New express bus lanes means good news for Orange line riders, bad news for drivers

Easing crowding on the metro's Orange Line The STM has unveiled new measures to ease overcrowding on the Orange line including a new express bus route.

With the Orange line suffering from chronic overcrowding the STM announced several measures to ease the congestion on Thursday, but that could mean metro users’ gain could become motorists’ loss.

Among the measures announced by Mayor Valerie Plante is the 445 Papineau Express, an express route that will run down Beaubien to Papineau, all the way down to Rene Levesque.

Two other express lines will be added to ease rush hour traffic on the Orange Line. The 480 will go on Parc while the 465 will be on Cote-des-Neiges, with both carrying commuters to downtown.

STM Chairman Philippe Schnobb said two additional trains will be added to the Orange line during rush hours.

“We are bringing more service and we will be able to bring people to their destination faster and easier because we will deploy a number of priority bus lanes to make sure that the service will be reliable,” he said.

However, that will come at a cost. The reserved bus lanes on Papineau will mean one fewer lane for cars.

Plante defended the measure while adding that the only thing that will truly alleviate pressure on the Orange line is for work to begin on her proposed Pink line.

“If we want to make sure that more and more people use public transit, if we want to make sure that people decide to leave their car at home and jump on the bus, it has to be fast and efficient,” said Plante.

The new reserved bus lanes will go into effect on Monday morning.