That plaza underneath the motorway is a fantastic example of how to make underpasses feel safe and accessible. It's incredibly wide which makes it feel more like a covered square that a tunnel and the shallow approach means that you feel overlooked on all sides. Would I feel safe there at night? Maybe not completely but much more than if it were a narrow underpass tunnel.
On paper, it seemed like Ottawa was on its way to building a good system too - but looks like they bought some crappy - or at least inappropriate (ie trams, not metro/light rail) trains for the given workload.
I think one of the main reason is because the project was spearheaded by the CDPQ, which not only have to ensure a good return on investment (by creating high quality, attractive projects) but also have a mandate to improve society (by increasing quality of life). Still, mismanagement could had happened and i'm happy that they managed an incredible feat with this project.
Gare Centrale lore: It was designed by John Schofield, architect-in-chief of CNR or Canadian National Railway. Construction started in 1926 but was halted in 1930 as a result of the Great Depression. Construction resumed in 1939, the economy having improved. The then new station finally opened on July 14, 1943, as the first of a series of large-scale urban redevelopment projects undertaken by CNR and the federal government in Downtown Montreal. Along designing it and hotels for the railway, he also designed sports buildings including the Montreal Forum, several schools, churches, commercial buildings, and hospitals, as well as residential buildings in Montreal and Kingston, Ontario. When it comes to development on Nuns' Island/Île des Soeurs, the island was farmland used by nuns up until 1956 when they sold the island. In the same year, the provincial government merged it with Verdun. The nuns entirely left the island in 1957, and development didn't start until the original Champlain Bridge's opening in 1962 motivated such. A master plan had two phases, with the first leading to 3,000 inhabitants in 800 units. By the mid-1970s, significant areas to the south of the island were reclaimed from the St. Lawrence and eclectic constructions sprung in various parts of the island. Unsystematic construction has continued rapidly since then, and currently over 20,000 live on the island.
Yes I remember Nun's Island back in the 1960s when there was almost nothing there save for the tool booth and the highway connecting Verdun/Montreal and the original Champlain bridge. Then a high rise appartment was built along with the Esso gas station around 1968 or so.... Since then quite a bit has changed as far as the island was concerned.
Merci pour ta couverture positive et exhaustive de notre nouveau réseau de transport. Nous avons besoin gens qui expliquent et encouragent le transport en commun structurant. Votre expertise est toujours appréciée.
The massive parking lot at Brossard makes a lot of sense when you consider American tourists. The entire Bos-Wash corridor is within a half-day drive of Montreal and Brossard is directly on the way. Parking there for a weekend, taking REM into the City, and then spending the weekend car-free is an absolute delightful weekend trip.
I don't know if overnight parking is allowed at those lots and even if it is I wouldn't recommend leaving nice cars there unless you have an anti-theft GPS tracker that lets you monitor your car's whereabouts with your phone or a computer. There are sophisticated organized criminal theft rings and with Montreal being a port city, it'll be shipped overseas and sold.
@@safuu202the only direct train from the NEC to Montreal goes from New York, takes 13-14 hours and is pretty expensive. Until that line and more cross border railways are created driving will be the main way to travel
@@joelfrigon-henrichon5696 That's a shame. I guess I'll need to keep parking at Longueuil. Hopefully REM realizes this massive market soon and allows paid overnight parking.
That giant circle Bench is probably a recall of a similar bench in Berri-UQAM, where there is a Time Capsule inaugurated in 1966 when the Montreal metro opened.
About time this light metro opened! The absolute benefit of building elevated trains with platform screen doors is not only protecting people between stations with the complete grade-separation and inside stations with the platform screen doors, but also no accidents with cars would occur! When a car crash happens, it interrupts the rest of the system which is the case with the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail in Jersey City as they opted to have the Downtown Jersey City section of the system include at-grade crossings. These crossings are equipped with transit-signal priority signals to automatically change traffic lights in favor of the light rail, but that means nothing to drivers who think they can beat the train. Not to mention elevated trains add character to neighborhoods! Look at the iconic L in Chicago or the 7 train in Queens, NYC! Even MIAMI has an elevated metro and people made the arguments that it would be ugly and an eyesore when it was proposed yet nobody expressed the same outrage over the highway system in the city when it destroyed many neighborhoods! If they think trains ruin neighborhoods, they should go ask all the people of The Bronx who live along the Cross-Bronx Expressway about their health and all the noise and air pollution.
Meanwhile some of HK's elevated train stations are housed inside shopping malls with train tracks leading into & away from them cutting directly thru the mall
The stations look absolutely next level 🤩, most importantly though with great (automated!) services possible, without exorbitant costs and delays - systems around the world need to have a good hard look at this project, especially in North America and even in Europe, where costs are also out of control. Definitely on the bucket list!, have had an unhealthy interest in this project lol
I heard about exorbitant prices, what actually are the fares (including single tickets and subscriptions)? Though here in Germany we are privileged with the 49€-Ticket
@@jan-lukas what does 49€ get you? a standard zone 1 monthly transit pass in montreal is 97$ so, about 66.50€ So that won't take you off the island or let you take the Train past the first two stops, and doesn't include the REM
I sincerely hope that the REM de l'est will be back on track since the reaction of the politicians and riders is pretty much positive when the REM launched. Hopefully, they will rethink about it!
Toronto has a lot of great transit *ideas*, but the execution seems so bad most of the time. I don't know why. In addition to the REM I'm from Vancouver and we did the Evergreen Line with no hiccups and we're currently extending the Millenium Line. I walk past there every 2 weeks and progress seems pretty steady on that too. Then there's the planned extension out of to Langley. We'll see how it goes, it's certainly a very good idea
After so much negative coverage of the project in the press, it's really great to see all the excitement that the opening has generated, both in local media and in Canadian urbanist circles. I am hopeful it will turn out like the REV did for express bike lanes, exceeding expectations and opening the door to more similar development in Montreal and elsewhere! 🎉
People absolutely meet up in metro stations. When I lived in East Asia and Europe, the mezzanine is large enough to have shops as little underground shopping areas, if elevated there are coffee and snack stalls on the wide platform, we would pick s storefront to meet at. Some stations even had two bakeries so we would have to specify which end of the mezzanine we meet at before heading up into the rain/heat to eat or watch a movie or whatever.
Absolutely, when I visited Paris, I remember being astonished by how Châtelet station with its mall, is the central and meeting point of the city, not the town hall, not the Louvre museum, but a rapid transit station!
@@transitspace4366 Yes, but Châtelet les Halle is underneath a huge shopping centre. It is also the second busiest train station in Europe (after Clapham Junction in London).
Montreal traditional metro mezzanines often have shopping areas as well. And in the city center they're directely connected with underground shopping malls
I visited île des sœurs to try to visit the commercial area (Le Campanile) on the south of the station. Unfortunately, the walking path is extremely long, looping along bd René Lévesque. Many people were just cutting through some shrubbing and parking lot to reduce a 15/20 min walk into a 7 min walk.
It's great to see stations that are well designed and look modern, not idealized retro. Looking forward to how this improves transit in Montreal as the other phases open. (Yes, Montreal residents, those of us outside the city know this is just phase 1. Don't get upset at the enthusiasm.)
This is so amazing. Montreal is my favourite city in the whole world so I'm so happy to see it get such a stunning transit system. Next time I visit I can't wait to ride all of the R.
I can't wait for it to reach the airport. Its always been a pain to have to get a bus or a $60+ cab ride downtown. The ability to get on the train at the airport and get off at gare Central will be fantastic.
Thank you Reece from Roger Sexton for a very instructive video. I was particularly impressed by two things. Firstly, it seems that the approach at certain stations is, 'Build the Transit First, and that will then attract development around the stations.' Secondly there are two very impressive bus interchanges! Here in Britain, interchange between bus and rail transit is often (though not always) badly neglected. In Nottingham, where I live, there are interchanges between buses and trams at Beeston, Hucknall and Wilkinson Street, but the facilities are rather minimal. (No toilets, rather limited shelter, no staffed help points.) An interchange at Bulwell failed because the distance between the tram station and the bus stops was too great.
I absolutely love your videos! I’ve been taking public transportation my entire life and your videos have helped educate me! Keep up the amazing content!
as someone who’s looking o move to montreal the rem is making me much more motivated to go for it 😎 easy connection to the airport is worth so much for people like me with family across the atlantic and i’m glad north american cities are finally getting amazing connections to airports
I take your point about the use of the term "light rail" to describe the REM. I've seen a couple of news reports which have referred to it as such... but it clearly *isn't* when compared with similar systems.
The trains clearly are light rail trains. I guess there might be some confusion between train type and the type of the transport. EDIT: Ok, then they are light metro, but it is clearly not a proper underground system. really more akin to a DLR than like what a U5 in Vienna will be.
It might be hair-splitting, but a system like this is usually referred to as light metro. There's a continuum with light rail... (Tram > Light rail > Light Metro) depending on how segregated they are from auto traffic.
@@flare2000x Montreal and Alstom categorized by itself as Light Metro. Sydney Metro that use the same trains also use the same term in the beginning possibility because easier to secure the fund, they just didn't advertise it that way ever since. REM is actually cute and tiny, they even reached capacity on the opening day.
Well, light rail is a very broad category. On one extreme, you get essentially buses on rails (trams/streetcars) but the other extreme has full sized railcars which are downgraded to light rail vehicles by not fulfilling heavy rail standards (see O-Train Line 2 or eBART).
The lettering system for entrances isn't exclusive to the REM. It's part of a city-wide transit signaling overhaul. Such signs can also be seen in McGill, Place-des-Arts, Pie-IX, Préfontaine and more stations of the metro !
Gare Centrale is great, but the lack of an accessible connection to Bonaventure metro station is really sad. Also, having only one elevator there is very bad and it broke twice on July 29th. It doesn't seem to be back online today (July 30th). They need to build redundant elevators.
I agree with you. When the Second Avenue subway line finally opened in New York City in 2018, the 72 Street Station had five elevators and all were open and functioning normally. If one of them broke down, there are four other elevators working and the delays should be at a minimum.
Montreal has been possibly the worst anywhere for transit accesibility. Didn't start adding elevators to metro stations until about ten years ago, and still there are only a couple. You have to know which stations you're going to be able to get out of ahead of time.
Well done Montreal. Perhaps GO transit should consider converting some of its routes to a REM style metro service, the Stouffville and Milton lines would be a good place to start IMO. The midtown rail corridor could have a REM-Skytrain metro system from the start.
Having been in Montreal/Longueuil a decade ago, I can tell you that the new Panama is sooooo much better than the old bus station that was there. Calling that thing a station was a stretch - just a bunch of shelters alongside a bus loop...
yes, you are actually reasonably sheltered from the rain - not to mention the bathrooms and screens (hopefully they start working soon lol). The only amenity at the old panama besides parking was a drink vending machine, if I recall.
I think the current frequency is low because they’re using the service pattern that’s gonna be used in the next months (south shore branch won’t be extremely busy, no need for 90s frequency for now). Gare centrale could easily handle high frequencies, Lyon line B terminal station is LITERALLY single-tracked and manages 2min frequencies, so no worries!
Good to see that the Panama station has a heated waiting area because my connecting bus comes only every 40min outside of rush hour. And I'm hoping that they do develop the land there because they demolished a mini mall that I used to shop at all the time that had a great Asian grocery, a restaurant and bubble tea shop and my mechanic who was actually honest and fair.
I have to say, I'm not from Canada, however having a look at the map and the surrounding infrastructure, how viable would it be to build a station in between Panama and Du Quartier to serve as an interchange between the REM and the Adirondack?
2:49 wow the new building looks way cleaner and this road was an old dilapeded road, when I left EVO was there but the overall feeling was dark and decrepit and depressed. The new road and garden with the building 😢is coming along nicely
Okay guys I live in nuns island and it is basically fully residential excluding some small businesses and campus bell and it is full of old people, but some of the old people that need to go to “centre ville” cant because there is a long walk between central station and the metro station bonaventure
Honestly the 4 car trains aren’t enough. If they could have built it for 6 or even 8 car trains then it would be a game changer, considering the metro is 6 to 9 cars long
I'm surprised the Brossard station segment didn't mention the bus only onramp and offramp that are now the northern end of the BRT shoulder Autoroute 10 has between the 30 and 35 interchange.
All the stations have pleasingly functional architecture. Hopefully in the future there will some public art installations as well. Sydney actually incorporated some public art into the design of one of its new metro stations.
The Îles-des-Soeurs REM station is cool and all, but the place wasn't completely inaccessible before, there is a bus route (168) that goes from downtown to there.
I'm really excited for purely personal reasons for this project to finally reach the Airport....it would be great for Montreal to be more like Seattle, WA or Portland, Oregon where the light rail runs right up to the airport and goes all the way downtown (and beyond).
Please make a video on Chennai Metro 🇮🇳. It already has 2 lines (54 km) operational and 3 more lines of 118 km is under construction with plans to extend a lot of lines....
I went for a walk and later a bike ride to the Panama station. I have to say that the city of Brossard hasn’t done a very good job in preparation of the REM. It is not easy to get to if you don’t live directly next to it, drive or take the bus. For me to bike or walk there, I have to cut through a busy mall parking lot and cross Taschereau which is essentially the highway that cuts the city in half. While you may have had the illusion that there are bike lanes connecting to the station, that’s not true. The bike lanes you saw actually terminate as soon as you leave the area around Panama and you’re stuck biking on a narrow sidewalk. I hope this gets remedied soon.
I've been commenting this for some time now but without success Due to it only being the 2nd best network in the country its often overshadowed but its a great network that can beat nearly any city in a head to head
Saw your first vid and thought "this is good", then saw the Oh the Urbanity! one and though "ah, there we go" can't have too much good news. Bloody NIMBYs.
I get that. And it’s not the first time a transit authority decommissioned tracks for a wider platform. The MTA in New York did that when they rebuilt the platforms for the 42nd Street Shuttle. But that Shuttle train just makes two stops. The REM will have multiple different branches. I would hate to see them have an issue down the road of builders remorse for not keeping those extra tracks to spread out those services. Take the Washington DC Metro as a prime example of this.
@@DDELE7 I think the problem with keeping multiple tracks would've been, either you have multiple tracks for the entire system or those tracks have to converge, which means you have to time it so you don't have multiple trains arriving at the stations at the same time. Otherwise there'll be a bottleneck. I think what will happen is that the stations on the main branch will have three times the frequency while the three branches will have lower frequency.
Manchester Metrolink run all trams in service from and to the depot before and after service starts/finishes. I thought that would be something this would do as it wouldn't be a big issue.
Why talk about something that’ll never materialize? The Dominican Republic has a barely functioning rail network so it’s highly unlikely that a maglev would be built
Light rail: the transit mode that the media and most non-transit users have never entirely understood but whose designation has often been used to as an umbrella term for trains that don't feel like a subway. Vexing, isn't it? I've come to really dislike that term.
austerity politics gone haywire. I was listening to Trash Future and they were talking also about just how complicated the fares are over there. Pretty maddening to not have anyone to help.
@@RMTransitSad but true. Most of Washington's Metrorail stations in Maryland and Virginia have parking lots (car parks) but some of the same stations with parking lots also have cool developments worthy of visiting (or driving to) the station like shopping centers and outdoor concert venues.
Another reason why Gare Central has four platforms is because Central Station (Gare Central) may become three eastern terminals for the future extensions to Deux Montagnes (Dos Montañas/Two Mountains in Spanish & English, as well as French), Anse-à-l'Orme and the airport? [Spelling is very important in any language (in this case, all three of them!) thankfully, everything is spelled correctly.]
Unlike Houston, its actually gonna be used to catalyst for proper TOD, plus alot of rail lines have built in medians of major roadyways as its faster, cheaper, and less of a headache compared to closing major local streets.
We will never see a project like this for another 50 years. The fruition of the REM was a perfect alignment of the stars. Rarely do the priorities of the federal, provincial and municipal governments align so perfectly. But above all, the level of NIMBYism was remarkably low for a project of such magnitude.
The sky train has a top speed of 80km/h while the REM operates at 90-100km/h. The REM also has wider station spacing so journeys are faster than the sky train even if some sections might be slower
No it’s not running on rubber tires, it’s a regular railway. But why would it replace the metro? It’s just another rail based transit mode in the same city. Most cities have multiple different systems, I’d especially compare it to the German U-Bahn (metro) and S-Bahn (REM) setup, especially in Berlin or Hamburg. But if you want a French example the Paris metro and RER are also very similar.
Île des Sœurs may be most typical for stations in existing neighborhoods? It's been a while since I looked at the proposals. Apparentley, it's hard to boost people up there - unlike a level boarding. I thought REM might see more level boarding like Deux-Montagnes with that whiskery ram.
Don't miss our main coverage of the Montreal REM here: ua-cam.com/video/g9O6RzsXIqQ/v-deo.html
I noticed in all your REM videos that the trains tilt around curves. That's a nice feature for high speed!
That plaza underneath the motorway is a fantastic example of how to make underpasses feel safe and accessible. It's incredibly wide which makes it feel more like a covered square that a tunnel and the shallow approach means that you feel overlooked on all sides.
Would I feel safe there at night? Maybe not completely but much more than if it were a narrow underpass tunnel.
Couldn't agree more! This design made the highway location less of an issue
That's actually a pretty upscale residential area so it would not feel sketchy even at night
My country built a futsal court under one of them to better make use of land space, & a bus park under another
@@kb_100 been there myself, many times at night, nun’s island is anything but sketchy at night especially this spot
Love your optimistic coverage of mass transit and laser-focused take on its cool minutiae! Please keep the vids coming!
Thanks, I love the details hidden away in the world
Loved the wording of this comment too
as a person living in Ottawa, I am super jealous of Montreal's entire public transit system-
On paper, it seemed like Ottawa was on its way to building a good system too - but looks like they bought some crappy - or at least inappropriate (ie trams, not metro/light rail) trains for the given workload.
@@WhiskyCanuckdoesn’t help some stations are not enclosed
Honestly Montreal is making all of us other Canadians jealous right now.
I think one of the main reason is because the project was spearheaded by the CDPQ, which not only have to ensure a good return on investment (by creating high quality, attractive projects) but also have a mandate to improve society (by increasing quality of life). Still, mismanagement could had happened and i'm happy that they managed an incredible feat with this project.
Don’t be jealous! Advocate to make Ottawas better
I’ve been watching several videos about the new REM system. As a Torontonian I’m quite impressed. Bravo à Montréal for this first phase 👍
Gare Centrale lore: It was designed by John Schofield, architect-in-chief of CNR or Canadian National Railway. Construction started in 1926 but was halted in 1930 as a result of the Great Depression. Construction resumed in 1939, the economy having improved. The then new station finally opened on July 14, 1943, as the first of a series of large-scale urban redevelopment projects undertaken by CNR and the federal government in Downtown Montreal. Along designing it and hotels for the railway, he also designed sports buildings including the Montreal Forum, several schools, churches, commercial buildings, and hospitals, as well as residential buildings in Montreal and Kingston, Ontario.
When it comes to development on Nuns' Island/Île des Soeurs, the island was farmland used by nuns up until 1956 when they sold the island. In the same year, the provincial government merged it with Verdun. The nuns entirely left the island in 1957, and development didn't start until the original Champlain Bridge's opening in 1962 motivated such. A master plan had two phases, with the first leading to 3,000 inhabitants in 800 units. By the mid-1970s, significant areas to the south of the island were reclaimed from the St. Lawrence and eclectic constructions sprung in various parts of the island. Unsystematic construction has continued rapidly since then, and currently over 20,000 live on the island.
Yes I remember Nun's Island back in the 1960s when there was almost nothing there save for the tool booth and the highway connecting Verdun/Montreal and the original Champlain bridge. Then a high rise appartment was built along with the Esso gas station around 1968 or so.... Since then quite a bit has changed as far as the island was concerned.
Merci pour ta couverture positive et exhaustive de notre nouveau réseau de transport. Nous avons besoin gens qui expliquent et encouragent le transport en commun structurant. Votre expertise est toujours appréciée.
The massive parking lot at Brossard makes a lot of sense when you consider American tourists. The entire Bos-Wash corridor is within a half-day drive of Montreal and Brossard is directly on the way. Parking there for a weekend, taking REM into the City, and then spending the weekend car-free is an absolute delightful weekend trip.
I don't know if overnight parking is allowed at those lots and even if it is I wouldn't recommend leaving nice cars there unless you have an anti-theft GPS tracker that lets you monitor your car's whereabouts with your phone or a computer. There are sophisticated organized criminal theft rings and with Montreal being a port city, it'll be shipped overseas and sold.
Wouldnt it make more sense to just take Amtrak/VIA Rail to Gare Centrale instead?
@@safuu202the only direct train from the NEC to Montreal goes from New York, takes 13-14 hours and is pretty expensive. Until that line and more cross border railways are created driving will be the main way to travel
@@joelfrigon-henrichon5696 That's a shame. I guess I'll need to keep parking at Longueuil. Hopefully REM realizes this massive market soon and allows paid overnight parking.
That giant circle Bench is probably a recall of a similar bench in Berri-UQAM, where there is a Time Capsule inaugurated in 1966 when the Montreal metro opened.
About time this light metro opened! The absolute benefit of building elevated trains with platform screen doors is not only protecting people between stations with the complete grade-separation and inside stations with the platform screen doors, but also no accidents with cars would occur! When a car crash happens, it interrupts the rest of the system which is the case with the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail in Jersey City as they opted to have the Downtown Jersey City section of the system include at-grade crossings. These crossings are equipped with transit-signal priority signals to automatically change traffic lights in favor of the light rail, but that means nothing to drivers who think they can beat the train.
Not to mention elevated trains add character to neighborhoods! Look at the iconic L in Chicago or the 7 train in Queens, NYC! Even MIAMI has an elevated metro and people made the arguments that it would be ugly and an eyesore when it was proposed yet nobody expressed the same outrage over the highway system in the city when it destroyed many neighborhoods! If they think trains ruin neighborhoods, they should go ask all the people of The Bronx who live along the Cross-Bronx Expressway about their health and all the noise and air pollution.
And it's cheaper than digging the ground to make tunnels.
Meanwhile some of HK's elevated train stations are housed inside shopping malls with train tracks leading into & away from them cutting directly thru the mall
@@lzh4950 Do you have a station name ? I'd be interested to see that. I like HK.
@@Desi365 Nope but I remember seeing them along the Tung Chung line
I see YOUR COMMENTS EVERYWHERE FROM HOI4 TO THIS
I’m glad to have worked on this project as an apprentice Electrician at the McGill and gare centrale underground it was great during winter.
The REM is mind-blowing for just 5 stations glad I was able to check it out during the weekend!
The stations look absolutely next level 🤩, most importantly though with great (automated!) services possible, without exorbitant costs and delays - systems around the world need to have a good hard look at this project, especially in North America and even in Europe, where costs are also out of control. Definitely on the bucket list!, have had an unhealthy interest in this project lol
I heard about exorbitant prices, what actually are the fares (including single tickets and subscriptions)? Though here in Germany we are privileged with the 49€-Ticket
@@jan-lukas what does 49€ get you? a standard zone 1 monthly transit pass in montreal is 97$ so, about 66.50€ So that won't take you off the island or let you take the Train past the first two stops, and doesn't include the REM
@@weatheranddarkness the 49 € ticket gets you transit all over germany, exception: Fast intercity trains.
The thing that makes it most impressive is the 5 year timeline imo 😅
@@randomtenshifumo1291 😭crying in north american
I sincerely hope that the REM de l'est will be back on track since the reaction of the politicians and riders is pretty much positive when the REM launched. Hopefully, they will rethink about it!
ya, they really don't know what they were asking for when they wanted it cancelled. Truly myopic.
You are a very good UA-camr. ❤
Congratulations to Montreal,I would expect Montreal a city in Canada to have modern public transport like a metro ✌️❤️🇬🇧
Montreal has an underground metro (since the 1960's). The REM is just a new fast transit system added to the network of urban rail transit.
as a metro since 1967
It’s very modern
My Toronto heart bleeds for the REM, I’m going to mtl next week from osheaga. I can’t wait to see it
Toronto has a lot of great transit *ideas*, but the execution seems so bad most of the time. I don't know why. In addition to the REM I'm from Vancouver and we did the Evergreen Line with no hiccups and we're currently extending the Millenium Line. I walk past there every 2 weeks and progress seems pretty steady on that too.
Then there's the planned extension out of to Langley. We'll see how it goes, it's certainly a very good idea
After so much negative coverage of the project in the press, it's really great to see all the excitement that the opening has generated, both in local media and in Canadian urbanist circles. I am hopeful it will turn out like the REV did for express bike lanes, exceeding expectations and opening the door to more similar development in Montreal and elsewhere! 🎉
People absolutely meet up in metro stations. When I lived in East Asia and Europe, the mezzanine is large enough to have shops as little underground shopping areas, if elevated there are coffee and snack stalls on the wide platform, we would pick s storefront to meet at. Some stations even had two bakeries so we would have to specify which end of the mezzanine we meet at before heading up into the rain/heat to eat or watch a movie or whatever.
Absolutely, when I visited Paris, I remember being astonished by how Châtelet station with its mall, is the central and meeting point of the city, not the town hall, not the Louvre museum, but a rapid transit station!
@@transitspace4366 Yes, but Châtelet les Halle is underneath a huge shopping centre. It is also the second busiest train station in Europe (after Clapham Junction in London).
@@katrinabryce No, the busiest train station in Europe (and in the western world) is Gare du Nord in Paris
Montreal traditional metro mezzanines often have shopping areas as well. And in the city center they're directely connected with underground shopping malls
Of course, but I specified platforms. Which is much less common
Meanwhile back in my city, we are thinking of adding an extra lane on a busy stroad that will save commuters 5-10 minutes for a mere 600 million🤦♂️
and then end up costing everyone those same 5 minutes within a year. It's amazing anyone thinks adding a lane will save anyone's time.
An expensive decision!
I visited île des sœurs to try to visit the commercial area (Le Campanile) on the south of the station. Unfortunately, the walking path is extremely long, looping along bd René Lévesque. Many people were just cutting through some shrubbing and parking lot to reduce a 15/20 min walk into a 7 min walk.
It is so amazing to see the enthusiasm of everyone. Two days with 60 000 visitors! It was like a very niche rock show :)
Hey REM's English version of the acronym could be "Regional Express Metro!"
It's great to see stations that are well designed and look modern, not idealized retro. Looking forward to how this improves transit in Montreal as the other phases open. (Yes, Montreal residents, those of us outside the city know this is just phase 1. Don't get upset at the enthusiasm.)
I appreciate that they didn’t try to make them like Metro stations
What you call modern and well designed, I call boring. I'd rather visit a random metro station than a REM station.
Visited Montreal recently. I wish this was open earlier to try out, it looks amazing
This is so amazing. Montreal is my favourite city in the whole world so I'm so happy to see it get such a stunning transit system. Next time I visit I can't wait to ride all of the R.
I can't wait for it to reach the airport. Its always been a pain to have to get a bus or a $60+ cab ride downtown. The ability to get on the train at the airport and get off at gare Central will be fantastic.
In just 20 minutes!
Once the line to the Airport is finished, I will finally plan to attend Otakuthon (anime convention) in Montreal. Can't wait!
Thank you Reece from Roger Sexton for a very instructive video. I was particularly impressed by two things. Firstly, it seems that the approach at certain stations is, 'Build the Transit First, and that will then attract development around the stations.' Secondly there are two very impressive bus interchanges! Here in Britain, interchange between bus and rail transit is often (though not always) badly neglected. In Nottingham, where I live, there are interchanges between buses and trams at Beeston, Hucknall and Wilkinson Street, but the facilities are rather minimal. (No toilets, rather limited shelter, no staffed help points.) An interchange at Bulwell failed because the distance between the tram station and the bus stops was too great.
ya, no toilets here either. There are almost zero public toilets in the entirety of montreal. It's a real problem.
@@weatheranddarknessthey actually have toilets at 3/5 stations, albeit not inside the fare zone
@@RMTransit not in metro stations.
@@weatheranddarknessmouahah laval metro stations do have toilets, or at least montmorency and cartier do
@@phenix4181 That's the exception that proves the rule.
I absolutely love your videos! I’ve been taking public transportation my entire life and your videos have helped educate me! Keep up the amazing content!
as someone who’s looking o move to montreal the rem is making me much more motivated to go for it 😎 easy connection to the airport is worth so much for people like me with family across the atlantic and i’m glad north american cities are finally getting amazing connections to airports
I take your point about the use of the term "light rail" to describe the REM. I've seen a couple of news reports which have referred to it as such... but it clearly *isn't* when compared with similar systems.
The trains clearly are light rail trains. I guess there might be some confusion between train type and the type of the transport.
EDIT: Ok, then they are light metro, but it is clearly not a proper underground system. really more akin to a DLR than like what a U5 in Vienna will be.
It might be hair-splitting, but a system like this is usually referred to as light metro. There's a continuum with light rail... (Tram > Light rail > Light Metro) depending on how segregated they are from auto traffic.
@@CityNaturePig they're not though? These are large Metro like trains, 3m wide, high floor, capable of higher speeds. Very much not light rail trains.
@@flare2000x Montreal and Alstom categorized by itself as Light Metro. Sydney Metro that use the same trains also use the same term in the beginning possibility because easier to secure the fund, they just didn't advertise it that way ever since. REM is actually cute and tiny, they even reached capacity on the opening day.
Well, light rail is a very broad category. On one extreme, you get essentially buses on rails (trams/streetcars) but the other extreme has full sized railcars which are downgraded to light rail vehicles by not fulfilling heavy rail standards (see O-Train Line 2 or eBART).
I am glad you mentioned the added inherent public safety due to the metro being elevated. Something to consider and not often mentioned.👍
The lettering system for entrances isn't exclusive to the REM. It's part of a city-wide transit signaling overhaul. Such signs can also be seen in McGill, Place-des-Arts, Pie-IX, Préfontaine and more stations of the metro !
Panama continues Montreal's tradition of naming stations after minor side streets. 🤣
Or bus routes after tiny segments of their routes, thinking of the 51 in particular
Damnit..I went to Montreal too soon: New Year's Day 2007
Gare Centrale is great, but the lack of an accessible connection to Bonaventure metro station is really sad. Also, having only one elevator there is very bad and it broke twice on July 29th. It doesn't seem to be back online today (July 30th). They need to build redundant elevators.
I agree with you. When the Second Avenue subway line finally opened in New York City in 2018, the 72 Street Station had five elevators and all were open and functioning normally. If one of them broke down, there are four other elevators working and the delays should be at a minimum.
Montreal has been possibly the worst anywhere for transit accesibility. Didn't start adding elevators to metro stations until about ten years ago, and still there are only a couple. You have to know which stations you're going to be able to get out of ahead of time.
Well done Montreal. Perhaps GO transit should consider converting some of its routes to a REM style metro service, the Stouffville and Milton lines would be a good place to start IMO. The midtown rail corridor could have a REM-Skytrain metro system from the start.
I believe that was the idea of smartTrack, but I get the feeling it sort of just turned into a reason to build more GO stations.
I tried it out on Sunday & was very impressed with the smooth, seamless ride.
Other than the giant SUVs and non cab-over semis on the roads, this footage looks like it could be in Northern Europe! That’s high praise!!
Having been in Montreal/Longueuil a decade ago, I can tell you that the new Panama is sooooo much better than the old bus station that was there. Calling that thing a station was a stretch - just a bunch of shelters alongside a bus loop...
yes, you are actually reasonably sheltered from the rain - not to mention the bathrooms and screens (hopefully they start working soon lol). The only amenity at the old panama besides parking was a drink vending machine, if I recall.
I think the current frequency is low because they’re using the service pattern that’s gonna be used in the next months (south shore branch won’t be extremely busy, no need for 90s frequency for now). Gare centrale could easily handle high frequencies, Lyon line B terminal station is LITERALLY single-tracked and manages 2min frequencies, so no worries!
Hmm, how does that work? Skeptical they can run 2 minutes on a true single track?
Frequency is lower than the planned 2.5 mins is all I was saying
2:05 Yes, I am indeed that nerdy and would indeed love to see the layout of the station. You are a good man, Reece.
Good to see that the Panama station has a heated waiting area because my connecting bus comes only every 40min outside of rush hour. And I'm hoping that they do develop the land there because they demolished a mini mall that I used to shop at all the time that had a great Asian grocery, a restaurant and bubble tea shop and my mechanic who was actually honest and fair.
i love the rem so much. hopefully i can save up enough via rail points to go to montreal and back
I have to say, I'm not from Canada, however having a look at the map and the surrounding infrastructure, how viable would it be to build a station in between Panama and Du Quartier to serve as an interchange between the REM and the Adirondack?
thanks for taking me around my future daily commute!
Beautiful stations!
2:49 wow the new building looks way cleaner and this road was an old dilapeded road, when I left EVO was there but the overall feeling was dark and decrepit and depressed. The new road and garden with the building 😢is coming along nicely
The lack of escalators at some stations seems like an oversight.
Okay guys I live in nuns island and it is basically fully residential excluding some small businesses and campus bell and it is full of old people, but some of the old people that need to go to “centre ville” cant because there is a long walk between central station and the metro station bonaventure
5:01 Small diss at Humber bayshores there Reece, 😂? Great vid!
1:18 I live in Seoul and holy crap, that platform is huuuuuuge!
Honestly the 4 car trains aren’t enough. If they could have built it for 6 or even 8 car trains then it would be a game changer, considering the metro is 6 to 9 cars long
The stations remind me quite a bit of the Jubilee Line Extension, probably because of the platform screen doors.
too bad we may lose our regular bus and metro service because of cost overruns on the REM...great job STM
I'm surprised the Brossard station segment didn't mention the bus only onramp and offramp that are now the northern end of the BRT shoulder Autoroute 10 has between the 30 and 35 interchange.
All the stations have pleasingly functional architecture. Hopefully in the future there will some public art installations as well. Sydney actually incorporated some public art into the design of one of its new metro stations.
Wow you really like this metro specifically even tho it's just a regular metro 😳
Can't blame him, it's such a rare public transport infrastructure in NA. Much more when its built well, fast and at a lower price.
It is the first of its type with all the modcons like platform doors that are common in Asia and Europe. Your normal is our space age.
This project is incredibly well executed, that’s what I appreciate!
The Îles-des-Soeurs REM station is cool and all, but the place wasn't completely inaccessible before, there is a bus route (168) that goes from downtown to there.
Hi I love your video and Canada might be better than USA in metro
Do a review of Cleveland’s transit system.
I'm really excited for purely personal reasons for this project to finally reach the Airport....it would be great for Montreal to be more like Seattle, WA or Portland, Oregon where the light rail runs right up to the airport and goes all the way downtown (and beyond).
Please make a video on Chennai Metro 🇮🇳. It already has 2 lines (54 km) operational and 3 more lines of 118 km is under construction with plans to extend a lot of lines....
I second this Reece, global perspective, not just about contrast with northern europe.
I went for a walk and later a bike ride to the Panama station. I have to say that the city of Brossard hasn’t done a very good job in preparation of the REM. It is not easy to get to if you don’t live directly next to it, drive or take the bus. For me to bike or walk there, I have to cut through a busy mall parking lot and cross Taschereau which is essentially the highway that cuts the city in half. While you may have had the illusion that there are bike lanes connecting to the station, that’s not true. The bike lanes you saw actually terminate as soon as you leave the area around Panama and you’re stuck biking on a narrow sidewalk. I hope this gets remedied soon.
it would be so cool one day to have rem style transit from say Whitby or Oshawa to Scarborough then to Toronto one day
You should explore the Osaka train system! It's really awesome
I've been commenting this for some time now but without success
Due to it only being the 2nd best network in the country its often overshadowed but its a great network that can beat nearly any city in a head to head
@@BLACKSTA361 I honestly like it better than Tokyo's system it's a lot more simple and more compact imp
The wayfinding is generally good from what i see
I really enjoyed it!
Great video. But a shame we didn't get to see any of the stuff that is so cool about Ile des Soeurs.
Saw your first vid and thought "this is good", then saw the Oh the Urbanity! one and though "ah, there we go" can't have too much good news.
Bloody NIMBYs.
Nice. They made progress!
Question! Why was Central Station converted to a two track station when it was originally 4?
The two interior tracks were filled in to create for a much wider platform for the expected volume of people
I get that. And it’s not the first time a transit authority decommissioned tracks for a wider platform. The MTA in New York did that when they rebuilt the platforms for the 42nd Street Shuttle. But that Shuttle train just makes two stops. The REM will have multiple different branches. I would hate to see them have an issue down the road of builders remorse for not keeping those extra tracks to spread out those services. Take the Washington DC Metro as a prime example of this.
@@DDELE7 I think the problem with keeping multiple tracks would've been, either you have multiple tracks for the entire system or those tracks have to converge, which means you have to time it so you don't have multiple trains arriving at the stations at the same time. Otherwise there'll be a bottleneck.
I think what will happen is that the stations on the main branch will have three times the frequency while the three branches will have lower frequency.
Reminds a lot of Calgary's LRT, except It has even higher potential than Calgary's current Red and Blue lines
montreal already have a metro
@@fawow8362 I know, I'm talking about the REM
No mention of mobility device accessible area's. Similar to the sky train in BC.
Please do a video about the Kuala Lumper metro system
Great vid!
We are so back
I'm looking forward to the Bois Fran station then I can ditch the car ride from laval to Brossard
Look, the stations and especially the design of the new exclusive Alstom train for Montreal, I see it very well.
Looks dope! Can't wait for the rest of it to open. This is honestly what the confederation line should've looked like.
I agrée! It’s going to be amazing!
Whoa… these stations look really unique on their own, but… the Gare Centrale station looks really cool!
Gare Centrale is something else, love the super wide platform!
Lovely
Manchester Metrolink run all trams in service from and to the depot before and after service starts/finishes. I thought that would be something this would do as it wouldn't be a big issue.
I’m not sure what the plan for that is exactly
Hey Reese , talk about the maglevs of Mac Bögl proposed in Dominican Republic
Why talk about something that’ll never materialize? The Dominican Republic has a barely functioning rail network so it’s highly unlikely that a maglev would be built
@@CreatorPolarnothing it’s impossible
9:55 the indoor connection has no ventilation so it will be hot in the summer
I’m pretty sure it has ventilation, just not AC. Fortunately you won’t be in it super long
Light rail: the transit mode that the media and most non-transit users have never entirely understood but whose designation has often been used to as an umbrella term for trains that don't feel like a subway. Vexing, isn't it? I've come to really dislike that term.
Do you think you will be there today as well?
What do you make of the proposals in the UK to close most of the ticket offices on our rail network?
austerity politics gone haywire. I was listening to Trash Future and they were talking also about just how complicated the fares are over there. Pretty maddening to not have anyone to help.
Ticket offices can be useful, but they often aren’t. I think the solution is to make them more useful, not close them
Canada can get a full new transit system, my -county- city council can't even get a tram system up :/ Thanks milton keynes
Canada keeps getting new systems too!
Meanwhile We here in Toronto still waiting on the cross town to open
Mind boggling to see stations still built around parking lots in 2023
The station is how you make redevelopment happen!
@@RMTransitSad but true. Most of Washington's Metrorail stations in Maryland and Virginia have parking lots (car parks) but some of the same stations with parking lots also have cool developments worthy of visiting (or driving to) the station like shopping centers and outdoor concert venues.
if the rem is light rail then does that make the chicago L also light rail? and the original montreal metro brt?
Another reason why Gare Central has four platforms is because Central Station (Gare Central) may become three eastern terminals for the future extensions to Deux Montagnes (Dos Montañas/Two Mountains in Spanish & English, as well as French), Anse-à-l'Orme and the airport? [Spelling is very important in any language (in this case, all three of them!) thankfully, everything is spelled correctly.]
Rail in the middle of freeways looks very "Houston" to me.
It is actually a good use of an existing transit corridor.
Unlike Houston, its actually gonna be used to catalyst for proper TOD, plus alot of rail lines have built in medians of major roadyways as its faster, cheaper, and less of a headache compared to closing major local streets.
We will never see a project like this for another 50 years. The fruition of the REM was a perfect alignment of the stars. Rarely do the priorities of the federal, provincial and municipal governments align so perfectly. But above all, the level of NIMBYism was remarkably low for a project of such magnitude.
You must have been excited like a kid this weekend... 😂
The opening of a heavy metro line, with European/Asian standards, is not common in America.
Which one do you think is faster the vancouver skytrain or REM?
The sky train has a top speed of 80km/h while the REM operates at 90-100km/h. The REM also has wider station spacing so journeys are faster than the sky train even if some sections might be slower
2:40 amtrack
Late night editing 😅
Curious. Does it run on tires. If not, is REM going to replace the Metro too?
No it’s not running on rubber tires, it’s a regular railway. But why would it replace the metro? It’s just another rail based transit mode in the same city. Most cities have multiple different systems, I’d especially compare it to the German U-Bahn (metro) and S-Bahn (REM) setup, especially in Berlin or Hamburg. But if you want a French example the Paris metro and RER are also very similar.
Nope, nope.
Île des Sœurs may be most typical for stations in existing neighborhoods? It's been a while since I looked at the proposals. Apparentley, it's hard to boost people up there - unlike a level boarding. I thought REM might see more level boarding like Deux-Montagnes with that whiskery ram.
You should do MARC (Day VIII)