Is there any logic behind STM bus numbers?
Radio-Canada has an audio excerpt asking whether there’s any logic to the STM’s bus numbering system and the expert says no – there are groupings like 400-numbers for express routes, but the rest, not so much.
This streetcar map from 1941 shows a few familiar routes – the 15, the 17 and the 55 are there – but most of the rest have since changed. The present system has evolved gradually over time, and nobody recorded why specific numbers were chosen. Oddly enough, Wikipedia has a complete list of routes including obsolete ones.
Charles 13:49 on 2019-06-12 Permalink
For the longest time at Honoré-Beaugrand station you had (among others) the 186, 187, and 189 going different places towards the East. A number of years ago they shuffled things around such that these buses switched numbers between themselves—pretty much the same routes, but the 187 became 189, 189 became 186, and 186 became 187.
There must have been a reason … besides screwing with us … but I don’t know what that is.
Blork 16:23 on 2019-06-12 Permalink
Ah, the 15, or as I call it, the ghost bus. If it existed, I would find it very handy because I work right on Ste-Catherine (at MacKay) and sometimes I want to zip over to University or whatnot and if the weather is bad or my legs are aching it would be a nice quick way to get there. (Yes, the Metro is not far on a map, but getting there, going underground, getting to the platform, then getting back out again can add thousands of steps, and it’s not worth it if you’re only going a few blocks.)
So the 15, which never came very frequently, used to stop at Ste-Catherine and Bishop. They removed that stop a few years ago. Now it stops on the west side of Guy and then it goes all the way to de la Montagne before it stops again, which is about 400 metres. That might as well be 400 kilometres because it essentially means I will never take it. It’s not worth waiting for a bus if it’s only a short hop, and I’m not going to backtrack all the way to the west side of Guy even if it’s supposed to be coming soon. In my perfect world I time it using the Transit app so that I walk out of the building and hey, there it is! But that ain’t ever going to happen. I only see it about once a month, and it’s never anywhere near me or a stop.