By the end of the year, dogs on a leash will be accepted in the Montreal metro, as part of a pilot project. On the other hand, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is abandoning the project to install screen doors, known as “anti-suicides”, on the platforms of the metro, due to the financial difficulties caused by the pandemic.
Posted at 4:26 p.m.
Montreal’s city council unanimously adopted a motion on Tuesday asking the STM “to test a pilot project authorizing, according to guidelines aimed at good cohabitation with all of its customers, the presence of dogs in the metro by the end of the year, in order to assess the possible cohabitation in the STM network”.
This project must be accompanied by a public communication and awareness campaign.
It was the opposition at City Hall that first proposed allowing dogs on public transport. Advisors from the Ensemble Montréal party had held a press conference to announce their project a few weeks ago.
The Plante administration agreed to this proposal, suggesting starting with a pilot project.
“We have to move forward in a cautious and measured way,” said municipal councilor Éric Alan Caldwell, chairman of the STM’s board of directors. “What should guide us in the next steps is good cohabitation. We want people to come back on public transport. »
The follow-up to the pilot project will make it possible to draw conclusions for the future, notes Mr. Caldwell.
The Press had solicited the opinion of its readers on this question on April 12. Result: nearly three quarters of the approximately 300 respondents did not want dogs on buses and in the metro. Many cited animal allergies or fear of being bitten to explain their opposition.
According to the leader of the Ensemble Montréal party, Aref Salem, who tabled the motion, the STM will have time to seek solutions to these problems.
He noted that nearly 17,000 Montrealers have signed the “Fido wants to take the metro” petition and that many families have adopted animals during the pandemic.
Lack of budget for “anti-suicide” doors
In another file, the STM abandons its project, studied for nearly four years, to install platform screen doors on metro platforms on the orange line.
We planned to equip the 13 stations located on the segment between Crémazie and Bonaventure with these glass doors which open automatically when a metro train stops at the station, and which make it possible to physically isolate the railway tracks from the platforms.
The cost of this project was estimated at 200 million.
We decided to withdraw the project from our investment program for the next 10 years, because the pandemic has brought about major changes in mobility needs, in traffic, which obviously put pressure on our finances. , so we have reviewed the prioritization of our major projects, and the screen door project has been removed from our investment program for the time being.
Philippe Déry, STM spokesperson
The studies and analyzes carried out in connection with the installation of this equipment could be used in the future, he adds.
The future stations of the extension of the blue line will be designed to eventually receive these doors on their platforms, specifies Mr. Déry.
Platform screen doors are often called “suicide resistant” because they prevent any intrusion in front of metro trains. They also prevent objects from getting on the rails. Their installation is becoming more and more widespread in underground transport networks, almost everywhere in the world.
They are also mandatory on all automated, driverless transport systems. All the stations of the future Réseau express métropolitain (REM) of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec, under construction, will also be equipped with platform doors.
During the city council meeting, opposition leader Aref Salem denounced the abandonment of the screen door project, pointing out that every year 16 people kill themselves by throwing themselves in front of the metro in Montreal, according to a study by the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) conducted in 2016. Service interruptions caused by objects dropped on the track are also more and more frequent, he lamented.
“We had to make a choice, but it’s not a project that falls, it’s a project that will be stretched over time,” replied the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante. She pointed out that her administration had decided to maintain the same level of public transport service during the pandemic, to continue to serve users who need to travel, but that this choice had a cost.