Users of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) are mobilizing to demand the creation of a shuttle between Brossard and the Robert-Bourassa stop in Montreal, given the delays linked to the Griffintown station. A petition sponsored by a Liberal MP has just been submitted to the National Assembly.
Living on the South Shore, Pierre-Luc Sarault works in the southern portion of the Cité du Multimédia, in Griffintown. Before the arrival of the REM, he normally left his car at the Chevrier incentive parking lot, before taking bus 90 from the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) which took him to the other side of the Samuel-De Champlain bridge.
The bus then dropped him off a 5-minute walk from his work. But since the arrival of the REM, “being dropped off at Central Station and having to wait for a bus or walk 20 to 25 minutes is the weak link in my itinerary, not to mention access to this station.”
“It used to take me 40 minutes and now it’s about 1:05 to 1:10 hours door to door. Once the Griffintown station is there, it will be better, but that will not be for three or four years maximum,” says Mr. Sarault.
He is one of the citizens supporting the initiative of the Association for collective transport of the South Shore (ATCRS), which this week submitted a petition on the website of the National Assembly sponsored by the Liberal MP for La Pinière, Linda Caron.
A “very used” stop
In said petition, we recall that the stop of line 90, located at the corner of Robert-Bourassa and William in Montreal, “was widely used by workers from the Cité du Multimédia and Old Montreal”.
Since the arrival of the REM last July, RTL and exo buses can no longer use the Samuel-De Champlain bridge, due to the REM Act which stipulates that no means of collective transport can enter competition with light rail. A vast reorganization of the bus networks was therefore orchestrated, to the great dismay of certain users, both at exo and at RTL, and even on L’Île-des-Sœurs.
However, in Griffintown, the REM is not yet a reality: the future station will only ultimately be built by 2027, while CDPQ Infra had previously mentioned a deadline of 2024. Meanwhile, “the promoters of the sector already pay a fee to finance the REM,” note the signatories.
“For many users, the absence of a station in Griffintown means a doubling of travel time compared to the situation that prevailed with buses,” says ATCRS spokesperson, Axel Fournier. “The return of a bus service is essential in this location to avoid inconvenience to users while waiting for CDPQ Infra to complete its project,” he adds.
In his eyes, “CDPQ Infra does not have to fear the implementation of such a service, because it will build customer loyalty, while waiting for the arrival of an REM station in Griffintown.”
According to MP Linda Caron, the project would above all “make life easier for families by not unduly extending the duration of workers’ journeys and to motivate them to continue to use public transport”. “The provision of a shuttle […] seems to me to be a reasonable solution while waiting for the future Griffintown – Bernard-Landry REM station to come into service,” adds the provincial elected official.
Not in the ARTM plans
Called to react, the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) argues, as we explained above, that the law requires it “that no collective transport service be offered linking one or the other of the non-competition basins for the Deux-Montagnes, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue and Rive-Sud branches, which includes downtown Montreal.
“Such a service would require having a specific agreement with CDPQ Infra,” says ARTM spokesperson Isabella Brisson.
She also argues that “public transport is facing a very restricted financial context”. “We are looking to address a significant shortfall in the 2024 budget so that there is no impact on existing services. There are no plans to add such a service in this context, especially since the Cité du multimedia is already served by bus from Île-des-Sœur and Gare-Centrale station,” maintains the ARTM.
The organization explains that the services serving the Cité du Multimédia from Highway 10 “are carried out from the Île-des-Sœurs station where line 168 allows you to continue towards the Henri-Bourassa corridor”, with stops located on the Wellington, William and Notre-Dame axes, among others.
According to several experts, the Griffintown – Bernard-Landry station poses particular challenges because CDPQ Infra decided to build it once the REM is in service. Maintaining the service 20 hours a day promises to cause headaches for site managers.