La Presse has some views of the mighty Lisette boring machine and a discussion of what they might do with it after the blue line reaches Anjou.
With the REM station at Bois-Franc it makes so much sense now to extend the orange line to connect, but it’s impossible to predict what the government attitude to public transit will be like, when that day comes.
But now Laval wants a turn.
Thefts of copper cable are becoming more common, and can put buildings at risk when it means removing the ground wire.
Too-strict laws about renovation of heritage buildings are actually threatening them, as they make it too difficult and expensive to do the work. So buildings are left empty until their state of deterioration makes it impossible to save them.
The problem is that they are allowed to remain empty and deteriorate without any cost to the owner.
The Plateau has uneven laws in place. We wanted to replace our staircase with an exact replica… not allowed, we had to go to what they THOUGHT that they were like at the time they were built. The house next door… brand new… replica of what was there before. So, who do you complain about uneven enforcement of the rules?
Get hold of Dinu Bumbaru and get him to speak for you?
That would probably be counterproductive…
The Victoire has won the Walter Cup with a 4-0 victory over the Ottawa Charge.
Here’s a highlight reel. That second goal was pretty awesome.
The new branch of the REM experienced its first outage Wednesday. It lasted 45 minutes.
The metro’s green line was also down for more than an hour around the same time.
I took the Anse-à-l’Orme line eastward Wednesday, and have to say it’s clearly meeting a need. The parking lot at Anse was full, and the train, while not jammed to the doors, was standing room only all the way to Édouard‑Montpetit, where I got off, and presumably beyond.
Gilbert Rozon has thrown in the towel: he’s paying the Courageuses a total of $930,000 and waiving his right to appeal.
An Air France flight to Detroit has been diverted to Montreal following an Ebola scare.
(Thanks to Blork who spotted this story while watching Flightradar 24.)
The SPVM has announced zero tolerance for fireworks during street gatherings to watch hockey or anything else.
Yeah… how are they going to apprehend anyone. I’m still on week 3 of waiting for them to call me back on a case of identity theft.
CBC has a short video on the 70th anniversary of Caffè Italia.
Cute CTV story about city workers rescuing ducklings from a sewer.
If you’re going to the Grand Prix, go by metro: the facility is only allowing parking for the disabled. Service on the yellow line will be increased and there will also be plenty of bicycle parking space.
There are a few changes in this year’s race but the sex worker strike is still expected.
The Canadiens will also start their series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, with an away game on Saturday evening. A week‑end mouvementée to start the summer. Radio‑Canada considers this unprecedented circumstance.
If you do go by Métro and are buying individual tickets, i.e. not a pass holder, buy your return trip(s) beforehand.
I am told you should take the ferry, not the metro.
The Times of London runs a nice piece by Taras Grescoe about taking the Train de Charlevoix downriver from Quebec City.
Yes, nice piece, gently sliding over the fact that the trip takes 4.5 hours, plus the time it takes to get to the departure point, which is not, as I would have thought, Quebec’s Gare du Palais, but what sounds like a non-station some distance downriver. Does anyone know why that is? I have two friends who had summer jobs at the Manoir Richelieu when they were young, and I’d like to see the place myself someday.
The reason is due to Canadian railway regulations which the train is not compiant with. The train is operated on an experimental/limited basis with the condition that it does not operate on tracks where freight trains may also be present. This was the same restriction for the previous demonstration train (the Alstom Coradia iLint powered by Hydrogen) on the same tracks that operated in 2023.
Getting from the starting point (Montmorency falls) to gare du palais requires running on tracks that could have freight trains.
The train they use is an old european train (compliant with European regulations) but is not compliant with North American regulations (mostly crashworthiness in case of collision with a freight train).
The train is still safe – just compliant with a different set of regulations.
Apparently CN owns the tracks leading up to the Gare du Palais and would have required the train to run at 16 kph on that stretch, if it allowed access at all.
But the terminus is right next to the Montmorency Falls so it’s a scenic location and not far from the city centre.
There are lots of busses that go from Old Quebec to the falls (and many other places). Old Quebec gets lots of European tourists who expect to be able to travel around without a car so it’s well set up (compared to other places in North America) to accommodate them.
Le Devoir has a piece Tuesday on the importance of urban agriculture in at least keeping heirloom varieties going, even if it’s unrealistic to think we could feed everyone on the island by growing things locally.
But I still have never seen a Montreal melon, even if it gets mentioned every spring during the mid‑May planting frenzy.
There will be a planting of the Melons Wednesday at Blue Bonnets.
That has a pleasingly pagan sound.
FWIW Lufa Farms maintains that we could in fact feed the entire island of Montreal’s population handily simply by converting warehouse rooftops to urban farm projects. This assumes we go entirely vegetarian of course and I’m still not sure where stuff like beans and rice would come from, but hey. Montreal really could become self-sufficient for at least greenhouse veg if we really wanted to.
That’s true. Green veg and some fruit – berries, mostly. Somehow I don’t think it makes economic or agronomic sense to grow e.g. potatoes or apples in greenhouses. I don’t think they do.
But yes, we could become more self-sufficient, and we should – even if we can’t grow our own lemons or coffee.
The massive blue line boring machine has been named Lisette after the metro’s first woman metro operator, Lisette Saint‑Onge.
A bit late to the game, 24hres asks whether the closure of a local business like Station W means the space will be taken over by a chain store of some kind.
As commercial rents rise uncontrollably, this pattern has been seen all over, but we’ve also seen e.g. Starbucks locations fail to thrive. A street like Mont‑Royal still has a mix of business types, for example. Presumably not all landlords are willing to hike the rents till only McDonald’s can afford them.
Every time I’m on Notre Dame west of Atwater I’m amazed at how many franchise and chain places there are. There are lots of great indie places of all kinds, but you get the sense it’s a losing battle.
I object less to the local franchises, Cafe St Henri, Avenue, etc. But it’s just all restaurants (and a fantastic cat grooming location which I recommend to anyone who needs to get their cats groomed).
Not to be contrarian but chains are much less likely to violate worker protection rules or steal wages from employees, and also tend to pay more. They have their problems, but they can just afford compliance much more, and are more worried about being sued for such violations, as they have deeper pockets and more employees such that a lawyer will be willing to take a case. I remember going to the CNT, the precursor to the CNESST, to complain against them violating the law and not paying me for work, and they said my options were to use the commission, which would result in me having to do a ton of work and eventually all I could get was my job back with the same people who stole from me in the first place, or I could sue them, which would cost me a ton up front with a lawyer and if I won I’d get that back and a small amount if I won and if I lost I might owe their lawyer fees too. Even with other employees it wasn’t worth it because there weren’t enough of them.
Maybe it was different back then or your situation was different but I’ve had to contact the CNESST due to employers not paying me two different times and each time just the prospect of having to deal with them has been enough to get both places to cough up the dough they owed me (one even overpaid me but keep that to yourself!)
@Joey When I lived in St Henri in the 90s there were 5 (extremely seedy) bars within 5 minutes walking distance from Lionel-Groulx. Coin d’Or at the corner of Notre Dame and Atwater was the most violent.
It’s astounding that it’s not only been completely gentrified but successive waves of gentrification have even pushed out the gentrifiers.
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