Plante presses for Bois-Franc metro extension
Mayor Plante is pressing the Quebec government to fund an extension of the orange line to Bois-Franc, obviously a logical step but bound to be an expensive one in a part of town that will never vote CAQ.
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Kate
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Spi 11:10 on 2020-02-26 Permalink
This just highlights everything that has been wrong with public transit planning in this city over the past few decades. It’s always what’s politically expedient not about improving the network and service offering. Extend the orange and finish the loop, instead of talking about 2 stations to bois-franc.
Faiz imam 11:50 on 2020-02-26 Permalink
“Extend the orange and finish the loop”
actually, transit best practices are discouraging the idea of loops. they are wasteful and cause operational issues.
The right solution is to extension to cartierville, then north west towards Highway 13.
But your basic point is correct. this needs to happen and its bad that its getting stuck in politics.
ant6n 12:14 on 2020-02-26 Permalink
Loops can make alot of sense, if you have a truly circumferential line, with relatively even load along the whole line. Even though they can be operationally annyoing, they can help to reduce the load inside the loop, by allowing people to reach destinations without having to travel through the center.*
But none of this is true for the Orange line.
(*Note that the loop line in London was broken up due to operational considerations, but the line still forms a circle since the infrastructure hasnt changed – there’s just a transfer somewhere.)
Francesco 15:31 on 2020-02-26 Permalink
How do I “like“ what Ant6n just wrote? I just passed by the big hole in the ground at the corner of Thimens and Marcel-Laurin that will eventually be the above-ground edifice of the Côte-Vertu garage for the Orange Line metro; it’s about 1200 m away from the Bois-Franc Exo/REM station, and the length of an actual passenger tunnel from the end of the tail tracks at Côte-Vertu station to Bois-Franc would be less than 2 km.
Francesco 01:08 on 2020-02-27 Permalink
Today’s presentation by the City would suggest that the tail tracks tunnel (“l’arrière-gare”) reaches close to Poirier, making the actual tunnelling to Bois-Franc (and a bit beyond for its tail tracks) perhaps just over a kilometre.
https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/documents/Adi_Public/CE/CE_DA_ORDI_2020-02-26_08h30_Presentation_Prolongation_de_la_ligne_Orange_Ouest.pdf
Kate 10:17 on 2020-02-27 Permalink
Francesco, in fact St-Laurent’s Alan DeSousa has been saying just this for a couple of years – that the digging for the garage makes it natural to also extend the tunnel to Poirier and beyond.
Chris 10:42 on 2020-02-27 Permalink
Finish the loop please
Kate 10:53 on 2020-02-27 Permalink
Can you explain the value of the loop? Wouldn’t most passengers be getting on somewhere in Laval and coming down either the western or eastern spine of the orange line? Would many really be boarding at e.g. Sauvé and riding westward around the top to Poirier?
The main virtue I can see in this is that the 121 bus route would be less crowded – it’s the one that bridges between the two spines of the orange line between Sauvé and Côte-Vertu. Maybe some Laval lines I don’t know.
Bert 14:49 on 2020-02-27 Permalink
A loop, or even a western branch in Laval will certainly encourage people on the western side of Laval, say west of the 13, possibly even Labelle to use the western arm of the metro rather than going to the Montmorency Metro or even Concorde by train. This is above and beyond simply removing cars from the 13 and the Lachapelle bridge.
That said, hard metrics on ow much that section of the line is currently used would be enlightening.
Francesco 00:29 on 2020-02-29 Permalink
To repeat: loops are only really useful if they go *all the way around* the periphery of a dense central core, so that it isn’t one-way traffic twice a day. The only place I’ve been where the loop encircles an empty-ish core (and links a true loop of extremely dense, dynamic neighbourhoods) is Tokyo with its superb Yamanote Line.