Montreal’s Pie-IX BRT

Starting November 7, Montreal’s new BRT service will run between Saint-Martin boulevard in Laval and Pierre-De Coubertin in Montreal.

The 13-km BRT line will serve eastern Laval and cross through four Montreal boroughs, offering transfers to the Green metro line (Pie-IX station), STL services in Laval and the exo5 commuter train line to Mascouche (St-Michel-Montréal-Nord station).

 Since these buses will be using exclusive reserved lanes, they will not be slowed by vehicle traffic and will be given priority by traffic lights throughout the route.

What?

In Vancouver the City of Vancouver and TransLink say that LRT on Broadway would cause massive traffic disruptions and congestion!
At the time of commissioning, 28 BRT shelters will be available (there will eventually be 38) and will be accessible to those with functional limitations. New traffic infrastructure, including pedestrian crossing lights with digital and audio countdown will allow pedestrians to cross to shelters safely. Laval users will get a 750-space parking lot encouraging them to leave their cars behind. An immediate improvement in user comfort comes thanks to bus shelters that can accommodate 100 people simultaneously, simplifying ascent and descent.

The $390 million project will get riders from Laval to the Olympic Stadium in record time and will relieve of the pressure on north-south traffic, the city counting on 70,000 people using it daily (pre-pandemic data) with metro rush hour frequency. Over time, the STM will adjust the BRT rollout according to the change in post-pandemic ridership, active STM-led worksites as well as those under the responsibility of the MTQ at the Pie-IX Bridge and de la Concorde.

This busway will move more people upon opening  per day (70,000 per day), than $4.5 Billion Surrey to Langley Skytrain extension or the Broadway B-Line express bus.

Cheaper (officially  $390 million, includes a new bridge to Laval) than the Skytrain,  moves more people and as a light to medium capacity busway can handle up to 150,000 per day. Convert it to a full capability surface LRT line you get even more passenger capacity as well as the lower operating costs of rail.

 

Toronto's MetroLinx 50 year cost comparison of BRT and LRT

Toronto’s MetroLinx 50 year cost per km. comparison of BRT and LRT

 The full graphic.

Cost comparisonThis begs the question: Why build with BRT, when for just a few dollars more, one can build with LRT and have all the benefits that come with light rail?

 

Screenshot 2022-10-19 at 06-32-57 Montreal’s Pie-IX BRT service to begin Nov. 7The picture of Pie IX Blvd. shows how easily a busway or a surface LRT line would fit on a 6 lane road like Broadway.

Montreal’s Pie-IX BRT service to begin Nov. 7

Oct. 17, 2022
The first portion of the bus rapid transit line will open in early November as part of a gradual commissioning of the line.

The Pie-IX Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line will begin service on Nov. 7 as part of a gradual opening of the full line. Buses will operation between Saint-Martin in Laval and Pierre-De Coubertin Avenue in Montréal. The exceptions to this service will be in the Jean-Talon area where a pedestrian tunnel to the future Blue Line remains under construction and the Pie-IX bridge where renovations will be completed in 2023.

The 13-kilometer (eight-mile) Pie-IX BRT project is a joint effort between the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM), the City of Montréal, the Ministère des Transports (MTQ), the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), and their partners, the City of Laval, the Société de transport de Laval (STL), exo, the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) and the boroughs served by the projects.The line features traffic signal priority and reserved lanes to speed STM, STL and exo buses; accessible bus shelters with pedestrian safety enhancements and a new fare structure between zones. At the opening of the line, it will have 28 stops, but eventually include 38 stops.

The BRT will also offer transfers to the métro Green line (Pie-IX station), STL services in Laval and the exo5 commuter train line to Mascouche (St-Michel-Montréal-Nord station).

Comments

2 Responses to “Montreal’s Pie-IX BRT”
  1. Haveacow says:

    Well the news broke last night and it hit Ottawa like a bomb. Federal funding is going to be cut to reign in our yearly budget deficit. The expected effect on infrastructure funding is a drop in new federal infrastructure funding by 25% -50% per year. Existing agreements will be honoured.

    However, that means no increase in federal funding for the SLS Extension Project (Surrey to Langley Skytrain Extension Project) regardless of the expected increases in capital (construction) costs. The province of B.C. will have to cover 100% of all future cost increases for the SLS project. Remember, you guys haven’t tendered the project yet to outside budders or given the cost of O.M.C. #5 which will add its costs (the last estimate was $530 million) to the existing $4.01 Billion budget of the project.

    For the period of 1997-2028, the federal government has provided / will provide, an average of $113.2 million to build 742 metres of Skytrain/Canada Line per year. The federal percentage of total project funding has been at an average of 31.3%. Unfortunately, the actual total federal financial coverage of major rapid transit projects, for each project, has been steadily dropping from 33% for the first stage of the Millennium Line, to 28.8% for the SLS extension. Since 1997 the inflation rate that the federal government has been covering is an average of 8% (7.98%) per year. This will not continue indefinitely.

    So the amount of federal funding is going to drop for rapid transit projects nationally, believed to be 25% – 50%, that means, unless your cities and provinces are going to pick up the slack, the building rate of multi-billion rapid transit projects is going to slow down dramatically. Therefore lower cost projects are going to replace the extreme higher cost ones. Fewer subways/heavy rail metro and light metro projects (like Skytrain) more simpler, cheaper BRT and LRT projects. Projects that will most likely be almost completely on surface routes, mainly due to cost. For example, BRT and LRT projects like the Pie IX BRT Extension in Montreal/Laval or Finch Avenue West, Eglinton Crosstown East extension and the Eastern Waterfront LRT projects in Toronto.

  2. Na Na says:

    can’t believe how my #99 crosstown peak-hours shuttle there ended up becoming this country’s busiest bus route..! the REM, btw, is ever-cleptoparasitic corporateers’ relaunch of the Expo-Express, which was how they lumped robo shuttles upon us good earthlings

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