The oldest ship belonging to the Royal Canadian Navy is docked in the Old Port for two days, and can be visited.
Updates from August, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The well regarded small Juliette & Chocolat chain has closed its stores. Some details from TVA about how soaring expenses suddenly overtook the previously successful business.
jeather
I’ve gone to them occasionally, even since the pandemic, and I’ll miss the chance. Their milkshakes got turned into silly season instagram bait, but their hot chocolate was great.
Josh
My wife and I went there on our second date. Sad.
EmilyG
I have nice memories of spending time there with friends. It’s sad to see it go.
MarcG
My wife’s birthday is in November and a couple of times I’ve given her the gift of being led blindly around the Plateau – dropping in at the Word for some books, cat café for some cats, fun lunch somewhere, that kind of thing, and Juliette & Chocolat for hot chocolate was always on the list. The crepes were good, too.
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Kate
A fire noticed early Tuesday at the future Canora REM station is being investigated. CTV says it’s apparently arson. Well, that’s a new one for the incidents map.
Forgetful
Some pundits/columnist are now saying it could be eco-terrorists, anti-gentrification activists or anti-transit NIMBYS… seems far-fetched, I’m thinking it’s just willful arson, but honestly the way this project has been talked in the press and social media, maybe some people could have been radicalized to that extent.
Kate
Eco-terrorists should support the REM, since it’s all electric powered. There have been solid arguments all along against how the REM was implanted – the profit‑based premise, the monopoly including the seizure of the Mount Royal tunnel – there have been aspects to argue with, but they weren’t primarily environmental ones.
I can just see it – “Nice light rail system you’ve got here – pity if something happened to it…”
Taylor
Any links to those pundits placing the blame on eco-terrorists, anti-gentrification activists or anti-transit NIMBYS?
Ian
I suppose eco-terrorsits could be opposed to the REM as it jogs north of the 40 in the west, promoting new development and urban sprawl…I’m just speculating here, but maybe the line to the airport is an issue as it promotes air travel?
It could also just be kids screwing around.Anton
They could also be protesting the privatization of public transit infrastructure and how monopolizing the Mount Royal tunnel and gare Centrale means no future transit project can use them, capping the utilization of these at rather medium ridership levels and making potential future projects more expensive / very difficult and thus unsuccessful (cf Eastern REM, Via TGF, more transit-like commuter rail).
…Nah, too complicated.
Joey
@Anton could the tunnel be used for other routes/lines if the Caisse were involved? Or are there technical limitations that have been implemented that can’t be undone?
Uatu
I’m thinking it’s probably bored teenagers who were high. I knew some kids who grew up in TMR and you wouldn’t believe the stuff they did.
Anton
Well, the Caisse owns the infra, so that’s a big hurdle.
Technically I’d say sharing is relative difficult at this point.
The signaling and electrification wasn’t chosen to be very compatible with heavy rail. This could probably be solved, but it’s an annoying choice by the rem folks.
The part of gare Centrale that could connect into the tunnel would have to be reconfigured (there used to be 6? tracks that connect into the tunnel, 2 are used now, the rest are used for REM ops?). The REM could’ve been set up to use the middle tracks and leave 2 tracks free on each side for heavy rail, but they didn’t.
The width of the REM trains is only 2.95m, vs 3.05m for RTM bilevels, 3.2m for the new VIA rail cars, so those cars won’t be able to fit past Edouard Montpetits platforms. One could reconfigure the station and perhaps use gauntlet tracks, but that’s a hack. The REM could’ve been specced with 3.2m cars, but it wasn’t.
The area south of gare Centrale would need to be set up to have separate heavy rail and rem operations. The rem wasn’t set up for that really well – in particular, the ramp starting across the canal doesn’t leave space for an extra track between the the heritage CN building and the rem ramp/bridge. That would be an expensive fix. They could’ve designed that area with sharing in mind, but they didn’t.
The northern insertion of heavy rail would probably make most sense around canora (as planned way back by the AMT, when they wanted to bring the st Jerome line into the gare centrale). That connection would need to be a tunnel connecting to another, which wouldn’t be easy to do without heavy shut downs of the REM. If they had prepared said connection along with the REM construction, it could’ve been done at the same time with very little impact, now the construction impact would be so large that it won’t be done.
If sharing had been part of the planning from the beginning, the marginal cost and effort would’ve been relatively small, maybe .5-1B$. Now it’s very difficult, would involve a lot of impact on the REM. The cost of a new tunnel and downtown station would probably be 5-10B$, if recent cost estimates for other projects are anything to go by.
One VIA guy I know used to say about sharing and cdpqinfra: “if you make it impossible, it will be very difficult”.
Anton
@ Uatu
Perhaps the easiest way to get more lines into the tunnel is to convert the commuter lines to REM technology. Which perhaps explains the approach cdpqinfra took with the REM.Kelila
I am hoping for gentrification of that area because honestly I live nearby but on the worst street in Cote Des Neiges. It would be nice to spruce up the area. I am guessing rents might go up since the rem station is closer to that area than the nearest metro station. I would rather see high rents if that means people running the trap house apartments gets pushed out. Believe me I never seen a neighborhood this bad, I used to be against gentrification but living in and around the slum of the city makes me take account of what is more important, money or safety.
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Kate
The bus lane on Samuel‑De Champlain bridge has been abolished with the arrival of the REM.
Faiz Imam
It’s just a shoulder with indication screens above, seems to me that it can convert back and forth with a couple of mouse clicks.
So in an emergency they could reactivate it if needed pretty quick.
Forgetful
It definitely makes sense to remove the lanes, but I’m not too confident in the ability of all parties involved (Signature Champlain, STM, REM, RTL, exo) to coordinate when shuttles need to run on the bridge. CDPQ owns stocks in Keolis no? They should just charter some Keolis bus and have a SINGLE shuttle line for the REM (not 3-4 as they do now) just like the STM, and be the only point of contact with Signature Champlain.
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Kate
Although work on the station is continuing, the Ste‑Catherine entrance to Berri‑UQÀM metro reopens Tuesday after being closed since November.
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Kate
Brendan Kelly continues with his quite conscious project to spoil the city’s quieter summer spots, with a look at pedestrianized de Castelnau.
DeWolf
I don’t think enough people read the Gazette for it to make a difference.
JP
And the ones who do…probably don’t care much for pedestrianization and will not go out of their way to visit. But now that I see this posted here, I will explore the area at some point this summer 🙂
Kate
It’s a nice area but only a couple of short blocks of pedestrianization. Kelly doesn’t mention the Le Marquis bakery, which does everything non‑gluten, not something you’ll find everywhere. Also Les Givrés has a good selection of non‑dairy sorbets.
Also, on the far side of St‑Denis is Ferlucci, a good café, but the pedestrianization doesn’t extend on that side.
DeWolf
With the big revamp planned for the next couple of years, the pedestrianized part will be made into a permanent plaza (whether there will be car access is still not clear, but if there is it will just be one lane with no parking). The part in front of Ferlucci will be redone as well with wider sidewalks and a permanent bike path instead of the painted lane that exists now.
There are also big plans to completely redo the street west of St-Laurent, but it feels so disconnected from de Castelnau East it might as well have a different name.
Ian
Marquis is awesome. My wife has the double misfortune of being gluten intolerant and having a birthday during the construction holiday – Marquis is one of the few places that actually makes (really, really) good gluten-free cakes that is open in late July. Lots of fun murals and stuff in the area, too.
Kate
DeWolf, that’s interesting info. And you’re right, de Castelnau West is an entirely different kind of street. They’ll also have to deal with that ridiculous split‑up intersection next to the metro station.
DeWolf
A number of the comments published after the public consultation had to do with that intersection. It’s really terrible, but unfortunately it’s only covered by phase 2 of the work (post-2026), along with the stretches of Hutchison and Ogilvy adjacent to Parc metro. So we’ll have to put up with it for quite a few more years…
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Kate
The construction holiday is over, and it saw 22 people die on Quebec roads, nearly equalling the record 23 deaths that were counted in 2011.
maxime prati 17:12 on 2023-08-10 Permalink
Misère…Went to see the ship with the familly, no one from the public allowed on deck….
Kate 17:50 on 2023-08-10 Permalink
I’m sorry, Maxime. I guess the journalist on that story was given bad information.