No REM for 6 weeks: a necessary step, according to CDPQ infra

Although the problems that will end the closure of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) from July 5 to August 17 to test the new network branches, CDPQ Infra stresses that users will soon benefit from dozens of kilometers of additional network.

As of October, the commissioning of new segments will indeed add 18 stations to the network which will now link the South Shore, the heart of Montreal, Deux-Montagnes and the west of the island to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.

According to Francis Labbé, deputy director of media relations at CDPQ Infra, the REMwhich is only two years old, has not yet shown its full potential and these six weeks of tests will be a decisive step towards a new way of moving to the metropolitan region.

We are aware that it disrupts travel in Greater Montreal. But once it is done, we will have access to a completely different world of public transport.

But to access this new universethe 25,000 people who restore the REM Each day will have to do without a month and a half, which involves delays, detours and crowded bus courses until the start of the school year.

Questioned at the microphone of the program A whole morning On the need to close everything to carry out these tests, Francis Labbé explained that it would have been possible to avoid this scenario, But it would have taken much more time before entering the new lines.

We will be able to do high deployment tests. You have to test everything […] And it requires a lot of intensity. There will be more and more cars, more and more speed, more and more frequencies of passage in order to get closer to what will be a REM in service.

What we decided to do is really to concentrate the efforts to get there as quickly as possible and give the Greater Montreal the REM in function as expected this fall.

We chose the least busy period of the year to be able to do so. It must also be remembered that this network is much larger. We integrate a very important portion. We add dozens of kilometers and dozens of stations.

Insufficient mitigation measures?

To compensate for this prolonged judgment of REM, CDPQ Infra and the transport services of the South Shore and Montreal have implemented several mitigation measures.

• The regular schedule of the Longueuil transport network (RTL) will be maintained all summer for the bus lines connecting the stations of the REM At the Longueuil metro.
• Free shuttles will be put into service between the stations of REM de Brossard, Île-des-Sœurs and downtown Montreal. These shuttles must spend every two minutes at rush hour, every four minutes during rush period and every 10 to 20 minutes the rest of the time.
• The frequency of buses that serve the Longueuil and Angrignon terminus will also be increased.

However, these measures will not be enough to absorb the flow of users of the REMemphasized this week earlier this week Jean-Michel Laliberté, co-spokesperson of the association for the public transport of the South Shore. The latter fears that the frustration generated by the judgment of the REM Do not encourage users to turn to their car.

For Francis Labbé, it is indeed difficult, if not impossible, to replace a structuring means of transportation such as the REM with buses.

A car from REM Normal can transport between 600 and 700 people, while indeed a bus shuttle, it is literally 10 times fewer peoplehe admits.

However, our mobility partners: the RTLthe STM and theArtm still deployed a replacement plan which is worthy of mentionif you do not, if you do not.

All of these measures have also been integrated into journey planners like Transit, Chrono or Google Maps, he adds.

Communication to users

With regard to the communication of information to users, which has often been shown to finger during breakdowns and service stops, CDPQ Infra assures having multiplied the announcements of this media closure, including social networks, since last November.

We have issued several messages, but there are always people, unfortunately, who go into the meshes of the netrecognizes Francis Labbé.

This is why teams will be deployed in network stations and terminals next week to guide users and answer their questions. TeamsArtm Will also be on the ground to lend a hand to users, says Labbé.

Regarding the official commissioning of the new antennas of the REMthe assistant media relations director at CDPQ Infra said, without giving a specific date, that the objective was still somewhere next October.