Protest held against end of metro accessibility
Quebec has ended its program of funding accessibility to metro stations in Montreal. A thirty‑first station’s elevators will be completed in 2026, and that will be that. A protest was held at Papineau station Wednesday evening.
EmilyG 22:11 on 2024-10-30 Permalink
Montreal can be such a disabled-unfriendly city. I don’t know if many non-disabled people realize it.
Annette 01:04 on 2024-10-31 Permalink
Most cities can be challenging – but in Montreal it’s a choice. The blue line was built elevator-free in the ’80s. The very designers/engineers would be quite elderly now, maybe have mobility issues. Their own stations are inaccessible to them.
Nicholas 01:06 on 2024-10-31 Permalink
Montreal will soon hold the distinction of having the only public transit in Canada inaccessible to people in wheelchairs or reduced mobility. Toronto has 13 subway stations left to do, with 9 planned to finish next year and three planned for 2026Q1, and one with an unknown date. Toronto also has three train stations left to do, all in various stages of progress. Montreal’s next step for the metro, which is now fully unfunded, was to do five stations through 2030. For $270 million, which is an extraordinary price. Only one train line is accessible, with very slow lifts, and that line, brand new, may be shut down completely. It’s absolutely disgraceful.
But every time I suggest that because no one else will pay for this we pay for it locally, and take our destiny into our own hands, I hear there are other priorities, no one wants higher taxes, etc. I sure hope my body continues to let me climb stairs, and can’t imagine what it’s like for those who can’t. How shameful, all around.
vasi 01:11 on 2024-10-31 Permalink
This is very disappointing, I had no idea this program had an end planned! But 31 stations won’t be all, nevertheless—whenever the blue line extension finishes, those stations will presumably be accessible. 2045, here we come!
MarcG 09:19 on 2024-10-31 Permalink
Disabled people are just another minority who are not welcome in a homogeneous ethnostate.
carswell 09:37 on 2024-10-31 Permalink
Suspecting we’ll be seeing a lot more of this retrograde thinking imposed by the CAQ as they head toward the exit. They know it’s probably their last chance to permanently reshape society. Chunks of the healthcare system that are privatized are unlikely to be renationalized; expressways they build aren’t going to be torn down.
Am also wondering if Legault isn’t counting on Poilievre to save his sorry ass in exchange for the CAQ’s open or tacit support of the Cons in the upcoming federal election. To ensure a Conservative victory and stay in power, Poilievre will gladly grant Quebec many of the powers it’s been clamouring for, as it fits with his provinces’ rights plan to dismantle much of the federal government and gut federal regulations, especially ones affecting big oil. With the Cons in power in Ottawa this year (and, yes, walkerp, it’s not a given but…), the CAQ will have a year or longer to say “Look at what we’ve accomplished — Quebec is in complete control of immigration, has a free hand to do what it wants to anglos and allos and has got the feds to butt out of most of our ‘national’ affairs. Vote for us.”