Seven metro stations will be accessible free of charge on weekends, downtown and near Old Montreal, from June 24 to September 5, with the aim of attracting even more visitors to these sectors, which will also be of a large household.
Posted at 2:13 p.m.
Updated at 2:52 p.m.
The platforms at Saint-Laurent, Place-des-Arts, McGill, Peel, Champ-de-Mars, Place-d’Armes and Berri-UQAM stations will be open to everyone without a ticket for the summer.
“Montreal is experiencing a dazzling recovery and we are determined to ensure that our downtown takes full advantage of it,” said the head of economic and commercial development on the executive committee of the City of Montreal, Luc Rabouin.
“This is why we are preparing to welcome the visit in style! Thanks to our partners, we are implementing an unprecedented measure to encourage the use of public transit downtown, to improve mobility there and to encourage more and more visitors and Montrealers to use the metro. »
The City indicates that it has put an end to free on-street parking in the city center on weekends, in order to opt for measures which are more “in line with its environmental values, and which will make it possible to promote mobility and encourage the return in large numbers of users to the metro, ”we said in a press release.
Fewer orange cones, more cleaning
The City and the borough of Ville-Marie have also announced that the Mobility Squad will carry out a major construction blitz downtown, to remove orange cones, signs and excess fences from traffic lanes. Particular attention will be given to the streets of the city center, we are assured, in order to improve the fluidity around the construction sites with the arrival of tourists in the metropolis.
In addition, the borough will invest an additional $1.7 million to improve cleanliness in the area, including $150,000 to support the Montréal centre-ville cleanliness brigade. There will be more staff in the field and 50% more trash cans and recycling containers will be installed.
Finally, a creative development project for two alleys around Peel and Stanley streets will see the light of day. We will create installations and murals to embellish the alleys of the city center and give birth to new artistic paths.
Towards “more equitable” funding
Beyond free public transit, it must first be funded in a more “equitable” way in the future, argued Thursday the mayor of Montreal Valérie Plante, during a speech held before several elected officials. of the metropolitan area.
“Municipalities need new sources of revenue to deal with the increase in their contribution,” she said, in the presence of the Minister responsible for the Metropolis, Chantal Rouleau.
Speaking of a “structural deficit” to be compensated, Mme Plante also expressed concern that the transport networks are “insufficient, even completely obsolete” on the north and south crowns of Montreal. Stressing all the same the progress of the REM de l’Est and the blue line in recent months, the mayor however hammered “that we must accelerate the development of these projects”. “We are not badly in catch-up mode in public transport”, she said sorry.
“The condition for properly densifying our cities is transport. That’s the best tool for reducing GHGs,” insisted Valérie Plante.
In April, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) also said it wanted to “sit down with the Government of Quebec” in order to “quickly” create a think tank on the financing of public transport, which is in a cul -de-sac after a pandemic that will continue to cost him hundreds of millions for years to come.