golf (southbound)

Campus Bell

Terminus Panama

The route:

Northbound

Autoroute 10, Pointe-Nord, J.-Le Ber, Autoroute 15, Henri-Duhamel, Rushbrooke, LaSalle, Wellington, De L'Eglise, Autoroute 15, Decarie, Autoroute 15, Decarie, Autoroute 15, De La Concorde, Avenir

Southbound

Avenir, De La Concorde, Autoroute 15, Cote-de-Liesse, Autoroute 15, Decarie, Autoroute 15, Decarie, Autoroute 15, Addington, Sherbrooke, Girouard, Autoroute 15, De La Verendrye, Galt, Wellington, LaSalle, Caisse, Rushbrooke, May, Wellington, Henri-Duhamel, Autoroute 15, Ile-des-Soeurs, Pointe-Nord, J.-Le Ber, Autoroute 10

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I propose a 415 express bus from Metro Montmorency to Terminus Panama via Autoroute 15. Of course, it would be partly funded by other agencies such as the STL, RTL, and possibly the AMT. Because of the traffic, it might be advisable to run the route only between rush hours and possibly also on evenings and weekends. During rush hour, other STM and RTL routes as well as the metro wouldn't take that much longer than a congested 415 bus.

Hm. I haven't read the AMT O/D survey results, but I doubt that the Laval/North Shore<->Longueuil/South Shore movments warrant the success of such a shuttle. Plus 50-55 minutes to cross the entire city (According to Google Maps : 29 minutes Montmorency->Bonaventure+8 min. transit+16 min. RTL-45) is considerably a low amount of time.

Since the inception of the 467 last year, I think that some other major routes should have limited-stop equivalents as well.

Examples:

  • 465 Cote-des-Neiges
  • 490 Ave. du Parc (only because 480 is already taken)

I'm sure some of you have your own ideas as well.

Isn't 535 already doing the job?

Adding such expresses would be a service duplication, IMO.

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Hm. I haven't read the AMT O/D survey results, but I doubt that the Laval/North Shore<->Longueuil/South Shore movments warrant the success of such a shuttle. Plus 50-55 minutes to cross the entire city (According to Google Maps : 29 minutes Montmorency->Bonaventure+8 min. transit+16 min. RTL-45) is considerably a low amount of time.

Travel from Laval and the North Shore to the South Shore is only a secondary concern. I came up with this idea more for Laval-TMR, Laval-NDG, NDG-Brossard, NDG-Verdun, Ile-Des-Soeurs-NDG, Ile-Des-Soeurs-Brossard, Laval-Ile-Des-Soeurs, etc...

I'd like to see how this route would play out.

The idea is that there's already an autoroute so why not use it to provide super-high-speed service at 1.5 times metro speeds. The key to increasing transit ridership is keeping the Public Transit Time to Car Time ratio as low as possible. Considering it takes 15 minutes from Laval to NDG by car on the highway and up to 40 by metro, there is work to be done here.

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transitmap2030.jpg

As for this planned looping of the yellow line and making it into a conventional steel wheel operation.... From what I remember, the yellow line has some of the steepest grades on the system which caused the MR-63 trainsets to struggles on the hills... If a train with rubber tires has trouble, a train with steel wheels will just barely make it, or stall and maybe roll back <_< (would be kinda funny IMO)...

Also, looping the line above the railway would only serve longueuil and would leave no room for expansion... Extending the yellow line ( partly as planned by the city of longueil ( 4 stations )) all the way to Panama Terminus, running partly beneath Taschereau Boulevard and having a few stations on Taschereau would be more useful, more compatible with the rest of the metro system ( uses rubber tires ), would not require major changes or new rolling stock due to steel wheel operation, would not cause confusing or operational problems, as EMDX said in a previous post, and would serve a larger number of people considering the size of Panama Terminus and the amount of people who use it every day.

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I'm sure Laval can benefit from 24 hr bus service on like five lines.

Those five lines should cover the most territory with the least buses.

17 Des Laurentides (Métro HB, Métro Cartier, Pont-Viau, Renaud, Vimont, Auteuil)

26 Notre-Dame (Métro Montmorency, Chomedey, Sainte-Dorothée)

42 De la Concorde ( Terminus Le Carrefour, Métro Montmorency, Métro Concorde, Laval-Des-Rapides, Pont-Viau, Duvernay, Saint-François)

76 Dagenais ( Chomedey, Fabreville, Laval-Ouest, Laval-sur-le-Lac )

151 Curé-Labelle (St-Laurent, Cartierville, Chomedey, Fabreville, Ste-Rose)

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The idea is that there's already an autoroute so why not use it to provide super-high-speed service at 1.5 times metro speeds. The key to increasing transit ridership is keeping the Public Transit Time to Car Time ratio as low as possible. Considering it takes 15 minutes from Laval to NDG by car on the highway and up to 40 by metro, there is work to be done here.

Transit is not car. Period.

Also, a Montmorency/Côte-Vertu limited-stop or express route would be efficient for these needs, with little costs.

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Transit is not car. Period.

Also, a Montmorency/Côte-Vertu limited-stop or express route would be efficient for these needs, with little costs.

I disagree. Now that I'm driving, I am very very tempted just to leave transit behind simply because it triples my commute. Now, if it was only doubled, who would?

I also agree that an alternative, but possibly better solution would be to direct more STL buses from the east down to Cote-Vertu and send a bus from Sainte-Therese and Saint-Eustache, what do you think?

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Transit is not car. Period.

Also, a Montmorency/Côte-Vertu limited-stop or express route would be efficient for these needs, with little costs.

I say reroute STL route 902.

When it was an AMT Express, the 902 did the job to link the major Laval bus terminus (Le Carrefour; Laval metro was not open) and Cote-Vertu metro. Now that Montmorency terminus is open, it's time to adapt and make the move.

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I say reroute STL route 902.

When it was an AMT Express, the 902 did the job to link the major Laval bus terminus (Le Carrefour; Laval metro was not open) and Cote-Vertu metro. Now that Montmorency terminus is open, it's time to adapt and make the move.

That works well for Saint-Laurent, but it does nothing for NDG because of the additional transfer time incurred at Montmorency. Plus there are still a lot of buses from the north that do stop at Carrefour before reaching Montmorency, you would be lengthening those trips.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm also thinking about a trainbus/express route (maybe 971?) running from Dorval to Cote-Vertu to Montpellier to Bois-de-Boulogne in both directions during rush hour.

One option is to mimic the 935 so that in the morning you can only board at the 3 train stations and in the afternoon you can only alight at the 3 train stations. However, I think it would be more feasible to simply make it into a regular limited-stop bus.

The goal of this route is to rapidly link train users to major points of interest and workplaces in Saint-Laurent and along Cote-de-Liesse. A nice side effect is a direct route between Dorval and Cote-de-Liesse and Metro Cote-Vertu.

Once the Repentigny-Mascouche line is completed, the bus could easily serve Ahuntsic station as well.

In the morning, buses would leave in sync with inbound trains at Dorval and Bois-de-Boulogne. At Montpellier, westbound short turns will leave in sync with the inbound trains at that station.

In the afternoon, buses would run scheduled to provide 7-10 minute transfer times with all outbound trains.

With all the trains to connect to, this would mean a pretty frequent service which could be used by locals as well. With reduced ridership on the 121 and 171, we could probably get away with pulling a few buses off each of those routes to lower the operating costs of this service.

Eastbound route:

Autoroute 520, Cote-de-Liesse, Dalton, Cavendish, Thimens, Grenet, Rochon, Crevier, Cote-Vertu, Autoroute 15, Acadie, Henri-Bourassa

Westbound route:

Bois-de-Boulogne, Arthur-Lismer, Acadie, Sauve, Cote-Vertu, Marcel-Laurin, Thimens, Cavendish, Griffith, Migneron, Cote-de-Liesse, Autoroute 520

Let me know if you approve of such a route!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hmmm, for some reason, I missed a lot of action here.

Do they do announcements in french in Toronto? No. So why should we do announcements in english here?

Note: any answer along the line “yes, but english is yadda yadda yadda” will trigger a big flamewar and many people’s feelings will be genuinely hurt. When it comes to language issues I **will** be a real bitch. Consider yourself warned.

Do Mtl and T.O. have parallel demographics? I'll elaborate. Mtl has an anglo minority and the metro PA has no english. Does T.O. have a french minority for you to be asking if T.O.'s metro PA has french? (NOTE: if the answer to this last question is "yes", please provide proof)

And another note. I'm not saying that the PA should be bilingual the whole yr; just for selected major events (e.g. F1. It's just 3 days, but it's a major event, nonetheless). Athens added english to its metro PA for the '04 Olympics.

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Some conductors are nice enough to announce the closure of Cote-saint-Catherine in English and french, and the 747 drivers automatically uses billingual But that's about it.

From Vendome to Cote Vertu, it's very English, as is Parc to St.Michel. And downtown in the summer it's very common for a tourist to get lost, or don't even get help from a changeur or entretien that can't speak good English.

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No more language debate. If MetrodeMontreal.com won't have it then neither will we. FabianMT seems young so let me have the last word and educate him: the STM and their predecessors operate in large part in French and if you want to get around Montreal with transit, an effort should be made to speak to the people that run it in their language and if/when that fails English can be used.

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Well.. I for one really truly hope that they never ever loop the Orange line in Laval... Other than being confusing for travelers (inner loop, outer loop), it can be much more successful if we do this:

Keep Montmorency as the East terminus and have the west side extend north underneath Grenet (Montreal) and Chomedey (Laval) and terminate at Carrefour Laval beneath the current Carrefour Terminus and considering that terminus is currently served by over 10 bus routes, many people would be transfering to and from the metro there.

There would be stations at :

(Montreal side) - Poirier (Grenet & Poirier)

- Bois-Franc (Bois-Franc Train Station)

- Salaberry (Grenet & Salaberry)

- Gouin (Grenet & Gouin)

(Laval side) - Chomedey (Chomedey & Levesque)

- Notre-Dame (Chomedey & Notre-Dame)

- Lacroix (Chomedey & Souvenir)

- Saint-Martin (Chomedey & Saint-Martin)

- Centropolis (Daniel Johnson near the Centropolis)

- Carrefour (Beneath Terminus Le Carrefour)

This is only one part of a fantasy plan I have for the metro that I'm creating using mostly Google maps... It may not be completely realistic but it's really just a fantasy and a hope to one day see the metro greatly extended.

The full plan even includes a new metro line for Laval which would create a sort of loop by using connections between the future Laval metro line and the orange line, without creating confusion.

WHOA!!! That's a lot of stations for Laval. I'll tell you what I think:

  • Chomedey (Chomedey/Levesque): This one I would move further north to the northeast quadrant of the Cure-Labelle/Cartier O. axis. It would be surrounded by residences, sit next to a reserved lane, and be served by four bus lines (the 151 in both dir's would have to be rerouted to provide good access). Your location sits next to a very big intersection (in the literal sense), so those who would transfer from the lines serving that intersection (20//144 from Levesque, 55//151//902 from C.-Labelle) will have to make a long trek across it. Thus, in my books your choice loses points for safety and accessibility. Check Google Maps and compare for yourself.
  • Notre-Dame (Chomedey & Notre-Dame): I can already tell you this one is dead in the water! There's no more room in this area. The last free space has been taken up by condos.
  • Centropolis (Daniel Johnson near the Centropolis): I like this one. This one would be near the vacant lot where there used to be a shopping centre. Not a bad location!

I'm not so sure that the others would work. I agree that the loop idea should be scrapped. However, we should be very cautious about adding too many stations on Laval territory. The city itself should find other ways to improve transit in its territory, besides metro. I believe it should explore BRT. I may have a few ideas in mind. I'll post them when I have a clearer picture.

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WHOA!!! That's a lot of stations for Laval. I'll tell you what I think:
  • Chomedey (Chomedey/Levesque): This one I would move further north to the northeast quadrant of the Cure-Labelle/Cartier O. axis. It would be surrounded by residences, sit next to a reserved lane, and be served by four bus lines (the 151 in both dir's would have to be rerouted to provide good access). Your location sits next to a very big intersection (in the literal sense), so those who would transfer from the lines serving that intersection (20//144 from Levesque, 55//151//902 from C.-Labelle) will have to make a long trek across it. Thus, in my books your choice loses points for safety and accessibility. Check Google Maps and compare for yourself.
  • Notre-Dame (Chomedey & Notre-Dame): I can already tell you this one is dead in the water! There's no more room in this area. The last free space has been taken up by condos.
  • Centropolis (Daniel Johnson near the Centropolis): I like this one. This one would be near the vacant lot where there used to be a shopping centre. Not a bad location!

I'm not so sure that the others would work. I agree that the loop idea should be scrapped. However, we should be very cautious about adding too many stations on Laval territory. The city itself should find other ways to improve transit in its territory, besides metro. I believe it should explore BRT. I may have a few ideas in mind. I'll post them when I have a clearer picture.

Oh damn.... i made a mistake for Chomedey station.... i actually placed Chomedey station further up at the corner of Chomedey/Cure-Labelle... I guess I was typing too fast. For Chomedey station, i'm hoping for multiple exits on as many sides of the intersection as possible, hopefully one in pharmaprix's parking lot, the possibilty of a small one in the Chenoys parking lot and one in the vacant lot on the north-east side. This is my original plan, also would serve as a transfer station for a future laval metro line running under Cure-Labelle, Cartier and Laurentides. But that would only be built with increased population in laval and a much higher density of population around these axis'.

For the Notre-Dame station, i was planning only one exit on the north west corner, probably in that time little park that i've never seen anyone use... probably since it only has benches.... which a metro entrance could have aswell.

Lacroix and Saint-Martin stations would mainly be used by people transfering from buses and people working in the area. There is also alot of vacant areas covered by trees or simply grassland which I assume will be transformed into high-rise condos, like what is usually done, which would greatly increase the population density around these stations, making them highly used. These stations will be built, but will probably have a low usage to start off with, but as the population grows, they will become more used.

Finally, all these stations are made to allow better access to the metro, but the main goal of my plan was to get the metro all the way to Carrefour Terminus, which is a very large hub. Many buses already come here and alot of people have to transfer, during the weekdays, to the 902 which takes quite a while to get to the metro at Cote-Vertu, and during the weekend they must take 2 buses, one to get to the 151, and then take the 151 down to the metro. This is why i want to metro extended all the way to carrefour.. yes it would bring with it 6 extra stations, but those are only in the center of laval.

I would hope that laval would reconfigure it's bus network to better serve it's population. Hopefully, it would resemble montreal's network in the rosemont and plateau areas, where it uses buses going only on 1 street, creating a rectangular grid of buses with easy transfers... Their current system just shuttles everyone to the metro and they have to transfer there... I don't want laval to neglect it's bus network because if has metro stations, buses and metro are meant to complement each other. Transit cannot be solved with one form of transportation, it requires many different forms. Buses taking people to and from the metro. The metro shuttling people quickly to their destinations where they take a bus from there. The Commuter trains quickly getting people from far away places and bringing them to the metro and ultimately, all the way downtown where most people work... It all has to work TOGETHER... which some people don't get... That's why I hope for some LRT projects in montreal. I have planned a few which all use their own right of way to avoid traffic slowdowns...

In the end, i hope this extension would encourage people to move to laval since it would be easier for them to get to their jobs on the island of montreal without having to drive over our already jam packed bridges and highways...

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