Comments on: Construction of the Train de l’Est begins – at 87,000$ per commuter

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 02:29:20 +0000

Interesting. Maybe the reason the suburban agencies are more willing to coordinate bus and train is that it is much more financially advantageous for them to do so.

See, the TRAM revenues are divided between all the participating agencies based on ridership. Therefore, agencies make more money selling local passes like the CAM. Now, suburban riders are going to have to get a TRAM anyways so there’s no loss in sending people to the train. In fact, there’s a gain because they’re onboard for a shorter ride but you’re paid by net ridership.

On the other hand, Montrealers who don’t have a good train connection will buy the CAM instead of the TRAM, netting the STM more money. However, if the STM did provide good bus-train connectivity, it would need to carry those passengers a shorter distance which is cheaper. Hopefully, the financial incentive or at least a political incentive is there for the STM to offer good connections in the East End. I don’t think the city of Montreal will be too pleased if their own residents can’t take the train they just paid to build. (The lines in the West Island are 90 and 130 years old, so there is no attachment there)

Construction has only started on the Montreal-Repentigny portion of the line, so there is hope still that the AMT may reverse its decision. I sincerely hope this happens before next year when construction starts on the Mascouche-Repentigny portion.

By: ant6n

ant6n — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 20:56:01 +0000

Agreed. I didn’t even get into the suburban portion of this track alignment (the post was getting long). The segment in the Middle of the Highway is both a replication of existing tracks, and an expensive detour. Just from the AMT image (above) one can easily see that the Laval line is much shorter. And in the long term the Laval branch might get developed, which would make this detour a bit useless.

The only advantage I can see is that the AMT is going to own that track, so they don’t have to pay CN or negotiate between freight to use that line.

Re buses: Every rail expansion should come with a bus-feeder concept. Park-and-ride is not enough. I still think new stations should be added at Viau, St Michel (as you pointed out), but also at Papineau. The others are more optional.

I wonder whether the many bad bus-train connections are due to some sort of agency-turf related issues.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 17:55:29 +0000

Excellent post! Yes, the Train de l’Est will attract many more than 11000 commuters. Those 11000 are for just those 18 departures a day. If we expanded it to 40, ridership would scale up accordingly.

I think one of the key problems with the line is the Mascouche-Repentigny segment. This is what is making the project expensive. The AMT feels that it needs to combine ridership from both markets to make the line successful, which is utterly false. The Repentigny branch, as you pointed out, is strikingly urban. It could also be extended east into L’Assomption or possibly Joliette along existing tracks. And the Mascouche branch would benefit from the ridership in Eastern Laval if the line were routed through there on existing tracks.

I agree with you that a few more stations are needed to serve urban markets, which will be huge ridership generators. Perhaps with all the additional departures increased ridership would ensue, we could have express trains serving the suburbs. Stops are definitely needed at Saint-Michel and Viau to intersect frequent bus lines, but that’s all I think. However, we must also count on the STM to offer trainbus services tailored specifically to getting people to the trains. If train ridership in urban areas is weak, it’s because of the STM and not because of poor planning on the part of the AMT. If the STM’s weak train-bus connectivity in the West Island is any indication, we can expect people to have a hard time accessing the train in the east end.

Another thing, we should go back to having STM passes work on Zone 1, and possibly even Zone 2 trains. This would offer the financial incentive we need to assure good urban rail ridership.