The STM begins work to open three reserved lanes

Montréal, May 1^st, 2014 – The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) has begun work to open up three new reserved lanes along sections of Sherbrooke West, Grenet and Viau streets over the next few months.

‘Implementing these reserved lanes is totally consistent with our determination to increase bus preferential measures so that they extend over 375 km by 2017. By this time, these measures should improve fluidity for more than 700,000 passenger rides per day. Indeed, these measures present numerous advantages. They enable us to provide transit users with more efficient, regular and on-time bus service, cut travel times by 10% to 20%, and have a significant impact on the environment by lowering our greenhouse gas emissions, while costing much less than other types of public transit infrastructure,‘ declared Philippe Schnobb, chairman of the STM board of directors.

‘This announcement is the result of close cooperation between our partners, namely the affected boroughs, the city of Montréal and the STM. The implementation of such bus preferential measures represents an investment of over $2 M, entirely funded by the MTQ, as part of our public transit assistance program. Its ultimate goal is still to encourage existing customers to continue using public transit as often as possible, while providing motorists with a real alternative to single occupant car use,’ added Robert Poëti, Minister of Transport and Minister Responsible for Montréal.

Reserved lane on Sherbrooke West
Work along a section of Sherbrooke West is set to begin in May and should be completed in June. Extending over 6.4 km (both directions combined), the lane will be used by the 105 – Sherbrooke and 420 – Express Notre-Dame-de-Grâce bus lines. It will be operational from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m., heading east between Elmhurst and Girouard, and from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., heading west between Addington and West Broadway, Monday to Friday. Furthermore, in the second phase of deployment, the city of Montréal is planning on adding bus priority traffic signals during off-peak periods. These measures will benefit nearly 18,000 passenger rides daily.

Reserved lanes on Grenet and Viau
Work on Grenet will follow later this summer on a 4.9 km reserved lane (both directions combined). This is a busy corridor for public transit, with eight bus lines serving it, in whole or in part, including the 64 – Grenet and 468 – Express Pierrefonds/Gouin bus lines. Work on Viau, also planned for this summer, will result in two sections of reserved lane extending over a total of 5.8 km (both directions combined) mainly used by the 136 – Viau bus line. Work on Viau will include a reserved lane for buses and bikes, between Rosemont Boulevard and Pierre-de-Coubertin, as a pilot project to see if and how the two forms of transportation can share the road.

Use of sections of shoulder by buses along Highway 40 
As announced last week, STM buses now use a new preferential measure established by Transport Québec on the shoulder of Highway 40. In the event of traffic congestion, buses can travel in both directions along designated sections between Cavendish Boulevard in Saint-Laurent and Saint-Charles Boulevard in Kirkland. As such, the STM’s 72 – Alfred-Nobel, 220 - Kieran, 470 – Express Pierrefonds and 475 – Express Dollard-des-Ormeaux bus lines benefit from this measure.

The STM reminds that bus preferential measures consist of adapting the road network so that public transit has priority over other traffic, thereby improving the efficiency and on-time performance of bus service. By December 31, 2013, the STM had achieved or nearly completed the deployment of priority measures along 190 km of roads.

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Isabelle A. Tremblay
Direction principale – Affaires publiques
Société de transport de Montréal (STM)
Téléphone : (514) 280-4940
isabelle.tremblay@stm.info