Montreal City Weblog

Kate 18:17 on 2025-11-16 Permalink Reply  

• Benoit 18:45 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  They run end to end from Brossard (not Panama) to Deux-Montagnes

• Kate 18:55 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  Thank you.

  It isn’t Panama?

• Blork 18:58 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  Wow, that’s fantastic. I thought they were two separate lines.

  I’m sad that the REM is basically of no use to me at all, from where I live in Longueuil. (It would take me an hour or more just to get to Panama station by bus. Even driving to it is 20 minutes at the best of times, and it’s never the best of times.)

• GC 18:58 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  Panama is one of the stations, Kate, but not the final one.

• MarcG 19:00 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  And in the future, people coming from Anse-à-l’Orme line stations and the airport will have to switch at Bois-Franc to continue heading downtown?

• Blork 19:11 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  Yes, the terminus is the Brossard station (one past Panama), which is colloquially the Dix30 station because Dix30 is just a short walk away. That area around the Brossard station has sprouted up a bunch of Griffintownesque residential buildings in the past few years. The transformation has been pretty remarkable given that not long before the Pandemic it was just a field. To wit: https://maps.app.goo.gl/aMCxnfkvjn4bPZby7

• MarcG 19:14 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  I think that the Dix30 stop is called Du Quartier and the actual terminus named Brossard is just next door and basically serves as a carpark and repair station?

• Blork 19:14 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  My mistake: Panama is two stops before the terminus. In between is the “du Quartier” stop, which is the Dix30 one.

• Blork 19:15 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  Correct, MarcG. (You beat me by a few seconds.)

• Nicholas 22:05 on 2025-11-16 Permalink

  I realized today that the Cartier metro station in Laval and the du Quartier REM station in Brossard sound the same when pronounced if you ignore the du, which people do. Seems unfortunate.

• DeWolf 00:16 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  @MarkG All trains will run to Brossard, so no, people coming from the West Island or airport branches will not need to change trains. It’s in the opposite direction when the trains branch off to their various destinations at Bois-Franc.

• MarcG 08:14 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  @DeWolf: Thanks, that’s great.

• James 10:06 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  Just to add what @DeWolf said to @MarcG, if you are coming from any of the 3 branches (DM / SADB / airport) but you want to go to north to one of the remaining two branches, you need to change trains at Bois-Franc which admittedly is a bit of a detour.
  If you are going north from the centre branch (Brossard -> Bois-Franc), you need to make sure to get on the train going to the branch you want.
  When fully operational, the service pattern northbound will be :
  T1: train from Brossard to Deux-Montagnes
  T2: train from Brossard to Anse-à-Lorme
  T3: train from Brossard to Deux-Montagnes
  T4: train from Brossard to Airport
  repeat…

• Kate 10:15 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  Thank you, James

• MarcG 10:15 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  Same idea if you’re going from, say Kirkland, to the airport, you’ll have to go to Bois-Franc, switch, and head back west? The idea of needing to choose the right train when you get on is kind of weird and will confuse tourists but for everyday users not having to switch is pretty sweet.

• Mark 10:27 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  I have to say, I’ve been skeptical and somewhat critical of this overall project. The fact that it sort of cannibalizes the other bus/train lines, the “private” ownership of the tunnel, the need to high ROI instead of transit planning, all the concerns that we shared on this blog since 2016. But I have to say that this extension makes sense, and will continue to make sense as it connects to the airport. It felt like the REM to the South Shore was just replacing buses, but now it’s for Montreal. It’s a project that brings some excitement and a new dimension to transit in the city that we desperately need in the context of under funding. That being said, I’m still concerned that there is a lot of money for flashy projects (not that the blue line is flashy, but it does serve as a ribbon cutting experience for politicians, as did the REM)…….and seriously not enough money to run the metro and buses which anchor the whole system. But for now, yay for the REM.

• Kate 12:29 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  MarcG: We’ve been conditioned by the simplicity of the Montreal metro system: if you’re on the right platform, you simply take the next train. But in a lot of places, trains using the same platform can be going to different termini.

• CE 13:18 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  Choosing different trains on the same platform is pretty normal. Tourists are often surprised by how simple the system here is.

• GC 15:17 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  For sure. Even subways in some places, like New York, will have different trains using the same platform. I think most tourists will be used to it.

  Also, if one somehow gets on the wrong one, they can always get off at Bois-Franc or whatever and still switch to the correct branch.

• MarcG 15:36 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  My provincialism is showing. TIL!

• Nicholas 17:08 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  Our system is very simple that way, but we do already have some things like this. The three CP line Exo trains (Vaudreuil, St Jerome, Candiac) work like this. The Orange Line was built so half the trains short turn at Henri Bourassa. And there are also buses that short turn (24) and effectively branch even if they have different numbers (104/138). But I agree that the vast majority of our transit doesn’t do this, making things very simple.

• Kate 19:03 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  I forgot about the orange line’s short turn, thanks for reminding me. So anyone who wants to get to Laval by metro would have to keep that in mind.

  A thing I’ve never understood is the city buses with “École” up front, like some 193 buses on Jarry at certain times of day. That bus does serve a couple of big high schools, but I don’t know what else happens with them, and I’ve never tried to board one.

• Nicholas 21:03 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  I should say during rush hour for the Orange Line, otherwise it always goes to Laval.

  The École buses, sometimes marked X (193X), are buses that run some portion of the regular route to/from a school, but are open to the public. I took one coming home from high school: the bus would start at a stop near the school that was different from the regular stop (and not at the beginning of the line, this was halfway along, and about 100 m from the regular line), and would leave ten minutes after the bell and then run the route towards the metro, making regular stops. Regular buses would continue to run the regular route too. Anyone could use any bus (though a regular driver not wanting to let me on hit me with his bus). The reverse happens in the morning, with it leaving a metro and going to the school and then ending its run and going hors service.

  They do this because they know there will be a lot of kids, enough to fill most of the bus, so it’s extra service. And sometimes regular people don’t want to be on a bus with rambunctious high schoolers (partly guilty), so it solves two problems. But you’re welcome to try!

  I once was at St Luc high school in NDG around the ending bell and there were something like 5 École STM buses: 51, 66, 102, 103 (I think two of them). Note that some of these buses are a few blocks from their regular route, and the bus could divert even farther if needbe. They look at the number of kids taking each bus and if they need more they schedule more, but usually that’s figured out early in each school year and mostly doesn’t change year to year. I suppose they could run a single bus to/from two schools on the same run, but I don’t know if they do.

• GC 21:11 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  I had no idea that some of the orange line trains don’t go all the way to Laval. I’ve only taken the metro there maybe five times, in total, and usually on the weekend.

• Nicholas 23:51 on 2025-11-17 Permalink

  Sorry, I should have said only half the rush hour trains went to Laval pre-covid. Back when they were running trains every 90-100 seconds, they decided they did not want to send all trains to Laval, for cost or capacity reasons. So they decided that when trains were running that often, only half would go to Laval. But turning every other train at Henri Bourassa would be tricky: you just had 90 seconds to get it emptied, past the station, reversed, and then inserted back into the southbound stream between other trains. A small delay would cause interference and mess up one or either direction. So they instead built a third platform at Henri Bourassa, which handles trains to Laval, and then trains terminating at Henri Bourassa use the old platform, while southbound isn’t changed. But now they don’t run trains frequently enough, and I believe Laval transit use is up proportionately compared to 2007 given the increased density, so they run everything to Laval.

• GC 08:54 on 2025-11-18 Permalink

  OK. Thanks for clarifying.