REM on the South Shore | The RTL is preparing to completely “reshuffle” its offer

The arrival of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) on the South Shore, postponed to the spring of 2023, will be a golden opportunity to “reshuffle everything” in the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) network. Its president, Michel Veilleux, is preparing to modify 25 local lines and add five more, so that 85% of users can have access to a route less than 400 meters from their home.

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

“A whole change is coming. […] Our revision will affect nearly 10,000 people, with 2,300 stops to modify and 1,700 daily journeys that will connect with the REM,” explained Mr. Veilleux during a conference held on Tuesday morning, in front of representatives of the business community in Saint – Lambert.

Since 2019, his group has been conducting a public consultation on user needs, in the context of the arrival of the REM. In particular, the RTL wants to develop its offer on the corridor of highways 30 and 20, as well as on the Taschereau axis. “We want to create direct expresses to the metro and to the REM, which will leave from Saint-Bruno, Longueuil and Brossard,” said Mr. Veilleux, also promising more off-peak services, as well as on weekends.

“We gave ourselves a guideline not to touch what was going well. There are 52 lines that have not been affected. We want to improve or maintain travel time for 98% of rush hour trips,” he continued, confirming that 25 lines will be modified and five will be added. The details of these new routes will be known soon.

Michel Veilleux also promises to develop a “night network”, which the RTL has never really had so far, “to take over from the REM and the metro during the night, also creating a framework for the agglomeration “. “We saw it during the pandemic: there are hospitals and several other sites that wanted service. We will give it to them,” he promised.

By 2026, the RTL is also committed to making its network 100% accessible to people with reduced mobility. A collective taxi service must also be offered everywhere in the agglomeration in the long term, with a cost equivalent to the price of a trip by public transport. Pilot projects have already been done in Saint-Bruno and will soon arrive in Brossard, Saint-Hubert and Longueuil.

A success “from the first morning”

Moreover, the RTL must receive its first 100% electric buses by the beginning of 2023, which will be approximately 40 feet long. “The government, starting today, no longer subsidizes buses that are no longer electric.[…|It’salotofchallengesbecauseforusit’snotjustthevehiclesit’sadaptingtheinfrastructure”agreedMrVeilleux[…|C’estbeaucoupdedéfisparcequepournouscenesontpasseulementlesvéhiculesc’estd’adapterlesinfrastructures »aconvenuM Veilleux

At the end of October, CDPQ Infra confirmed the postponement of the southern branch of the REM to the spring of 2023, which will inevitably lead to new cost overruns, the organization agreed. In Montreal, Mayor Valérie Plante did not hide her concern, while in Quebec, we said we were “impatient” to finally have a result.

At the RTL, Michel Veilleux affirms that “in terms of customers”, this postponement “is not a bad deal”. “There’s almost nothing worse than developing new networks in the cold December and January,” he said.

“In terms of traffic, there is no doubt that it will be a success from the first morning, because the clientele is already there,” he persisted, saying he was “convinced that at first day, it will be like the metro in Laval: we will have a lot of people”.

Over the next few months, the RTL will launch a major information campaign to inform users of the upcoming changes. “It is certain that we will not be 100% the same morning in setting up the network. It will be necessary to be agile, flexible, to listen to the customers. We have planned a crisis cell to prepare for it,” concluded Mr. Veilleux.