Montréal Transit Developments

[jje1000]

Also the Metro here in Montreal is much better than the subway in Toronto. The Alstom Metro trains are impressive.

Also noticed here in Montreal they don't leave space for ads in the interior of their rolling stock. I see no ads anywhere when riding the REM or Metro trains. Gives the interiors a cleaner appearance.

Personally IMO:
- The layout of the existing Metro is more 'useful' in Montreal, though hopefully it will change in Toronto with the eventual opening of the Eglinton Crosstown + Ontario Line. If we can reform the streetcar network, that would be a further bonus.
- The Metro is generally cleaner-looking, with better architectural integrity & consolidated signage and wayfinding.
- I am very tired of Toronto subway's lacklustre station maintenance- stuff like missing ceiling slats, awful info screens, and messy signage adds to the sensation of disrepair, and stations have become a mismash of completing design languages.
- The Toronto Rockets are very much a T1 successor in all their utilitarian frumpiness, and lack the design sensibilities that the Montreal Alstom trains have. Here's hoping the next generation of Rockets will be better.

 

[Bojaxs]

Personally IMO:
- The layout of the existing Metro is more 'useful' in Montreal, though hopefully it will change in Toronto with the eventual opening of the Eglinton Crosstown + Ontario Line. If we can reform the streetcar network, that would be a further bonus.
- The Metro is generally cleaner-looking, with better architectural integrity & consolidated signage and wayfinding.
- I am very tired of Toronto subway's lacklustre station maintenance- stuff like missing ceiling slats, awful info screens, and messy signage adds to the sensation of disrepair, and stations have become a mismash of completing design languages.
- The Toronto Rockets are very much a T1 successor in all their utilitarian frumpiness, and lack the design sensibilities that the Montreal Alstom trains have. Here's hoping the next generation of Rockets will be better.

Yes, the missing ceiling panels in Toronto subway stations revealing all the pipes, wires, etc. give the stations a "grungy" appearance.

 

[jje1000]

Yes, the missing ceiling panels in Toronto subway stations revealing all the pipes, wires, etc. give the stations a "grungy" appearance.

The worse thing is that some networks like New York's have been able to make 'grungy' work work with a very strong signage/wayfinding design that acts as an 'unifying' system language.

The TTC's wayfinding and signage design is quite weak, so it can't even do that. Also IMO missing slats (and panels) are worse than exposed pipework, as the latter can be intentional in its utilitarian nature, while the former indicates neglect. I would almost prefer if the TTC removed the ceilings completely if they can't manage to keep them intact.

 

[ARG1]

Lucien L'allier is suppose to open on the 21st of December, which is 3 days away. I took these photos roughly an hour ago.

View attachment 620172View attachment 620173View attachment 620176View attachment 620174

For a station that's supposed to open in 3 days, it looks a lot less ready than Eggy.

 

[drum118]

Yes, the missing ceiling panels in Toronto subway stations revealing all the pipes, wires, etc. give the stations a "grungy" appearance.

There is nothing wrong showing pipes and ducting if all the rest of the slats are removed and the everything is painted the same colour as the ceiling. I made the recommendation to the commission close to 2 decades ago that the slats should be removed as it to costly, time communing reinstalling them that were poorly mismatch, storing them, repairing them and the time to ship to/from the station. When the TR started to be tested, the slats had to be removed due to the break dust being blown all over the place.

I have been in rundown metro systems that look better than TTC system.

TTC is poor for station designing with cheapness being the main goal unlike other systems who invest money for theirs as well having higher ceilings.

If one look closely at the ceiling of various stores and office buildings especially old ones as well new ones, you will see ducting and piping that blends into the store/office interior that you don't noticed it unless you are looking for it.

 

[Bojaxs]

While I was standing on a platform at a Metro station, a member of the cleaning crew walked by, opened a door to the maitenance room, busted out an electric floor scrubber, and proceeded to clean the platform floors.
This is something I've never seen happen on the Toronto subway.

I was also impressed by the Metro's transfer stations. I took a photo while inside the Lionel- Groulx station. Probably my favourite station. You can see people right below me waiting for a train.

I was able to transfer lines by simply walking across the platform.

The lights inside the train turning green to show which side will open once at the station was extremely helpful.

 

[nfitz]

While I was standing on a platform at a Metro station, a member of the cleaning crew walked by, opened a door to the maitenance room, busted out an electric floor scrubber, and proceeded to clean the platform floors.
This is something I've never seen happen on the Toronto subway.

I'm surprised you'd never have seen that in Toronto. Perhaps it's a time of day thing?

 

[Bojaxs]

I'm surprised you'd never have seen that in Toronto. Perhaps it's a time of day thing?

I guess I don't ride the Toronto subway enough to witness it.

This happened during the middle of the day.

 

[felix123]

To me the worst thing about the TTC subway isn't how bad it looks, it's the narrow platforms. They're downright dangerous. Some of the platform areas at King and Bloor (line 2) are just crazy.

I ride the TTC all the time and I've never seen them scrub the floors, but to be fair, one time there was a big puddle of water on the floor and two TTC employees were standing next to it, so I guess that's a start.

Runner up would be unreliability, especially Line 1.
The metro has some inconveniences like a lack of AC, and it also doesn't run as late as subway. But it's so much faster and more reliable than the subway. A lot of the metro stations don't look all that nice IMHO (sometimes they're just plain brutalist with not much else to say) but the TTC's bar is in hell so I get it.

 

[DSC]

To me the worst thing about the TTC subway isn't how bad it looks, it's the narrow platforms. They're downright dangerous. Some of the platform areas at King and Bloor (line 2) are just crazy.

I ride the TTC all the time and I've never seen them scrub the floors, but to be fair, one time there was a big puddle of water on the floor and two TTC employees were standing next to it, so I guess that's a start.

Runner up would be unreliability, especially Line 1.
The metro has some inconveniences like a lack of AC, and it also doesn't run as late as subway. But it's so much faster and more reliable than the subway. A lot of the metro stations don't look all that nice IMHO (sometimes they're just plain brutalist with not much else to say) but the TTC's bar is in hell so I get it.

I lived in Montreal for over 30 years and can assure you that the Metro and bus network there is no more reliable than the TTC. In addition, one thing that puzzled us when we moved here was that if you hear a train coming here nobody runs to the platform. Here the subway runs far more frequently than the Metro, so missing a train here is really not worth running!

 

[reinventingthewheel]

While I was standing on a platform at a Metro station, a member of the cleaning crew walked by, opened a door to the maitenance room, busted out an electric floor scrubber, and proceeded to clean the platform floors.
This is something I've never seen happen on the Toronto subway.

I was also impressed by the Metro's transfer stations. I took a photo while inside the Lionel- Groulx station. Probably me faourite station. You can see people right below me waiting for a train.

I was able to transfer lines by simply walking across the platform.

The lights inside the train turning green to show which side will open once at the station was extremely helpful.

View attachment 620656

I’m not a huge fan of the Montreal metro but this is a beautiful station. It’s wide open and lofty, from the lowest platform the ceiling is about 4 stories high. Here’s a shot I took about 6 weeks ago.

 

[smallspy]

While I was standing on a platform at a Metro station, a member of the cleaning crew walked by, opened a door to the maitenance room, busted out an electric floor scrubber, and proceeded to clean the platform floors.
This is something I've never seen happen on the Toronto subway.

Then your timing is either spectacularly bad or you never ride Toronto's subway. There are a number of crews who's sole focus is to go from station-to-station scrubbing the platforms. They take the machine on the trains when traveling to the next station once they are done.

Dan

 

[Bojaxs]

Then your timing is either spectacularly bad or you never ride Toronto's subway.

Alright....calm down.

 

[jje1000]

I lived in Montreal for over 30 years and can assure you that the Metro and bus network there is no more reliable than the TTC. In addition, one thing that puzzled us when we moved here was that if you hear a train coming here nobody runs to the platform. Here the subway runs far more frequently than the Metro, so missing a train here is really not worth running!

Agreed that the bus system in Toronto is head and shoulders over Montreal's, though bus transit is never as glamorous as subways so people never end up talking about them.

As for the subway designs, I have always hated 70s-era diarrhea orange-brown tiles, but you can see above how much less cluttered Montreal's Metro looks- again to repeat my point, while I feel like TTC stations are kept clean day-to-day from a hygienic point of view, it’s the lack of maintenance and accumulation of ‘stuff’ on the station architecture that has become the problem.

I was recently at the Don Mills subway station and to the point- the underground bus loop was missing huge parts of its ceiling (probably for years now), while a good number of the bus arrival screens have been broken for months since my last visit. If that doesn’t translate to a subpar user experience, I’m not sure what would.

 

[DSC]

Agreed that the bus system in Toronto is head and shoulders over Montreal's, though bus transit is never as glamorous as subways so people never end up talking about them.

As for the subway designs, I have always hated 70s-era orange-brown tiles, but you can see above how much less cluttered Montreal's Metro looks- again to repeat my point, while I feel like TTC stations are kept clean day-to-day from a hygienic point of view, it’s the lack of maintenance and accumulation of ‘stuff’ on the station architecture that has become the problem.

I certainly agree that the Montreal metro stations generally LOOK much better than ours but most of them are 'younger' and some of our newer ones are pretty decent looking. That said, though I would like things to LOOK better, what is important with transit is frequent and well managed service - though TTC is far from perfect, overall I find it much better than the Montreal system.