SEM | On the last weekend in July free of charge from the network

Posted On: July 18, 2023

The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) and CDPQ Infra, aware of the major “change in habits” that the inclusion of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) in the organization of public transport in the region will bring, and on Monday unveiled various measures to facilitate the transition, including an “open house” over the weekend before the new network went live, on July 31.

Posted at 11:25am.

Updated at 4:00 p.m.

“Whoever says new transport network is, and we are aware of it, a change of habits,” CDPQ Infra spokesman Jean-Vincent Lacroix confirmed at a press conference.

CDPQ Infra anticipates that much of the public will want to discover this new fully automated subway and has scheduled an open house for Saturday and Sunday 29th and 30th July from 9am to 7pm. Quebec announced that access to the REM would then be free of charge. The public can use the network from the first five stations, from Montreal Central Station to Brossard on the south coast via Île-des-Sœurs, Panama and Du Quartier.

Visitors can thus familiarize themselves with the loading indicators mounted at the top of the platform doors, the color of which indicates the number of cars on the next train.

“If it’s orange, there’s no seat, but I can stand up properly. Green, I have more space and red, it’s getting tight,” Mr Lacroix summed up at Gare Centrale station on Monday.

From a fare perspective, “users using the REM must receive an all-mode fare, both for the Montreal Island area and for the South Shore approach,” emphasized ARTM’s Senior Director of Partner Relations. Philippe Dube.

“The same is true in the suburbs where users can use all ABC and ABCD modes to use the bus service in feeder mode at the REM and then use the REM to get to their destination. »

However, an exception will be made on the day of commissioning, July 31st. “Because it’s the end of the month, we accept the monthly bus card at the REM, but the next day on the 1st^umAugust the user must be given the correct title. »

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Beginning July 31, the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) and exo express bus routes, which previously served downtown Montreal directly, will stop at a REM station on the south coast to allow passengers to continue traveling on this new network.

RTL estimates that around 10,000 people currently use a direct bus route between RTL territory and downtown Montreal.

Although adding a connection is “detrimental to a customer journey,” for the majority of users, travel time “should stay the same or improve, including connection time,” Mr. Dubé said.

From August 21, RTL will use its new REM lines to allow passengers to adjust before the start of the school year.

Only bus route 742 will continue to cross the Samuel De Champlain Bridge during the first month of operation of the REM, at the pace of the new network.

This 742 will stop at REM stations on the south coast (Brossard, Du Quartier, Panama) as well as at the Chevrier Incentive Parking lot before crossing the Samuel De Champlain Bridge into downtown Montreal.

Departures are every 15 minutes during peak hours and every 30 minutes during off-peak hours and weekends in both directions.

Although REM trains run without a driver, customer service representatives in bright green jackets will be present in the stations and carriages.