[Montréal, Québec, Canada] The first section of the city's Réseau express métropolitain opens on July 31, serving stations between Central Station (a major inter-city rail hub downtown) and across...
[Montréal, Québec, Canada] The first section of the city's Réseau express métropolitain opens on July 31, serving stations between Central Station (a major inter-city rail hub downtown) and across the St. Lawrence River to Brossard (Gare Centrale, Île-des-Soeurs, Panama, Du Quartier, and Brossard). The line runs east-west across the city with both aboveground and underground sections. Future sections will be opening incrementally through 2028, as well some infill stations on existing portions. This video from RM Transit takes an early look at the project, detailing the project's beautiful execution and positive transportation experience.
The REM features sleek, elegant, and clean stations and traincars. The system is completely automatic (driverless), so you can stand right at the front of the train and watch the world go by! Each station features full-height platform screen doors to prevent people or debris from falling onto the tracks and allowing the station platforms to be climate-controlled. All stations and cars are designed to be completely accessible to wheelchair users, strollers, and people with visual and auditory disabilities. The aesthetic design of the project is tasteful and minimal but informative where it counts.
The project's full costs are around $6.9 billion. It's the country's second automated metro, after the SkyTrain in Vancouver. It's the first (or one of the first) in North America to feature full-height platform screen doors at every station, and from Reece's descriptions, it has some of the greatest attention to detail in terms of being easy to ride. In general, he describes it as "comfortable, fast, high-tech, and frequent," getting up to 90 km/h in some sections and with trains coming as often as every 2.5 minutes at peak times and every 5 minutes off-peak when the line is fully operational. That's the important part! Future segments will eventually stretch westward to the airport and other locations where transit is needed (at least 21 stations).
It's exciting to see a major transit project go live in North America. I would like to see more of this level of excellence in construction in rail projects in the United States: hopefully Montréal's relative connectedness to American rail lines will get some people thinking about how to emulate it. In late June, Honolulu, HI opened the first segment of its metro, which is also fully automated. I expect that developments like these will spread to other cities soon enough. The next time I visit Montréal, I look forward to taking the REM.
I'm really just impressed that Montreal finished a construction project!?! But all in all, this is a brilliant plan. Montreal's metro is a solid alternative for commuters because of how they built...
I'm really just impressed that Montreal finished a construction project!?! But all in all, this is a brilliant plan. Montreal's metro is a solid alternative for commuters because of how they built it with the businesses.
My first reaction: "Some guy has a Patreon for transportation videos?" My second reaction: "This video about public transit in Montreal has 67k views?" My third reaction: 'I just watched a 16...
My first reaction: "Some guy has a Patreon for transportation videos?"
My second reaction: "This video about public transit in Montreal has 67k views?"
My third reaction: 'I just watched a 16 minute video on Montreal public transit and subbed to a public transit channel... When did I get so old?"
Join us! The transit YouTuber network is where all the cool kids are. Here are some other interesting channels: City Beautiful – Approachable, optimistic ideas about urban planning and design to...
Exemplary
Join us! The transit YouTuber network is where all the cool kids are. Here are some other interesting channels:
City Beautiful – Approachable, optimistic ideas about urban planning and design to make cities great places to live. Relatively high-level/conceptual.
CityNerd – Wry analyses of American city design and transportation infrastructure, with emphasis on walkability within cities and high-speed rail between them. Somewhat more technical, coming from a planning background.
Not Just Bikes – Demonstrates differences in transportation and design in the United States and Canada vs. Netherlands, encouraging human-friendly infrastructure. Very straightforward, specific examples of areas to improve and things to advocate for.
There's plenty of increasingly nerdier transportation material out there too. Deepest in the iceberg is the transportation and infrastructure blog space. Oh, boy. Pedestrian Observations has been my favorite for some time. Levy also links to an immense number of other blogs and related resources in the sidebar.
Yes, Alan Fisher and several other channels are also good. I don't usually recommend him off the bat because his video scripts aren't as polished and tend to assume requisite knowledge of the...
Yes, Alan Fisher and several other channels are also good. I don't usually recommend him off the bat because his video scripts aren't as polished and tend to assume requisite knowledge of the subject matter – he's a step deeper in the iceberg.
Adam Something also produces some urbanist content typically framed somewhat sarcastically and comedically. His approach is comparable to Not Just Bikes in the sense that it's very opinionated and quite critical, but with somewhat less analysis of specific infrastructure and more focus on breaking down "big stupid ideas."
But there are so many more. Strong Towns has excellent, practicable material with a target audience of people who don't know much about city planning (but care about making their communities better). Oh the Urbanity! uses a dual-narrator format with an emphasis on anecdotal, real-world experiences of transit systems and city design. Alex Davis is a small channel with some excellent videos for its size, but he hasn't posted in some time. And we can't forget donoteat01, who also hasn't posted in a while, but has some great content with a more theoretical or academic focus.
For slightly more technical summaries, Railways Explained can offer some useful context about trains. Lucid Stew is an odd channel with some interesting speculation about high-speed rail alignments. Miles in Transit is literally just riding trains. This doesn't even scratch the surface, though.
[Montréal, Québec, Canada] The first section of the city's Réseau express métropolitain opens on July 31, serving stations between Central Station (a major inter-city rail hub downtown) and across the St. Lawrence River to Brossard (Gare Centrale, Île-des-Soeurs, Panama, Du Quartier, and Brossard). The line runs east-west across the city with both aboveground and underground sections. Future sections will be opening incrementally through 2028, as well some infill stations on existing portions. This video from RM Transit takes an early look at the project, detailing the project's beautiful execution and positive transportation experience.
The REM features sleek, elegant, and clean stations and traincars. The system is completely automatic (driverless), so you can stand right at the front of the train and watch the world go by! Each station features full-height platform screen doors to prevent people or debris from falling onto the tracks and allowing the station platforms to be climate-controlled. All stations and cars are designed to be completely accessible to wheelchair users, strollers, and people with visual and auditory disabilities. The aesthetic design of the project is tasteful and minimal but informative where it counts.
The project's full costs are around $6.9 billion. It's the country's second automated metro, after the SkyTrain in Vancouver. It's the first (or one of the first) in North America to feature full-height platform screen doors at every station, and from Reece's descriptions, it has some of the greatest attention to detail in terms of being easy to ride. In general, he describes it as "comfortable, fast, high-tech, and frequent," getting up to 90 km/h in some sections and with trains coming as often as every 2.5 minutes at peak times and every 5 minutes off-peak when the line is fully operational. That's the important part! Future segments will eventually stretch westward to the airport and other locations where transit is needed (at least 21 stations).
It's exciting to see a major transit project go live in North America. I would like to see more of this level of excellence in construction in rail projects in the United States: hopefully Montréal's relative connectedness to American rail lines will get some people thinking about how to emulate it. In late June, Honolulu, HI opened the first segment of its metro, which is also fully automated. I expect that developments like these will spread to other cities soon enough. The next time I visit Montréal, I look forward to taking the REM.
I'm really just impressed that Montreal finished a construction project!?! But all in all, this is a brilliant plan. Montreal's metro is a solid alternative for commuters because of how they built it with the businesses.
My first reaction: "Some guy has a Patreon for transportation videos?"
My second reaction: "This video about public transit in Montreal has 67k views?"
My third reaction: 'I just watched a 16 minute video on Montreal public transit and subbed to a public transit channel... When did I get so old?"
Join us! The transit YouTuber network is where all the cool kids are. Here are some other interesting channels:
There's plenty of increasingly nerdier transportation material out there too. Deepest in the iceberg is the transportation and infrastructure blog space. Oh, boy. Pedestrian Observations has been my favorite for some time. Levy also links to an immense number of other blogs and related resources in the sidebar.
Oh god, what rabbit hole have you sent me down? I both hate and love you...
Don't forget Alan Fisher!
Yes, Alan Fisher and several other channels are also good. I don't usually recommend him off the bat because his video scripts aren't as polished and tend to assume requisite knowledge of the subject matter – he's a step deeper in the iceberg.
Adam Something also produces some urbanist content typically framed somewhat sarcastically and comedically. His approach is comparable to Not Just Bikes in the sense that it's very opinionated and quite critical, but with somewhat less analysis of specific infrastructure and more focus on breaking down "big stupid ideas."
But there are so many more. Strong Towns has excellent, practicable material with a target audience of people who don't know much about city planning (but care about making their communities better). Oh the Urbanity! uses a dual-narrator format with an emphasis on anecdotal, real-world experiences of transit systems and city design. Alex Davis is a small channel with some excellent videos for its size, but he hasn't posted in some time. And we can't forget donoteat01, who also hasn't posted in a while, but has some great content with a more theoretical or academic focus.
For slightly more technical summaries, Railways Explained can offer some useful context about trains. Lucid Stew is an odd channel with some interesting speculation about high-speed rail alignments. Miles in Transit is literally just riding trains. This doesn't even scratch the surface, though.
https://imgur.com/MMUXyvC
I'll be in Montreal in a couple of months and I can't wait to ride the REM!