More on the deep REM station
Various media are looking at the deepest station of the REM, shown to journalists Wednesday morning. The Gazette says it fulfills Jean Drapeau’s dream and says that Édouard-Montpetit station on the blue line has a “hidden chamber” meant to link the metro to a possible rail line below in the Mount Royal tunnel. Engineers talk about the difficulties of working around the hundred-year-old tunnel, equally old water mains and the infrastructure of the UdeM while constructing this thing.
Also video from CTV and photos in Le Devoir.
ant6n 11:10 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
I always think it’s funny that they keep insisting that the elevator ride only takes 20s, but they forget to mention the design isn’t exactly efficient. It includes long walk ways and stairs between the elevator and both platforms. I think it’s like that because they chose a design that would be cheapest to build – using a single giant shaft at a convenient location.
Oh well.
Joey 11:19 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
Would the alternative have been multiple elevators with shorter walks? I guess the trade-off depends on how you feel about standing and waiting vs. walking.
There’s a blitz to promote this aspect of the project, probably to distract from the nonsense happening with the REM de l’Est, but the construction is indeed impressive. I pass through that intersection a few times a day on weekdays and the impact on traffic/pedestrian circulation/bike lanes hasn’t been too bad (the bike lane on Edouard-Montpetit just kinda dies, but that’s par for the course I suppose). No major gridlock, etc. The work being done on the high-end condo project further east on is a considerably bigger PITA.
Kate 11:27 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
Joey, high-end condo project further east on where? (I can edit it in.)
carswell 12:01 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
@Kate Joey’s referring to Le 1420, the former convent scandalously sold by the UdeM to a mafia-related developer. https://www.le1420.ca
@Joey The Édouard-Montpetit bike path has been detoured to Willowdale between Stirling and Vincent-d’Indy.
carswell 12:04 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
Hasten to add that, due to those relations, the original developer was forced to abandon the project. AFAIK the current developer has no connections with organized crime.
walkerp 12:44 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
carswell, do you have a link to any story about the mafia-related developer purchase? I ask because I once literally saw a very high-end luxury sedan and a cop car parked driver’s side window to window on the construction site there very early in the morning. The image looked straight out of a mafia movie. So suspicious.
carswell 12:49 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
@walkerp https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/591106/udm-vente-annulee-catania
carswell 12:53 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
@Ian Super glad to be rid of Perez but it’s almost a given that one of the main reasons Projet parachuted in an unknown (to locals), non-resident, novice politician with no connection to the borough other than as a place she occasionally travelled to to work as a nurse was precisely because she would do what she was told to and not create friction with the borough’s functionaries, who rank among the most uncaring, unhelpful government employees I’ve encountered, or “head office.”
In the last days of her campaign and much to her credit, Montgomery said something I never expected to hear coming out of the mouth of any CDN-NDG elected official: that the borough should be split in two. We can probably kiss that enlightened idea good-bye too.
carswell 12:56 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
Please delete above post, now reposted in the right thread.
And an idea for a future upgrade since this kind of misposting is a semi-regular occurrence: a reply button on every post in the thread, not just the top post.
Joey 14:12 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
@kate the infamous 1420 Mont Royal, I believe. Also I think the city/borough did some curb extensions in the last few weeks that royally screwed up rush hour (and the construction on Remembrance/CDN means that if you’re going east/west you’re taking a bit of a gamble, meaning Cote Ste Catherine was seriously overwhelmed while Mont-Royal just east of Vincent d’indy was closed).
@carswell and yet many cyclists, especially those going up Vincent d’Indy to UdeM, opt to stay on Edouard-Montpetit.
carswell 15:03 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
@Joey Old habits die hard. Also, the detour is great if you want to get to and from the Côte-Ste-Catherine bike path. But not if you’re heading to upper Outremont and points southeast, in which case you’re best to stay on ÉMP to the end and jog up Vincent-d’Indy to Mont-Royal. That’s the route that a lot of fitness cyclists take.
Kate 15:56 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
carswell, I’ll look into the reply thing, but from bitter experience I know how difficult it can be to add features to a WordPress theme after the fact.
ant6n 19:01 on 2021-11-25 Permalink
@joey
A more effieicnt layout with less walking doesn’t mean more waiting for elevators. I think older plans for the Edouard/Montpetit station envisioned building a deviation tunnel on the deep level, then building centre platforms, with all elevators connecting to the platform. so one could connect all elevators to a mezzanine below/above the existing metro stations. Or even better, have two sets of elevators, one for each blue line platform.
That would be very expensive, but there’s a spectrum between expensive/optimal paths and cheap/long paths.