Construction of the REM: alternative measures on the deux-Montagnes line

Zechariah Goudreault / 24H

Zechariah Goudreault

Wednesday, 28 march 2018 14:10

UPDATE
Wednesday, 28 march 2018 14:10

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MONTREAL – A shuttle service by bus will be offered to users of the commuter train when the service will be interrupted on the line of the Two Mountains in the course of the weekend due to construction work on the express Network metropolitan (REM).

A bus service will travel between the gare Grand-Moulin, deux-Montagnes, and Montmorency metro station in Laval on Friday night and the end of each week from the 27th of April in the evening.

The frequency of these buses will be similar to that of the commuter train on the weekend. On Friday, the wait time for a shuttle will be 15 minutes between 20 h and 21 h, and then gradually increase to 30 minutes at the approach of midnight. A bus will pass every hour on Saturday and two hours on Sunday.

Work

From the 27th of April, the commuter rail service will be interrupted on the line of Two-Mountains every weekend, from Friday evening until 4 o’clock in the morning on Monday, because of the preparatory work of the EMN. It includes surveying and drilling geotechnical.

These interruptions of service, which will also affect the train line to the suburb of Mascouche, will continue during the construction of future stations for the light rail system.

Lack of time

The professor in the department of urban studies and tourism, Université du Québec à Montréal Florence Junca-Adenot believes that these measures should have been announced earlier to the users.

“It was a little cavalier. […] There are about 4,000 people who ride the train at the weekend. They must be warned”, she raised.

The president of the organization’s Trajectory, Québec, François Pépin, points out that this timeline “extreme tight” has been imposed by CDPQ Infra, a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which is responsible for the REM.

“The faster people are going to know the measures that are taken, the better they will be able to plan their trips”, he added.

Other measures

Other services by bus will be announced “in the coming weeks to serve the other stations of the train line of Two-Mountains, assured the spokesman of the regional Authority of metropolitan transport (ARTM), Fanie St-Pierre.

The possibility to compensate the users of the line of Two-Mountains for the inconvenience caused by the construction of the REM is also possible.

“It will be part of the discussions in the coming days and the coming weeks”, suggested Ms. Saint-Pierre.