Wednesday’s rainstorm stopped the REM for an hour at 2 pm because of a power failure, and water infiltrated the stopped train.
Updates from August, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Bus routes on Nuns’ Island have been redrawn to focus everything on the REM, and some there are not happy – like some Brossard dwellers – that it takes longer to commute than it used to. The STM is promising to make further adjustments to keep riders happy.
Orr
I’d like to know what is the # of cars removed from Pont Champlain/autoroute Bonaventure because of the REM is.
Uatu
Work from home has probably removed more cars than the REM. No buses across the Champlain and into town is the bigger change on bridge traffic from the REM.
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Kate
Toula Drimonis writes about the three Montreal activists who’ve been commemorated with postage stamps.
(I find the typography harsh but the subject is a good one.)
Blork
One of them — Simonne Monet-Chartrand — was the spouse of Michel Chartrand, mentioned a few posts ago (union chief who is getting the prominade in LaSalle named after him).
Ian
I don’t mind the typography – I see it as a nod to old political letterpress posters with a kind of 90s Paula Scher (Pentagram) vibe. A bit old school, a bit fierce, totally communicating the urgency and celebration motifs.
Orr
Simonne Monet-Chartrand has a park named after her around Sherbrooke & St-Christophe.
Google streetview pic notes wearing high-heeled shoes there may be problematic.
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Kate
The city has made it official that Sir John A. Macdonald won’t be returning to Place du Canada although the plinth will remain, and the statue may be displayed somewhere else with interpretive material explaining why he is no longer honoured.
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Kate
Enough rain is falling that it’s flooding roads and closing autoroutes.
Meezly
It’s really been an unusually rainy summer.
Kate
Just now it was raining hard enough for the water in the toilet to be sloshing around, although luckily not spilling over. I’ve been in this ground-floor flat since 2005 and this has happened before, although not in recent years.
maggie rose
Later in the day, around 2pm, we had a strong down-burst of rain in NDG that went on unabated for about 15 minutes – with hail the sized of grapes. Was a bit scary, or I’m just getting old.
Mozai
There’s someone posting weather high-score tables to reddit, including data from Montreal. July 2023 got the high score for most rain during a July. Thirty-year average is 9cm, and we saw 21cm. https://redd.it/15lhn2g
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Kate
Three cars were torched last night near a house in Kirkland. My incident map includes a lot of other probable arsons, which I pin there and don’t always add to the blog.
bumper carz
“The arsonists were treated for shock but sustained no injuries.”
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Kate
A tramway for the east end, projected to cost $4 billion, is being proposed by a collective of experts and residents.
Forgetful
THE GOOD
The group is right to say that the ARTM mandate for the PSE was initially too limited. The provincial and municipal governments probably didn’t want to put to waste years of work from CDPQ Infra, so I can understand why they asked the ARTM to piggyback on the REM de l’Est for the PSE. But the PSE is simply not working within the same legal and financial parameters as the Caisse REM de l’Est, and is more susceptible to reactionary opposition and political interference.
THE BAD
The proposal is just egregious. They severely underestimate costs, and that’s not even accounting for the inflation cycle we’re in. $4B just doesn’t line up with similar projects in North America. Even with its own right-of-way and signal priority, the speed estimates seem delusively optimistic. I feel that like groups such as the CEM-E either don’t understand trams, or simply are against metros, especially if not buried, but don’t want to appear strictly oppositional (there’s a lot of overlap with people protesting social housing, or density around rapid transit stations for… environmental reasons).
LRT is either unfairly derided or touted as some kind of transit wunderkind interchangeable with metros, buses, and regional rail, when it’s really not. It’s a little infuriating that we have people pushing for tram where trams are likely not a good option, and people railing against or stalling really good tram projects.
vasi
Does anyone know if a copy of the proposal is online? It’s super unclear to me whether they’re envisioning a separates right of way, or if it’s run-of-traffic.
Orr
As a cyclist I really don’t like the idea of rail tracks embedded in city streets.
Uatu 10:25 on 2023-08-31 Permalink
I was wondering about that gap between the train doors and the station and how it’ll be freezing cold in the winter and snow might get in. I guess my questions were answered.
Orr 13:23 on 2023-08-31 Permalink
All major large-scale engineering projects have teething problems, and the rem is no different, and teams of very smart people are working to solve them as they arise.
Some people might be surprised to learn that rail passenger transport has been operating successfully going on for two hundred years, and even in winter in nordic countries.