Silly Metro Extensions

Enjoy the last day of summer…winter is approaching. I’ll save the blizzard photos for tomorrow.

There has been a lot of talk (and controversy) over the planned Metro extensions throughout the island and elsewhere. One place that seems to have been neglected from the expansion plans was the West Island and many people (mostly West Islanders and angry Anglophones) are upset and guessing that the architects of the expansion plans are doing so to spite the Anglophone population. The problem with this complaining is that it has nothing to do with language and all to do with the costs involved.

At this point, the current metro extensions will cost over a billion dollars. To extend either the blue or green lines out to the West Island (or create a whole new line), the total costs of the upgrade would surely double, if not triple. This is due to the large distance the West Island is from the rest of the system. The current expansion plans call for a moderate expansion from existing stations. Even the Laval and Longueuil extensions are basically additions to the pre-existing lines. For a West Island extension, you would need to create an anchor point or two (such as Trudeau Airport, Dorval train station, or Fairview Shopping Centre and terminus) and branch out the metro lines to connect the rest of the system to these major stations. There isn’t enough reason or demand to create that many stations between Snowdon or Angrignon and the major West Island station. The CN rail yards mean that there isn’t a need for a station between Montreal West and Dorval/Lachine. Even an extension from Angrignon would be servicing Lasalle and Lachine but they, like much of the green line between Angrignon and Lionel-Groulx would be some of the least used stations within the system; not exactly a reason you would want to build a station.

View West Island Metro Extension Mock-Up in a larger map

I’ve constructed a map with two possible West Island Metro extensions. As you can see one is an extension of the blue line while the other is an extension of the green line. The brown line is where a line would go from Dorval train station to Ville St. Pierre. where either of the blue or green extensions would incorporate the West Island line. That’s not to say that both the blue or green lines would have to be extended but it’s used for a reference for those who would want an extension through Montreal West and NDG.

An extension using the blue line would make sense up until Ville St. Pierre. The blue line extension would serve the Loyola campus of Concordia. Although, Concordia already runs a shuttle bus service between their Loyola and downtown campuses so it might be easier for those living downtown to actually just take the Concordia shuttle bus. The extension would be about 5.4 km which would increase the blue line by 56% (not including the projected Anjou extension). To put things into perspective, the Anjou extension is only 5.2 km and would be a lot more beneficial to people in that area.

If the green line was extended through to Ville St. Pierre, it would connect Angrignon to many of the shopping plazas on Newman boulevard. While it would be nice to have a Metro stop at Angrignon Shopping Centre when the weather isn’t pleasant, the 66 bus already serves that purpose. This extension would be 3.4 km.

The second part of the extension plan would be to connect either one of the blue or green extensions you would think merits construction from Ville St. Pierre to Dorval train station. Other than a CEGEP and zipping through Lachine, there wouldn’t be that much traffic between Dorval and Snowdon/Angrignon. This part of the line would be 8.8 km.

This means, if this plan or a similar one is used (it’s simple geography, there can’t be that much deviation unless you decide upon a weird roundabout route), it would be a 12.2-14.2 km expansion. The Anjou-Laval-Longueuil expansions total 20 km. A West Island expansion would be an additional 60% of the already announced expansion; and that’s only to Dorval train station. Further expansion into the heart of the West Island would be even more taxing since a line from Dorval to Fairview would be another 7 km. The costs would be astronomical; at least doubling the current price tag (which some are pessimistically tagging at $4 billion).

Some would argue that a 20 km extension of the Metro to the West Island not only is a good thing but a necessary thing. However, the West Island is already serviced by two train lines. Laval only has one train line which runs north-south which isn’t convenient for those living farther away from the train line. Longueuil sort of has one if you consider Longueuil and St. Lambert the same thing. The east end of Montreal doesn’t even have a train line (although there are plans to build one that would serve Anjou and RDP).

The issue for West Islanders should be the train service. Service improved greatly when the Dorion-Rigaud train received an upgrade to double-decker cars at certain times of the day. Double-decker cars have been ordered for the Deux Montanges line. Both the Dorion-Rigaud and Deux Montanges lines suffer from congestion. While it would be great if they could add more service to the lines, since the AMT doesn’t own the lines and must share them with CN, that doesn’t look likely.

The AMT and the various levels of government have improved train service greatly over the last twenty years. The West Island essentially was isolated from Montreal until the AMT was created to run the commuter train services. Even bus service has improved with the addition of expressbus routes from the West Island to Metro stations on the orange line (as well as increased frequency of these bus services over the years).

The West Island mayors (notably Beaconsfield mayor Bob Benedetti and Dollard Des Ormeaux mayor Ed Janiszewski) need to stop complaining about how neglected the West Island is. Bus and train service is far superior to that in the east end of Montreal. It’s not because the area is Anglophone or is generally votes Liberal (isn’t the provincial government Liberal?); it’s because the plans announced last week make the most sense socially and economically.

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Sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I had planned to write up a couple of movie and video game reviews but I needed to do some maintenance on the site. There were a couple of glitches with the redesign and every correction I would make would cause two more mistakes. At least the video game review section looks a lot better. I’m actually hoping to have a video review up for a couple of games by the end of the week although the only thing that would prevent me from doing that would be the editing time. However, with most of the site maintenance issues out of the way, regular updates should return to normal with daily news updates each day and hopefully a review a day as well.

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Montreal News

There will definitely be a French debate but the English one depends on if Montreal mayoral candidate Louise Harel feels comfortable enough to debate in a language she isn’t quite strong with. It would probably be better for Harel if she doesn’t perform in an English-language debate because many English people will not vote for her due to her anti-English past and some hard line Francophones may feel she’s trying to pander to Anglophones if she does do an English debate.

U.S. News

The Democrats may be in real trouble in New York with upcoming 2010 elections.

Entertainment News

Apparently the Emmys were yesterday. Television hasn’t been good since they cancelled Thunder Alley. Ed Asner for the win!