Pie-IX: Residents and merchants tired of construction
People living and doing business along Pie‑IX are tired of construction noise and obstructions but, now that the SRB is more or less done, there’s the construction of the blue line extension to come.
La Presse’s Nathalie Collard tears into our collective failure to develop public transit, noting the years of rumination over the blue line extension and reminding us that discussions about rapid transit on Pie‑IX date back to the Jean Drapeau era.
Uatu 18:19 on 2022-11-07 Permalink
Well we were occupied by more important issues like religious headgear, the size of English on signs, oaths to the king etc. Real stuff that really matters 😛
dhomas 19:43 on 2022-11-07 Permalink
We actually HAD rapid bus transit on Pie-IX before. Until the early 2000’s, IIRC. I used to take the 505 during rush hour to get to my girlfriend’s (now wife’s) house. It was cancelled after some people died by looking the wrong way getting off the bus, since it ran counter to traffic. I may be misremembering, but I think one of the fatalities was the daughter of a city councilor, who pushed to cancel the service. At the time, they cancelled it to develop something new and I think a tram was under consideration. It only took them 20 years-ish to restore the service…
Kate 10:51 on 2022-11-08 Permalink
dhomas, yes, I remember that system existing, there were islands in the middle of the street, as now, with blue shelters on them. I never used it because I didn’t live or work in that part of town but I remember seeing it.
I don’t think it cost anything like as much to build as the thing they have now. There were photos of quite deep excavations for the current arrangement, which made me wonder whether they were actually laying the foundation for a future tram without spelling it out.
dhomas 21:16 on 2022-11-08 Permalink
The excavations they did this time around were to rebuild underground utilities, like water, sewage, natural gas, telecom, etc. I think the tram idea is dead.