*** GEORGES-VANIER STATION CLOSED ***

[kellergraham]

Just received from the STM:

Will translate upon request:

MONTREAL, le 26 mai /CNW Telbec/ - La Société de transport de Montréal (STM) désire informer sa clientèle que, pour réaliser d'importants travaux à la station Georges-Vanier, elle se voit dans l'obligation de fermer temporairement celle-ci. L'accès à la station Georges-Vanier sera donc fermé en tout temps à compter du 2 juin et ce, jusqu'au 5 septembre inclusivement. Consciente que cela impliquera un changement dans ses habitudes de transport, la Société tient à rassurer sa clientèle qu'elle a mis en place un service de navette d'autobus qui circulera aux 10 minutes, aux mêmes heures que celles de l'ouverture du métro, entre les stations Georges-Vanier, Lionel-Groulx et Lucien-L'Allier pour toute la durée des travaux. Par ailleurs, puisque durant les travaux il ne sera pas possible de se procurer ses titres de transport habituels à la station Georges-Vanier, la STM invite sa clientèle les acheter à l'avance, à une autre station. Les travaux effectués durant cette période consisteront principalement en la démolition complète des escaliers fixes et de la dalle de plancher à l'intérieur de l'édicule, à la réfection de ladite dalle, des escaliers fixes, de la fenestration et du trottoir extérieur. Ces travaux s'effectueront dans le cadre du programme Réno-Stations phase II. Rappelons que Transports Québec et la STM sont partenaires financiers dans la réalisation de ce programme. La STM prie sa clientèle de l'excuser des inconvénients que pourrait lui causer cette fermeture de la station et tient à la remercier chaleureusement de sa patience et de sa compréhension.

Pour connaître l'horaire et le parcours de la navette: http://www.stm.info/info/georges-vanier_navette.pdf

[smallspy]

What exactly are they doing that would necessitate a complete closure of the station, especially an online one like Georges-Vanier?

Dan

[AlexLy]

In today's Métro Journal it talks about it too and there's an article about my drawings in the rectangle in blue.... And i'm now 11 years old not 10!

[Tranzit]

Finally...Montreal's first "ghost station"!

It should be weird trundling non-stop through this for the next little while.

All that'll be missing will be the East German border guards!

[mtltransitguy]

TRANSLATION (As posted on STM website):

Georges-Vanier Station temporarily closed

From June 2 to September 5, 2008

The STM must temporarily close Georges-Vanier métro station to carry out major renovations.

While work is underway,

The entrance to Georges-Vanier station will be closed at all times.

The métro will pass through Georges-Vanier station at a reduced speed and occasionally make a stop, but the doors will remain closed (passengers may not exit).

A shuttle bus service (about every 10 minutes) will run between Georges-Vanier, Lionel-Groulx and Lucien-L’Allier stations. Shuttle buses will travel on Saint-Antoine – Atwater – Saint-Jacques – De la Montagne – Saint-Antoine streets.

Schedule: Weekdays and Sunday: 05:30 am to 01:15 am

Saturday: 05:30 am to 01:45 am

Attention! You will no longer be able to purchase your transit fares at Georges-Vanier station while it is closed. Be prepared – buy your fares ahead of time at another station.

Link to shuttle bus route map: SHUTTLE BUS

I knew this was coming, a while back, one of the issues on the B.O.D. agenda was the replacing of the Georges-Vanier kiosk. Get your pics now, before it's too late.

Hopefully there is no other "major renovations" that will take place here. Don't take any chances.

[SMS]

Bring back the 545!

[mtltransitguy]

Bring back the 545!

I thought you might say that.

[80-040_Guy-Concordia]

TRANSLATION (As posted on STM website):

Georges-Vanier Station temporarily closed

From June 2 to September 5, 2008

The STM must temporarily close Georges-Vanier métro station to carry out major renovations.

While work is underway,

The entrance to Georges-Vanier station will be closed at all times.

The métro will pass through Georges-Vanier station at a reduced speed and occasionally make a stop, but the doors will remain closed (passengers may not exit).

A shuttle bus service (about every 10 minutes) will run between Georges-Vanier, Lionel-Groulx and Lucien-L’Allier stations. Shuttle buses will travel on Saint-Antoine – Atwater – Saint-Jacques – De la Montagne – Saint-Antoine streets.

Schedule: Weekdays and Sunday: 05:30 am to 01:15 am

Saturday: 05:30 am to 01:45 am

Attention! You will no longer be able to purchase your transit fares at Georges-Vanier station while it is closed. Be prepared – buy your fares ahead of time at another station.

Link to shuttle bus route map: SHUTTLE BUS

I knew this was coming, a while back, one of the issues on the B.O.D. agenda was the replacing of the Georges-Vanier kiosk. Get your pics now, before it's too late.

Hopefully there is no other "major renovations" that will take place here. Don't take any chances.

I'm gonna miss the ease of just going down the St. Marc tunnel and hopping on the metro. It saves a lot of time by going straight to G-V then to go to Guy then to the orange line.

The shuttles will add time to the commute for everyone in the community, and there isn't much other than the metro for transportation there. It gonna be a long summer for them, even if it is one of the least used stations.

It's already too late to grab pics, they've already taken down the Metro Sign and parked a trailer infront.

I had a feeling they were going to close the kiosk down after seeing the Metro sign gone and a trailer parked infront. Didn't think it was gonna be that soon.

What exactly are they doing that would necessitate a complete closure of the station, especially an online one like Georges-Vanier?

Dan

The only reason is because this station has only one entrance, or kiosk. And by the looks of it it will probably be torn down because a few of the windows were being held up with steel bars, the roof may of also have problems as it was repaired last summer.

[Tranzit]

Makes you wonder why this station was ever built at its present location in the first place. I assume whoever was responsible for drafting the blueprints for the Orange Line was thinking of a source of user traffic that never came to pass in reality.

Such errors have occurred in other cities, of course, where there are certain subway lines with closed ("ghost") stations and even trackage which has long since been abandoned and re-routed.

I suppose we could even have some fun right here in this forum and try to predict which of our Metro stations will eventually be closed for good. It may take decades for this to happen, but I have no doubt that it will for one reason or another.

Anyone care to make a prediction right now?

[mtltransitguy]

Makes you wonder why this station was ever built at its present location in the first place. I assume whoever was responsible for drafting the blueprints for the Orange Line was thinking of a source of user traffic that never came to pass in reality.

Such errors have occurred in other cities, of course, where there are certain subway lines with closed ("ghost") stations and even trackage which has long since been abandoned and re-routed.

I suppose we could even have some fun right here in this forum and try to predict which of our Metro stations will eventually be closed for good. It may take decades for this to happen, but I have no doubt that it will for one reason or another.

Anyone care to make a prediction right now?

Sure. NONE.

All metro stations currently open are needed. If you guess Georges-Vanier, then you haven't been to the area, it's only Transit link in the area and is needed.

All other stations are also required.

Our network is not large enough to have useless stations, as say NYC is. And whe we build new ones, we open stations where they really are needed.

We even change plans to combine two stations into one. Vendome anyone?

[kellergraham]

Not much of anything, but:

http://www.billetsalacarte.info/carte/Page....aspx?zoneid=30

Still says that the new vending machines will be in service as of August 11th.

Alex

[mtltransitguy]

Not much of anything, but:

http://www.billetsalacarte.info/carte/Page....aspx?zoneid=30

Still says that the new vending machines will be in service as of August 11th.

Alex

Wrong thread?

Edit, I see.

You mean at Georges-Vanier, and that it says that, despite the closure.

[kellergraham]

Wrong thread?

Edit, I see.

You mean at Georges-Vanier, and that it says that, despite the closure.

Indeed. Sorry I should have been more clear

[SMS]

I went to Georges-Vanier Station today. Apart from a lil water infiltration there's NOTHING wrong with the station. Why they want to "démolition complète des escaliers fixes et de la dalle de plancher à l'intérieur de l'édicule, à la réfection de ladite dalle, des escaliers fixes, de la fenestration et du trottoir extérieur" is beyond me! Can't they spend the money on a better and more deserving project! Like making some more stations accessible faster!

[Tranzit]

I went to Georges-Vanier Station today. Apart from a lil water infiltration there's NOTHING wrong with the station. Why they want to "démolition complète des escaliers fixes et de la dalle de plancher à l'intérieur de l'édicule, à la réfection de ladite dalle, des escaliers fixes, de la fenestration et du trottoir extérieur" is beyond me! Can't they spend the money on a better and more deserving project! Like making some more stations accessible faster!

I can only assume the city's engineers have determined something seriously wrong with the station--something which has been kept quiet until now.

Could be potentially dangerous water leakage, cracking, poor quality concrete--whatever--similar to what happened with that underpass north of The Bay downtown.

[mtltransitguy]

I went to Georges-Vanier Station today. Apart from a lil water infiltration there's NOTHING wrong with the station. Why they want to "démolition complète des escaliers fixes et de la dalle de plancher à l'intérieur de l'édicule, à la réfection de ladite dalle, des escaliers fixes, de la fenestration et du trottoir extérieur" is beyond me! Can't they spend the money on a better and more deserving project! Like making some more stations accessible faster!

Same thing with Angrinon, they are replacing pretty much everything, including the escaliers fixes and extérieur sidewalk.

For Georges-Vanier, that just makes no sense, it's barely used as much as any other station, there has to be another reason behind this.

They better not do a cheap stairs replacement ala Honore-Beaugrand either, those cement stairs a joke!

[SMS]

Believe it or not folks I am in agreement with Tranzit... I mean, come on, what warrants a metro station closure as major as this. Last time it was major was asscr... sorry, Frontenac station. The joke is that the stairs were fine for me! Meanwhile I was at Beaubien yesterday doing down the southbound stairs and they were terrible! Fix that mess first!

[dj.surf.lfs]

Believe it or not folks I am in agreement with Tranzit... I mean, come on, what warrants a metro station closure as major as this. Last time it was major was asscr... sorry, Frontenac station. The joke is that the stairs were fine for me! Meanwhile I was at Beaubien yesterday doing down the southbound stairs and they were terrible! Fix that mess first!

Or make some downtown stations ACCESSIBLE, funny how all metro stations that are accessible are OUTSIDE OF MONTREAL??

[mtltransitguy]

Or make some downtown stations ACCESSIBLE, funny how all metro stations that are accessible are OUTSIDE OF MONTREAL??

Not it's not funny at all. There isn't anything complicated or intricate about it.

They just didn't build elevators into any stations, because accessibility was not an issue back when the newest stations before Laval were built, and certainly not with the original network ad original expansions.

When they built Laval, it would have been ignorant not to build elevators in, and they made the obvious choice.

They didn't plan it like that on purpose;

"Ok, so let's make sure all the stations on the island don't have elevators and one days build some far away, and there wont be any way to access Montreal via Metro accessibly until we retrofit everything and ruin the stations and their architecture.

Don't worry LFS, it's all the plans. I just hope they keep the destruction of the stations flow, architecture and overall harmony to a minimum.

[80-040_Guy-Concordia]

Not it's not funny at all. There isn't anything complicated or intricate about it.

They just didn't build elevators into any stations, because accessibility was not an issue back when the newest stations before Laval were built, and certainly not with the original network ad original expansions.

When they built Laval, it would have been ignorant not to build elevators in, and they made the obvious choice.

They didn't plan it like that on purpose;

"Ok, so let's make sure all the stations on the island don't have elevators and one days build some far away, and there wont be any way to access Montreal via Metro accessibly until we retrofit everything and ruin the stations and their architecture.

Don't worry LFS, it's all the plans. I just hope they keep the destruction of the stations flow, architecture and overall harmony to a minimum.

Read this here, it was in the Gazette on Tuesday. And I have to say that I agree with this, it's way too expensive for something that will only be used rarely.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...d0-9d2711dfc5b8

[Tranzit]

Hasn't some country in the world (perhaps one of those welfare-state ones like Sweden or Denmark) come up with a wheelchair-attachable device which would enable them to lock onto escalators and thus be moved up and down--just as in some European airports like Hanover where passengers can actually push their luggage carriages onto them.

The only negative I could see with this method would be the obvious potential problem of taking up too much width on the escalator, thus blocking others from getting by--especially during an emergency.

In any event, such a device would eliminate the necessity of retro-fitting elevators in many cases.

Hmmm...perhaps I should invent the thing and make a million bucks!

[SMS]

I checked out the Georges-Vanier shuttle today. The way it works on the metro is that you have an advance warning on the Montmorency trains between PSH and LG, and finally between LG and GV. Trains from LG are operated in CM until LL from what I can tell. Despite the announcements, GV is still announced as a stop and there seems to be no way to override this. We do not pass through GV full speed unfortunately. The ads have been removed and there are massive announcements telling people to stay on the train and take the shuttle. Two surveillance agents were seated on the CV platform as we passed by. No work was undertaken during the time I passed.

Today during PM rush, 14-135 and 15-083 (all LaSalle) were operating on the 555 Navette Spéciale.

For westbound trains, announcements are made at Bonaventure itself as well as at LL.

Attached are some low-res pics that I think you would like.

[dj.surf.lfs]

Hehe... it's the same colour as the senior shuttle...

[mtltransitguy]

Hehe... it's the same colour as the senior shuttle...

And as our favorite "R-Bus".....which still exists for some reason "school days"......pics to follow at some point.

Quite interesting to pass by the station.

Most people never hear the announcements and are shocked when we don't stop, except of course those actually using the station previously, who know the drill already.

So the 555 is actually used...interesting......wonder how many buses have this programmed?

[M. David]

Add 24-241 to that list. On Thursday, it was doing the 555 route. However, the route display only read 555 and not 555 Navette Special. I'll try to get some pics next time I'm in that area.

And here I was thinking that numbers in the 500s were reserved solely for R-Bus routes...