montréal REM (ligne A) - Discussion générale

[vivreenrégion]

Ils auront beaucoup plus de jeu sur la Rive-Sud. Si on veut un REM sur la Rive-Nord avec un accès le plus direct possible vers le centre-ville, la nouvelle branche devra arriver à la hauteur de la A-15, sinon il faudra faire un détour par la branche D-M, un non-sens. Ce que la CAQ propose fait du sens. 

[Enalung]

On 2018-07-30 at 11:58 AM, vivreenrégion said:

Ils auront beaucoup plus de jeu sur la Rive-Sud. Si on veut un REM sur la Rive-Nord avec un accès le plus direct possible vers le centre-ville, la nouvelle branche devra arriver à la hauteur de la A-15, sinon il faudra faire un détour par la branche D-M, un non-sens. Ce que la CAQ propose fait du sens. 

Ils ont aussi l'option de recycler la ligne de train comme il l'ont fait avec la branche DM.

[ERJ-Boy]

Il y a 6 heures, Enalung a dit :

Ils ont aussi l'option de recycler la ligne de train comme il l'ont fait avec la branche DM.

Ce sera plus compliqué, parce que la ligne Saint-Jérôme est encore utilisée par des trains de marchandise, sauf la portion située au nord de Sainte-Thérèse.

[p_xavier]

9 hours ago, ERJ-Boy said:

Ce sera plus compliqué, parce que la ligne Saint-Jérôme est encore utilisée par des trains de marchandise, sauf la portion située au nord de Sainte-Thérèse.

Et ça serait les voies utilisées par un potentiel TGF.

[nephersir7]

Is REM plan for West Island flawed without adequate parking?

 

When the ground-breaking ceremony for the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) was held April 12 in Griffintown, West Island commuters could finally envision the future promise of putting their car keys in their pocket and taking a light-rail train downtown.

But initial enthusiasm for the REM, a 26-station system that will link downtown Montreal to the suburbs, including the West Island, has since given way to concerns about accessibility. More to the point: Where will motorists park if they want to drive to their nearest REM station and hop on this fab new train?

Those concerns grew louder after it was announced last month that a 2,000-spot parking lot planned for the Kirkland station had been scrapped.

For lifelong West Islanders like Susan Roy, eliminating parking makes little sense and will only serve to discourage people from the REM’s main objective: to get people to take it.

“I wish commuters much luck in getting parking at the station,” said Roy, a Dorval resident who was left dumbstruck by the decision to delete parking from a 21st century suburban transit plan.

Roy wonders how parents will ferry their kids to school and then somehow make it to the station on time to catch a train downtown of wherever.

“Commuters take their children to daycare on the way to work — they’re not going to turn around and return back home, park and make their way to the closest bus stop and wait. Or perhaps park in the streets near the daycare and find a bus stop.” 

Roy painted other scenarios where having a car at your disposal is a necessity in the suburbs.

“If you receive a call from the day care or school and your child is not well, you have to make your way home and to the school or day care as quickly as possible. People need to have their car available at the REM station.”

Roy pointed out that parents picking up their children from after-school programs, in some cases, are financially penalized if they arrive past a specified time.

“So having no parking available would be a ridiculous inconvenience, a huge waste of what little time parents have with their children as it is. It would in no way encourage public transportation.”

The REM said it has yet to decide exactly how many parking spots there will at the six West Island train stations.

“The number of parking spaces for the Pointe-Claire and Kirkland stations is still under discussion with our partners,” said REM spokesperson Jean-Vincent Lacroix. “For Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, it would be around 200 places. Several factors are currently being considered to define the supply of parking spaces, such as ridership, the offer of public transit … and traffic studies. The parking offer may also evolve over time and keep pace with developments around the (stations),” he added.

Kirkland Mayor Michel Gibson said the number of parking spots at the future REM station near the Kirkland Colisée cinemas has yet to be determined. “Time will tell and we’ll have to adjust ourselves accordingly. But for now I’m satisfied with the station (location),” he said.

“You’ll be able to drop off people, and takes buses there, but the aim of Projet Montréal and Mayor (Valérie) Plante is to have people take the bus,” he added.

Gibson acknowledged that applying an inner-city approach to public transit many not work as well in the West Island. “Keep in mind that Projet Montréal, especially the ones from Montreal, they’re against cars. It’s a completely different ideology.”

Beaconsfield Mayor Georges Bourelle, who sits on the Société de transport de Montréal’s (STM)board of directors, said some West Island bus routes will eventually be reconfigured to ferry riders to REM stations. He said better coordinated bus service will encourage people to leave their cars at home and take the bus to the REM. Each station will have bicycle racks, bus platforms and drop-off areas.

But for West Island motorists who need their cars, the REM might not be as attractive an option without parking, said Roy,  who recalls a time when commuter trains provided reliable service to and from downtown, with parking availability.

“When CP ran the train service you could set your watch by the trains,” she said.

But over time that changed, too.

“I bought a house many years ago a six-minute walk from the closest train station. In the 1980s, the MUC at that time closed every second train station on the CP line and brought buses to the West Island. Buses that involved a longer walk to the bus stop, buses that were never coordinated with train arrival times morning and night.”

Roy could walk home faster than waiting for and then taking the bus. “It made no sense (so) I ended up driving to a more distant train station, parking my car and taking the train from there, as did so many others.”

While modern technology now allows commuters to keep tabs on STM bus routes, Montreal traffic and other challenges still make commuting a test of patience.

“Bus schedules are now available on cell phones but the 211, 485, 405, 411, 425 buses all arrive at the Dorval terminal within minutes of each other,” Roy noted.

Without adequate parking lots at REM stations, Roy said commuters will be inclined to keep driving their cars downtown.

“It will be faster and more convenient than taking the train,” she said.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/west-island-gazette/is-rem-plan-for-west-island-flawed-without-adequate-parking

[ERJ-Boy]

There's something I don't understand... don't kids take a school bus to go to school? 

More seriously, I find this article and all the West Islander's complaints way too premature, when the amount of parking hasn't even been finalized yet. 

More seriously than that, REM is proposed as a way to change the urban thinking on the West Island... that includes promoting active means of transportation and transit usage, but over time it will also affect they way neighbourhoods are designed on the West Island. If the REM doesn't have enough parking, but acts as a vector of positive change in creating more sustainable suburbs, where is the problem? The goal of REM is not to make all west islanders use transit, it is to encourage a big chunk of them to use it, and to create more sustainable cities. If Pointe-Claire succeeds in implementing their plan for the fairview area, I can't even begin to imagine the impact it would have on the rest of the west island. 

[CarolTheGuy]

Je pense que c'est un autre cas de population générale qui a peur de l'incertitude face au manque d'information. Il n'y a pas vraiment d'histoire dans cet article.

On devrait avoir des articles qui parlent du manque d'information, de l'apparence de manque de coordination entre Exo, STM et  cdpq infra, et du mutisme gouvernemental.

[fmfranck]

2 minutes ago, ERJ-Boy said:

There's something I don't understand... don't kids take a school bus to go to school? 

More seriously, I find this article and all the West Islander's complaints way too premature, when the amount of parking hasn't even been finalized yet. 

More seriously than that, REM is proposed as a way to change the urban thinking on the West Island... that includes promoting active means of transportation and transit usage, but over time it will also affect they way neighbourhoods are designed on the West Island. If the REM doesn't have enough parking, but acts as a vector of positive change in creating more sustainable suburbs, where is the problem? The goal of REM is not to make all west islanders use transit, it is to encourage a big chunk of them to use it, and to create more sustainable cities. If Pointe-Claire succeeds in implementing their plan for the fairview area, I can't even begin to imagine the impact it would have on the rest of the west island. 

The problem is that the REM wont be a vector of positive change if people are not engaged to use it when it launches. The urban design change that you refer too is a long term vector in the transit habit changes of west island commuters. Do you really think that most of the West Island will "change" over the next 10 years? Change into what? Not a suburban sprawl?

The West Island exists right now, were not planning a new neighbourhood out of the ideological preference of forum members. It needs some car access to its brand new transit system. Why is that so difficut to accept? We're talking about NOT cancelling a boulevard thats been planned for decades (especially that its needed now to accomodate the access to a brand new metro), which itself was downscaled from a highway.

And btw, its not a West Island vs non-West Island debate. I dont live in the West Island. 

[Ousb]

il y a 16 minutes, ERJ-Boy a dit :

 

There's something I don't understand... don't kids take a school bus to go to school

 

Ils parlent de daycare et de service de garde dans l’article pas d’école.

[fmfranck]

1 minute ago, CarolTheGuy said:

Je pense que c'est un autre cas de population générale qui a peur de l'incertitude face au manque d'information. Il n'y a pas vraiment d'histoire dans cet article.

 On devrait avoir des articles qui parlent du manque d'information, de l'apparence de manque de coordination entre Exo, STM et  cdpq infra, et du mutisme gouvernemental.

Je ne vois pas le lien. Il s'agit d'une voie routière pour améliorer l'accès au REM par voiture, mais aussi par autobus (à partir du boulevard Pierrefonds entre autre).