The Government of Quebec draws up a positive assessment of the first month since the implementation of major obstacles to the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, between the east of Montreal and the South Shore, which means that three of the six lanes of the tunnel have been closed since October 31 and will remain so until November 2025.
Prior to the start of the rehabilitation project in July 2020, an average of 120,000 road users used the tunnel daily, compared to 58,000 today. The government concludes that the mitigation measures and the cooperation of road users have reduced car traffic in the tunnel by more than 50%.
In November, there were 1,319 trips on average per day on the free bus routes. At the Radisson and Longueuil metro stations, we observed a respective increase in ridership of 5.3% and 4.5%, on average, during the four weeks of November compared to the same period before the obstructions.
At the three park-and-ride lots on the South Shore that were expanded, an increase in the occupancy rate of 27%, on average, was observed compared to the week of October 17.
As for the river shuttle, the number of trips increased by 34.6% in November compared to the previous month.
Deputy Premier and Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility Geneviève Guilbault thinks these statistics are encouraging, but she says there is still a large reserve of capacity. It therefore still encourages citizens to choose public transit, especially at the dawn of winter.
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