The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Nouvellecosse]

^ How would that arrangement have worked? If the Orange and Green lines both followed roughly the same routes as the do now, how would they have entered downtown in a way that allowed them to intersect at Central? And of course even with that worked out, the yellow line would needed to be longer and therefore more expensive than its current iteration if it was still going to connect with the other lines at Central. It would have required a third metro tunnel make its way deep into downtown unless one of the Green or Orange tunnels was four tracked for a stretch.

Some systems have two lines interling on a two track section but that is a bottle neck on service frequency.

[J.OT13]

Confederation Line update.

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Construction Update
Week of December 14

Paving occurs on the Preston Street detour


Preston Street Detour / Booth Street Closure

Construction nears completion along the Preston Street detour with asphalt paving, and curb and sidewalk construction.

Waterproofing installation in the Lyon Station cavern


Lyon Station

Lyon Station cavern support continues with rebar and waterproofing installation. Jawbreaker is continuing to mine in drifts.

Parliament Station

Parliament Station cavern tunnel support continues and includes backfilling, pouring and construction of a lower level support wall.

Rideau Station cavern excavation


Rideau Station

Crocodlie Roughe continues to excavate within the Rideau Station cavern. Tunnel reinforcement is ongoing with shotcrete and rockbolt installation.

Ongoing Scotiabank building demolition on Rideau Street


Rideau Station

Preliminary works continue with abatement of the existing Scotiabank building in advance of building demolition scheduled to begin in early January 2015.

Concrete box in place at the VIA Rail tracks


Belfast Yard Administration and Maintenance Building

Ongoing long-term closure of Belfast Road, south of Tremblay Road to Trainyards Drive and north of Tremblay Road to Coventry Road. Masonry work, cladding and panel installation for the building envelope, glazing and roofing on the shed continue. Construction of the internal components and pouring of mud slabs are ongoing.

Belfast Yard Connector

Works on the Belfast Yard connector, which will allow vehicles to travel to and from the Light Rail Transit track to Belfast Yard, are ongoing. The removal of the temporary steel bridge under the VIA Rail tracks was completed.

Pouring of concrete caissons north of the existing Hurdman Station


Hurdman Station

Elevated guideway work for the future Hurdman Station is ongoing until early 2015 with caisson drilling and concrete curing north of the existing Hurdman Station.

Paving near the Coventry Pedestrian Footbridge


Highway 417

Drilling median foundations, installing electrical and light poles, and sewer works continue from Cyrville Road to Nicholas Street. Paving works conclude this week until spring at St. Laurent Boulevard and Lemieux Street, and Vanier Parkway.

Girder installation at Hurdman Bridge


Hurdman Bridge

Girder installation, part of the reconstruction of the bridge’s median span, continues and will be ongoing during the winter months. The east and west multiuse pathways are scheduled to remain open until the end of the year.

Demolition of removed Vanier Parkway overpass


Vanier Parkway Overpass

Demolition of the old Vanier Parkway overpass is almost complete at the staging area. Final works on the overpass wrap up for winter.

Electrical works continue on the Coventry Pedestrian Footbridge


Coventry Pedestrian Footbridge

Installation of railings, electrical works and concrete pours on the stairs continue on the north and south sides until the end of the year. General site cleanup is ongoing in anticipation of substantial completion of the footbridge by end of January 2015.

Sidewalk paving between Preston and Rochester streets


Albert Street Works

Complete sidewalk reinstatement on south side of Albert Street between Preston and Broad streets. Please note: Work at Booth Street north scheduled to begin January 6, 2015.

Upcoming Construction Activities

In the coming weeks, the following construction activities will advance:

• Preston Street detour to open on December 21, 2014 and works to begin on Booth Street. The detour will allow transit, commuters, pedestrians and cyclists to use Preston Street during the Booth Street closure and construction of the Combined Sewer and Storage Tunnel (CSST), the Booth Street Bridge and Pimisi Station.
• Demolition of the Scotiabank building at William and Rideau streets will begin in early January.
• Girder installation at Hurdman Bridge will continue through January/early February.
• Coventry Pedestrian Footbridge works continue.

http://www.confederationline.ca/en/construction/construction-update-4/

[Rotax]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Perhaps one of the greatest infrastructural/transportation mistakes made in this city was to create the metro's central node at Berri-Uqam. It was not, is still not, and will never be the central part of the downtown. To me out would have made much more sense to have a berry-Uqam equivalent placed at Central Station. It would have directly connected to all downtown nodes and amenities.

That's why line 4 (yellow) will have to be extended to McGill before it gets extended further in Longueuil. Otherwise, Berri-UQAM station (and the green line stretch between Berri-UQAM and McGill) won't be able to handle all the passengers transfering from yellow line.

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

One of the things that really bugs me with the AMT network is Lucien L'Allier station. Shitty name for a downtown terminus. For starters: they could have called it by the name of the actual street its on, not the one one block over. Or like a nice name like Terminal de l'Ouest, or Terminal Centre-Ville or whatever. But it also is the definition of unambitious, bland, provincial design and scale. That station is a glorified Amtrack "shack".


Screen Shot 2014-12-14 at 3.37.40 PM by rommheim, on Flickr

The thing that bugs me is what will happen once the Tour des Canadiens is built. Will there be any way to see/access the station from the street or will you have to go through the tunnels?

[GreaterMontréal]

access the station from the street or will you have to go through the tunnels?

il sera encore possible d'y accéder.

http://montreal.tv/portail/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Tour-des-Canadiens-II.jpg

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by Rotax

That's why line 4 (yellow) will have to be extended to McGill before it gets extended further in Longueuil. Otherwise, Berri-UQAM station (and the green line stretch between Berri-UQAM and McGill) won't be able to handle all the passengers transfering from yellow line.

The yellow line extension to McGill station confirms that Berri was a mistake and acknowledges that the actual central commuter node is in the business district, and not the working class neighbourhoods of the east-end. I think the wager was to build up a new downtown node out east by building the main connector there along with Place Dupuis. Probably to rival the anglophone node of the train stations and business district of the west. This useless ideological urbanism should not have happened. Now we have a decentralized downtown, with two commuter rail stations, both of which are connected to the metro, but not instantly or necessarily obviously so, two inter-city bus stations (station central et terminus centre-ville) and a central subway station stuck out east. Also, did anyone ever try and give a tourist directions to Central Station? It's impossible.

I suspect that with the yellow line reaching McGill (in the year 2300), McGill will become the city's "primary" metro station.

[GreaterMontréal]

The Yellow line was built because of Expo 67.

In November 1961, Montreal City Council decided to build the metro network. The Yellow line (Line 4) was not part of the original plans. A year later, however, Montreal’s bid to host the 1967 World's Fair (Expo 67) was accepted. Construction of the Red line (line 3) was cancelled, and instead the Yellow line (Line 4) was built to develop the exhibition site on two islands in the St. Lawrence River and to connect the rapidly growing suburb of Longueuil.[1] The opening of the line took place on April 1, 1967. In the first four weeks, the station on Saint Helen's Island served only the construction workers of the Expo site. It finally opened to the public on April 28, 1967, the day after the official opening of Expo 67.

wiki

cancelled because :
1-Trains would have to use steel wheels instead of rubber tires like the rest of the Metro cars because part (or most) of the line was to go outside.
2-Expo 67 made the Yellow Line more important.

[Rico Rommheim]

^ Yes I know all that. I'm merely arguing the central Metro hub should have been placed in the downtown core, at Central Station, not in a peripheral neighbourhood that remains to this day peripheral. The yellow line could have snaked all the way to the expo grounds and Longueuil. But I understand the reason officials chose not to do this, but I don't agree with it.

[Rotax]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

The Yellow line was built because of Expo 67.


wiki

cancelled because :
1-Trains would have to use steel wheels instead of rubber tires like the rest of the Metro cars because part (or most) of the line was to go outside.
2-Expo 67 made the Yellow Line more important.

The use of steel wheels would not have been a problem at all. After all, it would probably have used cars similar to the ones used on the Expo-Express. The main problem was that CN did not want to sell the tracks or convert the Deux-Montagnes line to a metro operation. When negiciations with CN concerning line 3 failed, it was decided that two stations were to be added to line 2 (Sauvé and Henri-Bourassa - line 2 was originally planned to end at Crémazie) and the authorities quickly came out with line 4 serve Expo 67 and the growing commuter pool from the south shore.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

^ Yes I know all that. I'm merely arguing the central Metro hub should have been placed in the downtown core, at Central Station, not in a peripheral neighbourhood that remains to this day peripheral. The yellow line could have snaked all the way to the expo grounds and Longueuil. But I understand the reason officials chose not to do this, but I don't agree with it.

Berri-UQAM is reasonably close to Ste-Catherine/St-Laurent and Ste-Catherine/St-Denis which are two of the main intersections in downtown Montreal. They aren't as busy as Ste-Catherine/Peel but I still wouldn't call them peripheral.

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

^ Yes I know all that. I'm merely arguing the central Metro hub should have been placed in the downtown core, at Central Station, not in a peripheral neighbourhood that remains to this day peripheral. The yellow line could have snaked all the way to the island and Longueuil. But I understand the reason officials chose not to do this, but I don't agree with it.

I think what we're seeing right now is just a restructuring period, 10-15 years, where we need to update the entire metro network(+Azur). The SRB on Pie-IX should be ready before 2020. The LRT on Champlain, Turcot, train de l'ouest etc .....

after 2020, Montréal will be more than ready to decide what to do next.

[Rico Rommheim]

Berri-UQAM is reasonably close to Ste-Catherine/St-Laurent and Ste-Catherine/St-Denis which are two of the main intersections in downtown Montreal. They aren't as busy as Ste-Catherine/Peel but I still wouldn't call them peripheral.

^perhaps you're right. But speaking from personal experience, whenever I get out Berri and walk around, I don't feel particularly central. I don't feel like I'm in an important neighbourhood. There are not important bus connections, no commuter rail for kilometres, and few office towers or shopping centres. After all, Sherbrooke-east and Rene-Levesque-east, both minutes from Berri are hardly important stretches. That part of town hasn't seen any private development of any importance since the 70's. Perhaps it's because the place is so run down, or maybe it's because of the lack of tall/prominent buildings as compared with downtown. However, with the new CHUM and le quartier de la sante, and with the second life of the Ilot voyageur this might change a bit.

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Berri-UQAM is reasonably close to Ste-Catherine/St-Laurent and Ste-Catherine/St-Denis which are two of the main intersections in downtown Montreal. They aren't as busy as Ste-Catherine/Peel but I still wouldn't call them peripheral.

and don't forget the New CHUM super hospital, 200m from Berri-Uqam. The east side is being redevelopped as we speak, with the Gare Viger project, the Radio-Canada redéveloppement, New CHUM, etc....

attend toi à une augmentation de 20k visiteurs dans ce coin de la ville vers 2020.

[caltrane74]

When I got off the subway this summer at the Berri-UQAM station, I thought it would be like Yonge and Bloor like in downtown Toronto. It wasn't but I was ok with it, because the station gave me direct access to almost everywhere I needed to go downtown, and I could easily walk to Ste. Catherine Rue. But yeah, the Toronto equivalent would be something like Spadina and Bloor or Church and Bloor. (not as hyper busy as being right at the corner of Yonge and Bloor)

[GreaterMontréal]

It's still the busiest Métro station in Montréal.
2012 13,131,841 +3,1%
If transfers were included, the 13 million passengers number would rise to about 35-40 million a year.

Mcgill is second with 11,852,430

[Rico Rommheim]

I'd like to see a list of the busiest metro/subway station country-wide. Anybody have one handy?

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

I'd like to see a list of the busiest metro/subway station country-wide. Anybody have one handy?

for Montréal, sans les transferts, It does not take into account people transfers or outputs.

Stations les plus achalandées (2011) Nombre d’entrées

1. Berri-UQAM-------13 131 841
2. McGill------------11 852 430
3. Guy-Concordia----8 437 671
4. Bonaventure------7 928 139
5. Longueuil---------7 894 105
6. Côte-Vertu-------7 648 466
7. Atwater----------7 221 968
8. Peel--------------7 077 023
9. Place-des-Arts---6 946 417
10. Place-d’Armes---6 053 220


stats concerning the STM .

-759 Métro cars (2014)+ over 800 (Azur) (2020)
-The STM has a fleet of 1746 buses, 220 lines
-23 All-night bus lines
-8 hybrids and 220 articulated, 102 minibus
-Its network covers the island of Montreal, an area of about 500 km2.

-the 2 busiest bus lines
1- 121 – Sauvé/Côte-Vertu----35 586 (future BRT)
2- 139 – Pie-IX---------------33 523 + (439) Express--7,000 (future BRT on Pie-IX 70k projected)

[caltrane74]

Just to be clear, I was talking about the area just outside the subway station, and not the busyness of the subway station itself.

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by caltrane74

Just to be clear, I was talking about the area just outside the subway station, and not the busyness of the subway station itself.

Yeah we know that.

Surprised to see Jean-Talon out of the top 10.

[1overcosc]

I'm pretty sure that the busiest metro/subway station in Canada is Union, followed by Bloor-Yonge.