Stéphanie Gauthier resigned herself two years ago: she bought a car. She may live on the island of Montreal, but everyday life became difficult without a car.
“It’s still incredible, we are in Montreal and we have less public transport than in Longueuil or Laval,” said this resident of Rivière-des-Prairies, in the northeast of the island.
“We are landlocked,” she laments. All residents of the east end of Montreal interviewed by The duty over the past few days have thrown around this word: “landlocked”. Isolated from the rest of the island by highways 25 and 40, by concrete boulevards and by a public transport service reduced to its simplest expression — and disrupted by roadworks, particularly in the area of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fountain.
At the wheel of her Kia Soul 2016, Stéphanie Gauthier gets to work in about twenty minutes, near the Crémazie metro station. By bus (to Henri-Bourassa station) and by metro, it takes between an hour and an hour and a quarter to travel the same distance.
Like many residents of the eastern part of the island, Stéphanie Gauthier has high hopes for the new version of the REM de l’Est which is in preparation. She is delighted with the possibility, mentioned by the transport authorities, that this electric train will go to Rivière-des-Prairies (unlike the first version). The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain and its partners are working on a revamped train project to the east, after the withdrawal last May of the promoter CDPQ-Infra.
“We need a mode of transport like that. East Montreal has been neglected for years. We are all a little tired of making claims and not having an answer, ”says Stéphanie Gauthier.
Over the past four years, she has launched two petitions to improve public transit service in Rivière-des-Prairies. No results, so far. This citizen is beginning to get impatient. She’s not the only one.
“Infernal” traffic
Sophie Tremblay, a resident of Mercier-Est, is no longer waiting for public transport. This financial advisor has to travel by car to meet her clients all over the greater Montreal area. She lives close to the Louis-H.-La Fontaine tunnel, but has not crossed to the South Shore since work began last month.
“No matter the time, the only lane is always congested. I told my clients on the South Shore: ‘We’ll see each other again in three years,’” she says. She follows up on virtual platforms with her clients in the suburbs.
Traffic in the neighborhood is “hellish”, says Sophie Tremblay, due to the work in and around the tunnel. Neighboring streets were also closed to traffic due to road, water or sewer work. Traffic jams due to work around the tunnel cause cars to overflow into the small residential streets.
Until recently, Sophie Tremblay took her two boys to school in seven minutes by car. With road works, it often takes more than half an hour. They sometimes went there by bicycle or scooter in good weather, but it becomes difficult with the snow.
Need for “real” transport
Marc-André Dupuis also lives close to the tunnel, in Mercier-Est. He works on the South Shore. This father of two would take public transport to work without hesitation, but he can’t imagine himself on a bus stuck in traffic jams.
“I don’t understand why the Eastern REM wouldn’t go through the tunnel. The REM de l’Ouest crosses the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge, and I’m sure it will be crowded [quand il sera mis en service] he says.
It is high time, according to him, that the east of the island be equipped with “real” transport projects – a REM that respects residential areas, a tramway, extended metro lines. The east of Montreal is made up of beautiful green, calm, pleasant neighborhoods separated by horrible traffic lanes and vast industrial zones. These “landlocked” neighborhoods need public transport links, argues Marc-André Dupuis.
A missing link
Caroline Bourgeois, the mayor of the borough of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, agrees with the citizens. “For us, the REM is essential. People are looking forward to it. The missing link here, in the east, is an efficient mode of transport, which works, ”said the elected representative of Projet Montréal, the party of Mayor Valérie Plante.
The eastern suburban train, which connects the northern crown to the Sauvé station, on the orange metro line, passes through Rivière-des-Prairies. But the frequency leaves something to be desired, underlines Caroline Bourgeois. “If you miss the 7:54 am train because your child forgot their mittens at school, you have to wait an hour for the next train,” she explains.
The borough mayor insists that the new version of the REM go to Rivière-des-Prairies (the first version stopped at Cégep Marie-Victorin, in Montreal-Nord) and to Pointe-aux-Trembles. It’s not for nothing that this sector has one of the highest proportions of cars per family in Montreal, according to the Enquête 2018 origin-destination : each household in Rivière-des-Prairies owns an average of 1.53 vehicles, compared to 1 per dwelling in Montreal, 1.38 in the census metropolitan area and 1.84 in the suburbs.
During the morning rush hour, 60% of trips from Rivière-des-Prairies are made by car, 24% by public transit, and 6% are bimodal. When she was elected councilor in 2009, Caroline Bourgeois had to take her driver’s license and buy a car: she absolutely needed it to get to the borough town hall.
“With the REM, we hope that people will be able to get rid of their second car,” she says.
Avoid horrors
Daniel Chartier, vice-president of the Collectif en environnement Mercier-Est, would like an urban vision to underpin the improvement of public transport. He is worried about the “radio silence” maintained by the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority for six months. The organization is studying possible routes and modes of transport for the future REM, but the public must be consulted so that the solutions adopted meet their needs, he points out. In particular, the project must fit harmoniously into the neighbourhoods.
“We, in Mercier-Est, have suffered enough! It has to be done with respect for the residents. The urban fabric has been healed, now is the time to heal it. And if we improve public transit to allow more trucks to circulate in the neighborhood, that does not solve anything, ”he specifies.
We, in Mercier-Est, have suffered enough! It has to be done with respect for the residents. The urban fabric has been healed, now is the time to heal it. And if we improve public transit to allow more trucks to circulate in the neighborhood, that doesn’t solve anything.
The arrival of Amazon and Costco warehouses has created few jobs, but has increased truck traffic, notes Daniel Chartier. The green light given by Quebec to the container transhipment project of Ray-Mont Logistiques does not bode well either for the tranquility of the sector, he adds.