Comme en font foi ces photos prises sur la rue Sainte-Catherine, les rails de l’ancien tramway de Montréal n’ont pas tout à fait été rayés de la carte (voir article). Voilà qu’on rapporte aujourd’hui dans Le Devoir que l’artère pourrait devenir piétonnière en permanence, entre Jeanne-Mance et Papineau. On se souviendra qu’elle l’a été durant toute la saison estivale 2008 entre Berri et Papineau (après une expérience fructueuse lors des Outgames de 2007).
Cette initiative de piétonniser Sainte-Catherine mènera peut-être à l’implantation d’une ligne de tramway sur la rue Sainte-Catherine:
Le comité exécutif de la Ville de Montréal a accordé hier un contrat au groupe Genisys, un consortium formé de la firme Genivar et du groupe Systra, afin qu’il réalise des études et des analyses en vue d’implanter un réseau initial de tramway au centre-ville.
Dans le cadre de ce contrat de plus d’un demi-million de dollars, Genisys a pour mandat d’étudier le tracé du réseau de tramway de six kilomètres qui formera une boucle entre les grands pôles, tels que le Centre des affaires, le Vieux-Montréal, le futur CHUM, l’UQAM, le Quartier des spectacles, le Quartier international et Griffintown. Le projet, évalué à 260 millions de dollars, devrait voir le jour d’ici 2013.
(Article sur Radio-Canada.ca avec reportage vidéo)
En attendant, voici ce qu’avait l’air Ste-Catherine pour les piétons entre Berri et Papineau:
6 comments
Ca serait nice!
there are many traces of the Montreal’s old tramway system around Montreal, but ste-catherine street as pictured above is one of the best.
I’d like to imagine that merchants would support a free tram on a loop around ste-catherine-berri-demaisonneuve-atwater as the greatest thing ever to welcome shoppers to come to shop on downtown Montreal’s best street. Heck, I’d settle for a free bus.
Speaking of my free-transit ideas, there should be a free bus from downtown and the plateau to Parc Mont Royal Park at beaver lake. And some corporation should sponsor it, since the next question is who’s going to pay for it. (but I digress)
Wouldn’t a tramway on St-Catherines be a bit of a redundant waste of money? The subway runs right under there as it is.
“The subway runs right under there as it is.”
Well, the difference with surface transport is folks can get on and off more often, see which stores are coming up, etc. Less walking (up from the Metro station, then who knows how many blocks down St. Catherine), and so faster turnaround time for transactions, which is good if one is, say, shopping on one’s lunch break. I’d think the merchants along the streets would like that. And the cascade effect, for increased city revenue, might be motivation for the city to spend the transportation $$. Lots of European cities have extensive tramways (like the Strassenbahns where I was born) which seem to work well.
The current bus is OK for that but has to deal with auto traffic – a dedicated tram down the middle (plus pedestrianisation of large stretches) would move a lot quicker. Delivery access would still have to be dealt with, though. Perhaps a “camions de livraison seulement” zone?
If the store you want to get to is at the other end of downtown (or just a full Metro stop away and close to that station) you could still always take the underground route. Express vs. local. I don’t consider that redundant. Plus the Metro stops are still closer to many areas of the underground “city”. (City, my ass. It’s a mall! If people ever actually live down there you can call it a city.)
Overall I think the key is to get passengers cars out of that core commercial district while making it easy to move through there quickly on foot. (Sigh. Not exactly brand-new ideas. I wish city planners would all read Chris Alexander’s books The Timeless Way of Building and A Pattern Language…)
I just wanted to tell you I was born In Montreal In 1960 and I moved to Calgary In 97. When ever I get homesick, I just check out your site and it makes me feel like I’m back In the East end. this must sound korney but that’s how I feel. Thanks for the memories.
Your friend In Calgary
Randy
P.S. Keep up the good work
Prague and Toronto also have an extensive subway system with a wonderful tramway system in the core. It has the effective of lessening overload in the metro system within the downtown core, and the subway becomes more of a system for people commuting from outside the core.
People can get on and off as they please and it has the effect that people can discover and frequent businesses rather than bypassing them underground.
Now all we need is barrier-free transport and $1 fares. :/