The upcoming arrival of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), which is disrupting the habits of several transit companies in the greater Montreal area, nevertheless offers the opportunity for exo to improve its service offer on the South Shore in order to facilitate travel between municipalities in the region as part of a vast reform of its bus network.
Currently, a Chambly resident who wishes to go to Candiac by public transport must make a detour by bus through downtown Montreal before taking another line to get to Candiac. It is thus necessary to plan a “non-intuitive” trip of around 1 hour 20 minutes to move between two cities located less than 30 km from each other, underlined Wednesday afternoon the principal adviser for the development of networks for exo, Julien Grégoire, during a virtual meeting on the redesign of the bus network of the transport organization to which The duty took part.
However, the scheduled commissioning of the REM on the South Shore in the fall will change the situation since exo will then be able to mobilize the buses of some fifteen lines that currently serve downtown Montreal and which will no longer be able to travel on the Champlain Bridge after the arrival of the light rail in order to dedicate these vehicles to new connections between the municipalities of the region.
“We wanted to review the service so that it better meets the needs of the entire population [de la Rive-Sud] summed up the director of network development for exo, Catherine Beaulieu. The hours of service in the region will also be extended in the morning and evening, as well as on weekends, indicated Mr. Grégoire.
Thus, at the end of this bus overhaul, a resident of Candiac will be able to take a bus to get to the Brossard terminal, where he can take another bus line to get to Chambly. The total duration of this journey will then be 35 minutes, or less than half of the current time required to complete it by public transport, foresees exo.
“The REM’s Brossard terminus will become our major central exo terminus. We will have about twenty lines that will fall back on it, which will make it possible to better connect the southern crown. It will become a kind of central exchange hub on the South Shore,” Mr. Grégoire also illustrated. Travel within the region will also be facilitated in the vicinity of Longueuil, from the Panama terminal, he added.
Eventually, the entire exo bus network, which has more than 230 bus lines, will undergo an overhaul that will change the habits of thousands of users in the northern and southern suburbs of the city. However, this primarily concerns a dozen municipalities on the South Shore, including Chambly, Richelieu and Carignan, since they will be directly affected by the first phase of the REM.
Thus, the revision of the bus network in these sectors will make it possible to multiply bus links to the Brossard and Panama terminals, among others, but also to several industrial districts and schools at a time when the region is experiencing a demographic and economic boom. .
As to whether residents of the South Shore will be able to get to the city center more easily from the REM stations in the region than the current service by bus, exo did not want to come forward. “It won’t necessarily be faster, but it won’t be longer,” dropped Ms. Beaulieu, when questioned by The duty on this subject.