STM plans new building
The STM has plans for a new administrative building to be constructed in Maisonneuve near Assomption metro. It will have room for equipment for metro operations, and the people who operate them.
Conventionally, the location of metro nerve centres has been secret. It sounds like this one won’t be.
Jack 10:54 on 2021-08-15 Permalink
I wonder if they’ll supply parking for their employees.
Kate 11:06 on 2021-08-15 Permalink
They’ll have to. They can’t expect them to park on Maisonneuve side streets.
Jack 11:56 on 2021-08-15 Permalink
The irony.
Kate 11:58 on 2021-08-15 Permalink
I know, and I took the point of your comment, but we both know the STM workforce is likely to be mostly living off-island.
dhomas 07:56 on 2021-08-16 Permalink
I know plenty of people who live off-Island and take public transit to work. When we worked downtown, a parking spot in our building was over 300$/month. With no option for free parking, most of us took the metro (the exception was the high-paid sales guy, who ironically lived downtown so he drove his car a few blocks to park at the office). I don’t understand why STM employees should get subsidized parking.
Kate 08:35 on 2021-08-16 Permalink
dhomas, we don’t know that they will get subsidized parking – Jack and I were only riffing on the idea.
One of the things Projet did was to limit the free parking offered to workers at city hall. I don’t know how far they took it, and I don’t know whether they’ve got the STM doing the same thing.
Blork 09:42 on 2021-08-16 Permalink
Also, this administrative building won’t be downtown; it’s going to be in Mercier, which is east of the Olympic Stadium. I wouldn’t be surprised if parking will be free (for employees). It’s also right next to a Metro station, but STM people have never been famous for eating their own dog food.
DavidH 10:00 on 2021-08-16 Permalink
Obviously a fair number of STM employees can’t rely on the metro given that they are required for it to operate. You can’t ride the first subway train to work if your job is to run ops for that train to go. Same for the evening shift doing close. It only makes sense for STM to rely on partly on car commutes as well as their own system. Otherwise, when they call people in for urgent overtime because of a failure, those people can’t even make it if the metro is the only option to commute.
Blork 11:07 on 2021-08-16 Permalink
DavidH, true enough, but I suspect the vast majority of the employee at the new administration center will be 9-5ers (HR, payroll, pencil-pushing, etc.)
Kate 12:18 on 2021-08-16 Permalink
DavidH has a point, that at least some of the workers may need to come and go at times outside metro hours. Fair enough.
Blork, is that Mercier? I thought it was Hochelaga.
Blork 14:32 on 2021-08-16 Permalink
Kate, you’re right. Technically its “Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve” because boy do we love long names in Quebec, and I just reflexively applied the default anglo abbreviation alogorithm. According to my research, the historical name for the district is “Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve-sur-la-croix-avec-le-sauveur-mort-et-tous-ces-coeurs-saignants-et-foies-septiques-entourés-de-foi-dans-les-anges-pleureurs-de-piété-et-pas-des-maudit-anglais.”
Kate 17:08 on 2021-08-16 Permalink
Blork, I wasn’t trying to be snarky. I know where Hochelaga and Maisonneuve are, but I was vague on Mercier.
Google Maps includes, at the same typographical level:
– Hochelaga
– Viauville
– Longue-Pointe
– Mercier-Est
– Mercier-Ouest Bellerive
If you take a look, you’ll see that Mercier-Ouest Bellerive is to the east of Mercier-Est by compass.
I can’t make out why Maisonneuve is not on this map at all, or on the city’s own “interactive” map, where we find these subdivisions:
– Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
– Préfontaine
– Hochelaga
– Louis-Riel
– St-Jean-de-Dieu
– Tétrauville [sic]
– Mercier
If you zoom in, it changes and you also get
– Longue-Pointe
– Beaurivage
– Dupéré
– Hochelaga County
Why Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Mercier are divisions within Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is left as an exercise.