REM station is “unnecessary” – experts
Linda Gyulai continues her story aboout the REM A40 station which she says objective critics find unnecessary, placed in a spot where nobody will use it (yet).
Linda Gyulai continues her story aboout the REM A40 station which she says objective critics find unnecessary, placed in a spot where nobody will use it (yet).
Blork 11:07 on 2019-09-25 Permalink
The REM maps list the station as “Correspondance A40” and show it as a connecting point to the “Mascouche line” which isn’t REM but part of EXO.
I have no skin in this game, so I’m just trying to be open minded, meaning MAYBE the Gazette’s reports are on to something and MAYBE there’s more planning involved than the so-called objective critics know about.
That said, if you just look at the map, the A40 stop DOES line up with the Mascouche line better than any other stops with the exception of Mont-Royal REM station. This means that Mascouche line users have several options to get downtown. They can jump out at the Sauvé station and go over to the Sauvé Metro (but that’s the congested Orange line, so why would they? But going home in the evening might work that way) or they can jump out at the A40 and take the REM to downtown, or they can stay on the train. (They could do the same at Mont-Royal, but maybe they are expecting a lot of use at Mont-Royal and are planning to diffuse the connecting points instead of pushing them all together.)
Depending on where they are going and whether or not they need other REM connections, that A40 connection sounds like a nice option. For example, it means people could go from Mascouche to Deux-Montagnes by train without having to go downtown.
So that’s just me thinking that a network of trains with multiple connecting points is a good idea, especially if you are trying to break out of the idea of mass transit only being for feeding people to downtown.
ant6n 13:10 on 2019-09-25 Permalink
The Mascouche line is planned to terminate at the A40 station. This was the whole issue about “sharing” the Mount-Royal tunnel: REM will kick out all other lines, will not allow them to access gare Centrale.
This station wouldn’t really be necessary if the REM had been designed only slightly better, in order to allow sharing the Mount-Royal tunnel, allowing the Mascouche (and maybe in the future the St-Jerome line and VIA rail) to actually get downtown. Note the AMT invested a cool 750M$ into the Mascouche line, in large parts the expenses relate to bringing the line through the tunnel to downtown.
Now there’s the plan to perhaps route the Mascouche line towards Du College station, and possibly downtown by circling around the Taschereau around Cote-St-Luc, which will add a cool 25min to the travel time. In that case, the A40 station will become useless as a correspondence. It would’ve made more sense to move the Montpellier station 200m south, so that it would perfectly intersect with that proposed new route for the Mascouche line.
One note about possible developments in the area: Yes the CDPQ may invest in the area and make a bunch of money on real estate, but even if people started moving into what is now an idustrial waste land, those will still be the only people who use the stations. Many Metro stations in Montreal aren’t just used by the people who live within 300m, but they come from much further, especially from feeder buses. This won’t happen here, the industrial area is an enclave bordered by highways and railways, and a streetgrid that doesn’t allow bringing in buses from anywhere useful.
Blork 16:00 on 2019-09-25 Permalink
Thanks for the clarifications, ant6n. Sounds like a shitshow for sure.
Faiz Imam 19:54 on 2019-09-25 Permalink
or… folks could just spend the sub 5 mins it takes to transfer at A40 station and voila. problem solved. Transfers are good, they increase utility, not reduce it.
in related news, the town of Boisbriand just initiated a public consultation to turn 225 Hectares of prime farmland into low density auto dependent suburban housing.
i wonder what we could do to stop that?
Ant6n 20:24 on 2019-09-25 Permalink
@faiz
Bring the st Jerome line downtown, providing for a fast direct transit connection downtown, and a single transfer trip to many places in Montreal.
Transfer stations increase utility, extra forced transfers, especially onto modes with different capacity profiles, is not.
I think you missed the part about how the a40 station may become useless if the mascouche line gets rerouted.