Still very few people are using the government’s mitigation measures, two weeks after the start of the mega construction site in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel. To “create more membership”, Quebec has however just announced the extension of the distribution of free titles to the Radisson metro.
Posted at 3:03 p.m.
On Monday morning, 770 people boarded the buses set up in the axis of the tunnel. This is slightly more than last week, but still far from the target of 3,000 users set by Quebec.
Moreover, this small increase is essentially explained by the number of people who decided to leave Montreal to go to the South Shore by public transit. Indeed, 193 people took one of the five buses acting as mitigation measures in this direction on Monday morning, compared to 144 last week. In the direction of Montreal, traffic was stable, with 577 passengers.
However, park-and-ride traffic is still down. Only 705 of the 2,455 places available on the South Shore were occupied Monday morning, barely 29% of them. It is especially the Sainte-Julie and Beloeil parking lots that have recorded the largest declines in traffic. As usual, the 325 spaces at the Radisson station were nevertheless all occupied.
As for the river shuttles, they remain uncrowded. Monday morning, 82 people had reserved a place to cross the waters of the St. Lawrence River.
In the metro, there was an 11% increase on the yellow line on Monday, at the Longueuil–Université-de-Sherbrooke station, compared to October 17. However, it was harder on the green line, while at the Radisson metro, the drop was around 16%, due to a service outage that occurred between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., at the start of the morning.
“More membership” expected
On her Twitter account, Sunday, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, announced that the distribution of free tickets distributed at the Radisson metro to users who board or get off the shuttles will be extended “until December 18, rather than November 27” .
“We are extending to encourage more and more support. Every gesture counts to make life easier for users during the repair of the tunnel,” explained Mr.me Guilbault, saying to himself again “in solutions mode”.
The government thus hopes to multiply the options for citizens, hoping in particular that the longer these are available, “the more likely people are to adhere to them”.
In recent days, several observers have indeed recalled that the first traffic test in the La Fontaine tunnel and in Greater Montreal could occur during the first snow, expected in the middle of the week in the metropolis. In addition, the precipitation will occur when congestion is most present since the pandemic, namely Wednesday and Thursday. For the time being, congestion has remained stable along the axis of the tunnel, although traffic jams have been observed on the island at several times.
During the winter season, the authorities will be particularly attentive to the evolution of the situation, in order to assess to what extent the network can absorb several accident scenes at the same time and a more “decentralized” congestion, despite the closures.
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With Pierre-André Normandin, La Presse