STM announces new reserved lane for buses and taxis on Sherbrooke St. West

Press release

The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is pleased to announce that a new reserved lane for buses and taxis will be operational on Sherbrooke St. West as of next Monday, June 2. This measure will benefit some 18,000 trips taken daily by customers who ride aboard the 105 – Sherbrooke and 420 – Express Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, 51 – Édouard-Montpetit, 162 – Westminster, 138 – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and 17 – Décarie bus lines.

Montréal, May 29, 2014 –  The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is pleased to announce that a new reserved lane for buses and taxis will be operational on Sherbrooke St. West as of next Monday, June 2. This measure will benefit some 18,000 trips taken daily by customers who ride aboard the 105 – Sherbrooke and 420 – Express Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, 51 – Édouard-Montpetit, 162 – Westminster, 138 – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and 17 – Décarie bus lines.

With an overall length of 5.9 km (both directions combined), the reserved lane extends from Elmhurst to Girouard to the east and will be operational from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m., and from Addington to West Broadway to the west, for the afternoon rush hour, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. Once the roadwork carried out by the MTQ on the Saint-Jacques overpass is completed, the reserved lane will be further extended, from Elmhurst to Décarie Boulevard to the east, and again from Botrel (A-15 North on-ramp) to West Broadway, for a total of 6.4 km. The addition of bus priority signals for off-peak periods is also planned by the city of Montréal, in a second phase of work later this year.

« Deploying a new reserved lane in a sector that already has a number of major work sites was only made possible by working closely with our partners, the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) who is funding 100% of the project, the Borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and the city of Montréal, » declared STM board chairman, Philippe Schnobb.

« Our customers will benefit from this preferential treatment as it will ensure more reliable and consistent travel times, while reducing them by about 10% on average, » added STM board vice-chairman, Marvin Rotrand.

« The work sites within our borough and in the surrounding sectors are exerting considerable pressure on the network of roads and highways, particularly in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood. We believe that this new reserved lane for public transit will help ease traffic congestion in our area, » explained Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough mayor, Russell Copeman.

« This good news is in line with our commitment to making public transit a priority and will help to improve its ability to compete, » mentioned Aref Salem, member of Montréal’s executive committee and in charge of transportation.

Bus priority measures (BPM) consist of installations on the road system that ensure priority is given to public transportation, thereby improving the reliability and on-time delivery of service. They include reserved lanes and bus priority traffic signals. So far, the STM has reserved lanes on 160 km of roadways and some 107 intersections are equipped with priority traffic signals. The STM hopes to reach its target of deploying bus priority measures over 375 km by 2017.

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Picture caption, from left to right : Philippe Schnobb, président du conseil d’administration de la STM; Aref Salem, membre du comité exécutif de la Ville de Montréal et responsable du transport; Marvin Rotrand, conseiller de la ville, district de Snowdon et vice-président du conseil d’administration de la STM; Peter McQueen, conseiller de la ville, district de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce; Russell Copeman, maire de l’arrondissement de Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce; et Marc Bélanger, directeur - Planification et développement des réseaux à la STM.


 

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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