Long-awaited Pie-IX reserved bus lane to open next week, cutting commute times 30 per cent: officials

Pie-IX bus lane expected to cut commute time The long-awaited express bus lane along Pie-IX Blvd. in Montreal was unveiled and it’s expected to cut travel time by a third.

Next week, a new, express bus lane will run along Pie-IX, and transport authorities say it will cut commute times by a third.

The city and province unveiled the rapid bus corridor along PIE-IX Thursday, which will include 17 stops between Saint-Martin Blvd in Laval and the Pie-IX metro station.

Montreal commuters are used to waiting for the bus, but this one took more than a decade to arrive. The project has been under construction since 2019, but it was first announced ten years earlier.

“This one, we've been waiting for a while, for the population living in the east and northeast,” said Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante Thursday.

She says it’ll all be up and running next Monday.

"We spoke a lot about the necessity of developing transportation for people in the east of Montreal,” said Genevieve Guilbault, who has recently taken over the transportation file.

“So this is a way of giving access to those people to safe and collective transportation,” she said. Guilbault and Plante were among the first passengers on the new line.

“Eleven kilometres, that line will cross the entire island when we bring it to Notre-Dame,” said City Councillor Eric Alan Caldwell, who is also the president of the STM board. “160,000 people live nearby.”

“It's not only a good bus service but the way to get to the bus is way safer,” he added. “That's one of the reasons why it took more time and was more expensive.”

Some commuters had safety concerns during the project’s development after a previous attempt at a reserved bus lane in 2002 had to be scrapped following a series of fatal accidents.

The transit authority says it's redesigned the route and added safety features.