Metro: less crowded Mondays and Fridays
Recent numbers from the STM show that the metro is less crowded Mondays and Fridays than on the other three weekdays. The spokesman also says metro trains will stay at 9 cars, which is odd because I didn’t think you could easily shorten an Azur train, while the blue line, still running the older trains, has always run on 6 cars.
carswell 20:55 on 2023-02-17 Permalink
The headline for the Journal article Kate links to is Voici les journées les plus achalandées dans le métro de Montréal and the only days discussed are weekdays. Not a single mention of Saturday or Sunday. Current ridership is 69% of prepandemic levels on Mondays and Fridays and 73% on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Meanwhile La Presse’s headline is L’achalandage en hausse, surtout le week-end. In addition, the stats are broken down by bus and metro as well as day of the week. On Saturdays and Sundays, average ridership is 85% of prepandemic levels, which seems noteworthy and leaves me wondering why the Journal ignores it.
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2023-02-17/metro-et-autobus-a-montreal/l-achalandage-en-hausse-surtout-le-week-end.php
Kate 21:29 on 2023-02-17 Permalink
Good link, carswell – I hadn’t spotted that.
So people are using transit on weekends more than for standard weekday commutes. That’s nice to know.
Nicholas 21:52 on 2023-02-17 Permalink
Washington DC has noticed such a difference between Mon+Fri vs Tue+Wed+Thu that they’re now running more service those three middle days (partly due to a lack of operators and trains). And yes, generally changing the length of trains with married open gangway cars like the Azur takes a while and must be done in the shop, while changing the length of trains with coupled cars like the Blue line MR-73 between 3 and 6 cars can be done in minutes. I remember as a kid the blue line having 6 cars at rush hour and 3 otherwise, but with increased ridership that made no sense anymore. With weekend and off-peak traffic recovering much better than peak, probably makes sense to keep it at 6.
Kate 22:03 on 2023-02-17 Permalink
I don’t remember seeing 3-car trains on the blue line, but then I didn’t live close to it till 2005.
Wouldn’t they have to keep adjusting barriers on all the platforms to keep passengers corralled into the right places?
Benoit 02:18 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
The stm had 6-cars trains on the orange line on weekends in the 90’s. It wasn’t a good idea, trains were always packed and the savings quite small
jeather 10:10 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
Without intending to turn a public transit thread into a car thread, rush hour traffic is decidedly less busy on Fridays and somewhat less busy on Mondays. That this is also true in public transit isn’t shocking.
I am curious, though — MF is down to 69% of prepandemic, and TWTh 73%, but was there a MF effect before the pandemic also? (I took the metro then, but can’t remember.)
Uatu 13:04 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
I guess la presse recognizes that less commuters on Monday and Friday reflects the new paradigm of a 4 day work week. Maybe pkp/le journal would like life to return to prepandemic hours with workers back downtown like old days?
steph 13:13 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
I go to the office twice a week. TWTh is obviously MUCH busier. I alos have the impression that in the last 3 weeks that the interval between trains has also lengthened (used to be 3 mins… now it’s 5 mins). With that the platforms are now noticeably fuller. I’ve had to wait for a 2nd train now twice at Berri (which has never happened to me in the last 20 years)
DeWolf 13:34 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
Yeah, metro service was slightly reduced and it’s really being felt. As steph said, it means you’re often waiting 4 or 5 minutes between trains instead of 3, which doesn’t sound like a big deal but somehow makes the trains much, much more crowded.
If the new Quebec budget being announced next month doesn’t include massively more funding for public transit…
carswell 14:16 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
@Utau That possibility crossed my mind too. Another might be the Journal’s suburban mindset: the metro is of interest on weekdays, when many commuters avoid driving in the centre city due to traffic, but not on weekends, when the roads are less jammed and suburbanites can take their cars instead (wouldn’t be the first time I’ve thought the rag’s name should be Le Journal des banlieues de Montréal).
Chris 15:37 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
>…the new paradigm of a 4 day work week.
There is no such new paradigm. Perhaps you meant 4 days in-office?
walkerp 00:21 on 2023-02-19 Permalink
It’s coming, though.
Chris 11:11 on 2023-02-19 Permalink
Uatu, or perhaps it was a Freudian slip about work-from-home being about as productive as an actual day off? 🙂
steph 11:37 on 2023-02-19 Permalink
Everyone I know who WFH is more productive at home. The few exceptions are all extroverts. The office is great for extroverts – They masking their own lack of productivity by distracting others and dragging down everyone’s productivity.
Don’t get me started on how bosses want people to return to the office as a means to justify THEIR jobs…
Uatu 12:20 on 2023-02-19 Permalink
Yeah I think I meant 4 day office week. I think it’s because I know people like nurses that have 3 or 4 day weeks (but they also work 12 hour shifts.) I find that I’m more productive at home because I don’t have to commute anywhere and I can set my own pace which means I can get everything done by waking up early leaving my afternoons open for whatever I want. And I agree with steph- wfh pretty much exposes the irrelevance of middle management bullsht jobs.
GC 16:18 on 2023-02-19 Permalink
There have been some offices that have moved to having their employees only work four days per week, in total, but I would think they are still very much the exception in North America. (So probably not common enough to have a major impact on commuting.) In my circle, I think I know of only two people who work for companies who have done this–and neither one is in Montreal.