You’re right: buses are a great means of public transportation…until they get crowded!
At a certain ridership level, buses simply can no longer meet demand.
Let’s take a slightly exaggerated example to illustrate this reality: we could not replace the orange line of the Montreal metro with successive buses. There are too many passengers (up to 35,000 passengers per hour per direction during the morning rush) to cram them onto buses. It’s simply impossible.
Tramway, bus, light rail, metro: there is no one means of public transport better than the others. It rather depends on the number of people we have to move during peak hours, explains Pierre-Léo Bourbonnais, research associate at the Mobility Chair and lecturer at Polytechnique Montréal.
From a practical and economic point of view, “normal” buses are the best means of transport for moving fewer than 1,000 passengers per hour per direction during peak hours. From 1000 to 1500 passengers per hour, we can debate between the bus and the tram. From 1500 to 5000 passengers per hour, the tram is clearly the best choice (and the cheapest in the long term). A light train (e.g. REM) is well suited to transporting 5,000 to 25,000 passengers per hour, and the metro can move between 10,000 and 40,000 passengers per hour.
Over a period of 20 to 30 years, when we have to move between 1000 and 5000 passengers per hour per direction during peak hours, the tram is less expensive than the bus when counting construction and operating costs, estimates the researcher Pierre-Léo Bourbonnais.
This is why the City of Quebec wants to build a tramway in the city center, where it will be necessary to move 3,500 passengers per hour per direction in the early 2030s. (Estimated cost of the project: 8 billion.)
This is also why the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) would like to build two tram lines in eastern Montreal, where it will be necessary to move 3,650 passengers per hour on the northern branch and 4,200 passengers per hour. on the air is in 2036. (Estimated cost of the project: 13 billion.)
“Mathematically, there is no discussion to be had. In both cases [centre-ville de Québec et est de Montréal]we need a tramway,” says researcher Pierre-Léo Bourbonnais.
Valérie Plante’s administration would also like a tramway on rue Jean-Talon to serve, among other things, the district that she wants to build on the land of the former Hippodrome de Montréal, near the Namur metro station.1.
Why should we replace “normal” bus lines when we exceed 1000 or 1500 passengers per hour during peak hours? In Canada, a bus driver earns around $100,000 per year2. From 1000 or 1500 passengers per hour, bus operating costs are too high (too many drivers are needed). The tram, which requires fewer personnel, becomes cheaper.
What about rapid bus services (BRT) with a separate lane? That could be a solution. But like the tram, SRBs require a separate track, which costs billions to build and represents a significant portion of the total bill.
Generally speaking, a tramway should cost only 15% more to build than an SRB, according to researcher Pierre-Léo Bourbonnais. But operating an SRB is one and a half to two times more expensive than a tram, because more bus drivers are needed.
“On Pie-IX in Montreal, it would have been necessary to build a tramway [au lieu d’un SRB] “, said Mr. Bourbonnais.
The first tram in a city always costs more, because a garage must be built for the wagons. As long as a city has a garage, a tram costs less than an BRT in the long run.
It’s not just a question of costs. There is also user comfort and service reliability.
For users, the tram is more comfortable than buses. There is more interior space. “There are limits to the people we can attract with buses. There are families who do not take the bus because there is almost no space for the stroller, but they would take the tram,” says Mr. Bourbonnais.
The tram is also more reliable than “normal” buses, which are slowed down by traffic and red lights.
Of course, the tramway requires larger initial investments to build the separate tracks which make it efficient and attractive. But after 20 years, these investments pay off. Then, the tram becomes much more profitable than the bus, from all points of view.
We will see if the Legault government will have the audacity to make the best long-term decision for downtown Quebec as well as for eastern Montreal.
In closing, a detail that deserves reflection: on its four busiest bus lines currently, Montreal would currently have adequate ridership for a tramway, according to Mr. Bourbonnais. During morning rush hours, lines 141 Jean-Talon Est, 67 Saint-Michel, 165 Côte-des-Neiges and 51 Édouard-Montpetit all move approximately 1,000 passengers per hour per direction. “In Europe, at 1000 passengers per hour, we normally start looking for a tramway,” says Mr. Bourbonnais.
1. Read “A tramway in the heart of the future Namur-Hippodrome district” from Radio-Canada
2. Including social benefits whose costs are paid by the employer.
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