amaist

I don't see how it can compromise either performance or capacity at YUL. Only if they don't add another trainset or two to account for the longer network. The airport tunnel will be fine at single track. The YUL branch is fed by the mainline that passes through the Mount Royal tunnel. This is where the main capacity limit is set. The airport branch can take at best one third of that capacity maybe a little more with express trains. What might happen is if the system is a great success, then the planned capacity might not be sufficient for both the airport and Dorval users. Out of all the possible negative factors that one is the most benign.

Mayor Rouleau makes it sound like it's just 700 meters of track through farmland. REM planners had to limit the network because of costs. Those 700 meters would be one the costliest parts of REM. Even the tunnel to the airport might not be so expensive per meter because it's pretty straight forward. With the Dorval interchange and both major Canadian railroads being there, the logistics of building another set of rail tracks and a station are very complex. Especially, if you don't want to close the whole thing to traffic for a year. We had enough disruption with the Dorval interchange construction over all these years. And the adventure with the YUL terminal rebuild is going to start very soon. It's obvious that it would be very good to connect REM to the Dorval train station. But it will take time and money.

Improving public transport in WI to make it easier to get to REM stations is relatively simple. Much easier than trying improve bus service to downtown or the closest metro stations. When each bus route takes 1/2 or even 1/3 of the time compared to going downtown you get instant doubling of bus availability without getting any new buses. Add some more buses and routes and it could work. Current system is quite underutilized outside rush hours. It's a chicken and egg problem. People don't want to take the bus because it is so infrequent and unreliable. The transportation authority doesn't want to add more capacity because the current one is underused. It takes resources and political will to break that cycle. The REM project has much further reaching goals than pure passenger capacity/transit speed increase. The planning around stations is meant to encourage long term densification. Some might call it "social engineering". As for paid multi level garages, I think the local municipalities may have the power to authorize private companies to build and operate those. I don't remember specific numbers but I saw some studies before that show that building multi-level parking is quite expensive and the cost to park there won't be negligible. $10 a day would be the ballpark figure which for many people in WI would be quite shocking. I agree that it is a bit shocking to WI residents that they don't get what they want and they think they "need". It would be shocking to me, too. But to move forward in life you need a shake-up once in a while. Staying too comfortable for too long is a recipe for stagnation. There is pretty good consensus now that urban sprawl is a blight on our planet. Changing that is not going to be 100% comfortable. I don't believe in destroying all that currently exists to make things better. But when doing projects that have 50-60 year time horizons we must think about where it's going to go while making it useful immediately at the start.

3 lanes go straight to 15 Nord and 2 lanes exit to Bonaventure and IDS.

The shoulders will be pretty large. This would allow people who run out of gas on the bridge to only ruin their own day and not everyone else's. If they figure out how to coast to the shoulder, of course.

So there was a half hour delay on the line's first day. For STM that's called Tuesday. (Or any other day).

Most people going to/from the airport (especially visitors who will go to downtown) will not notice the old decrepit Dorval circle. Since the new ramps have opened I have not again been even once on it. And I love it that way. I no longer have to battle taxi drivers for lane position to get out of there. I suppose MTQ feels that spending money on the south side would also be very expensive and is not worth the cost to them. In addition it would very disruptive to the traffic on the 20 to implement that project. At least two new underpasses need to be built to implement the cancelled plan. Many months of lane closures guaranteed. I agree that the situation as it is now is archaic. It's an embarrassment that an autoroute (the 520) starts and ends in traffic lights connecting to other autoroutes. Autoroutes should connect with proper interchanges.

Last pair of suspension cables are being attached! On the other hand, the opening of Nun's Island entrance ramp to 15 North is delayed by another day.

If people value being able to park their car near the train station so much I am sure there could be a market based solution. Some stations have plenty of private commercial/industrial real estate near them. If people care to pay for it directly I am sure there would be some property owners willing to make money that way. Or their municipalities can open parking lots and charge the cost of those through real estate taxes. CDPQ is not expecting to fill up the REM system with maximum possible users right from the beginning. Their business plan involves real estate development near the stations that would provide future passengers. Both the availability of the REM train and high density development near most stations will feed each other. It takes time for all this to kick in, though. From my limited experience driving in West Island I don't think it's much use to have big parking lots by stations. It will still take so long to go on Saint Charles in the morning that you need to take a shower and shave again by the time you get to that parking lot. The street network there is so choked up and illogical for such a flat place.

All very true. But... It all boils down to how much energy we have available to do all that. Less rich deposits take more energy to extract useful material. Asteroids? So far the energy cost of sending anything out of Earth's surface even to low earth orbit is a bit absurd. Can we eventually solve those problems? Possibly. Right now our energy sources are a bit problematic. Solar and wind are still being mastered. Other stuff will either run out or kill us first. In any case, I don't think the new concrete and painted steel REM infrastructure is that terrible. It's purposeful and appropriate for it's time. The remnants of the industrial revolution around Lachine canal are also not Guggenheim worthy pieces, either. I bet when they were built there were some people upset with how they spoil the look of the place. But it was built for a purpose and served it well at the time. Now it is part of history. The same will happen to REM pillars and beams.

200 hundred years from now there will be groups demanding we preserve the currently "ugly" pillars and not build the fancy vacuum tube maglev line because it will be spoiling the view. I imagine by then the turning bridge will either rust away completely or gets recycled due to depletion of iron ore sources and lack of oil for making new plastics forcing a shift to reusable and recyclable metal construction of almost everything.

In Quebec 50 km/h zone means 70 km/h. Police will generally ignore you at up to 20 km/h over. I don't know anyone who ever received a ticket for anything under 20 km/h over. The few cases I know had other factors (driver's skin color, age, dress, look of the car, etc.) Limits are also generally set with the assumption of this practice. The speed in the video is actually pretty slow for that area. With less traffic cars move around 80 km/h there.

This is going to be a fun spring on IDS. Also for people taking the A10 to downtown. The good news is that access to A15 North from IDS will open before they open the bridge. Sometime in April according to the presentation.

I bet once they finish dismantling the blue lift structure they can align the sides much easier. That lift must weigh a lot.

Shinkasen at-grade crossings are extremely rare. Where they exist the trains go slow near the station. On the main line where the trains travel at high speed there are never any crossings. Same for the TGV system in France. There are level crossings but only on the "Classique" lines in urban areas approaching the stations. Nobody will trust even the law abiding Japanese to cross a track with trains travelling 250 km/h. It's not even about respecting the law. Humans make mistakes even when they have the best of intentions. I would also like you find the mythical at-grade crossing of the Shinkasen line where they go every 3 minutes. I am not saying it doesn't exist. But I bet the road crossing the rails sees extremely little traffic.

Looks like traffic apocalypse might be averted. Originally they proposed to just shut down access from 15 North to Bonaventure and Ile-des-Soeurs for two months. It was impossible to keep the original ramps because they were raising the whole roadway there by almost 4 meters. The most interesting slide from the presentation for me:

Looking and the construction web cam I calculated the number of days it took to install the last 2 sections over the Seaway. I counted from lifting into final position until lifting into final position of the next section. Yes, that's not the final step for each section. Attaching to the previous section and stringing the cables take at least another week or more but the steps are all the same so if I pick the same stage it works out. Section 7 lifted on August 24 Section 8 lifted on September 9 (16 days) Section 9 lifted on September 27 (18 days) This is faster than three weeks per section but not fast enough to install the 6 remaining sections. What SSL is doing to catch up is to attach 2 or 3 sections on the South Shore side while being supported by massive jacks and scaffolding. They already started preparing for that. I don't know if they would string the cables to those sections before completing the span. How fast they can do that I have no idea. But it should make it necessary to install only 3 or 4 more sections from the North side. 18 days per section is 54 to 72 days. So from now it's late November to early December. 3 sections at 16 days is even better at 48 days. The amount of work necessary after connecting the span and stringing up the cables is not that great. The sections already have the concrete deck preinstalled on them. Almost ready for paving.

They park at Panama because there is a direct bus 45 Downtown -> Panama at almost any time. Most people do have a typical 9 to 5 schedule but there is always a chance that someone would need to go back early or late. And bus 45 is very frequent even outside rush hour so one is not stuck with the sparse schedule of the other RTL buses. Waiting 30 minutes or sometimes up to an hour for a bus at Panama station is not that appealing. And throwing money at taxi or Uber is ok in an emergency but doing it often is too expensive for most people. It's just more convenient and flexible to park at Panama. But I agree that the complaint about the 10 minute walk is pointless. As others said, there is still parking available even at 8:00 am and it's just in a different place. Parking after a winter storm will get interesting, though. The supply of spots everywhere will go down, for sure. But one can always get the direct bus as you pointed out ?

Because when we have a marathon, a bike race or any other even that closes the streets this viaduct allows access to the Plateau from the south during the event. The event goes on either Sherbrooke or Berri, vehicle traffic goes on the other one and everyone is happy. It's also pleasant to go north/south without having to stop to cross Sherbrooke. Especially on a bicycle. The bike path does need an upgrade and it seems the current project does something about it. I will judge the result when it's done.