South Shore

Frequency. The REM will be in service 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, with South Shore departures every 2.5 minutes during peak hours and every 5 minutes during off-peak hours.

Twice the capacity. REM will significantly increase the network’s capacity. Once it is completed, twice as many public transit customers will be able to cross the Champlain Bridge to Montréal.

Greater reliability for the trip home. Due to its reliability and dedicated corridor, REM will take you from downtown to: Panama in less than 10 minutes, Du Quartier in 13 minutes, Brossard in 15 minutes. The congestion that buses leaving downtown currently have to deal with will be a thing of the past, replaced by reliable, fast and frequent service.

Connections to metro lines. REM will connect to Montréal’s three existing metro lines: the blue line via Édouard-Montpetit, the green line via McGill and the orange line via Central Station. You will also be able to get to the Montréal-Trudeau Airport, the West Island and the North Shore.

Ultimately, the REM will run along the central median of Highway 10. Since this is where the reserved bus lane is currently located, this lane will need to be relocated gradually.

In early September 2018, a small 1-km stretch of the reserved bus lane on Highway 10 going west (Montréal) will be removed near the Highway 10/Highway 30 interchange. Buses will join the reserved lane a little further on, near the Malo and Leduc sectors.

In 2019, the central portion of Highway 10 will need to be isolated for the REM work. At this point, buses will not be able to use the bus lane. This transition will be carried out in stages.

New access ramps and reserved lanes for buses will be built so that public transit users will be moved unhampered between the Chevrier and Panama terminals and the Champlain Bridge. For example, starting in mid-September 2018, a new access ramp will be built near the Chevrier tunnel (before its demolition in spring/summer 2019).

While the construction of these new access ramps is designed to minimize impact on the South Shore bus service to and from Montréal, it is anticipated that travel times will be affected as of 2019. The planning of new bus traffic lanes is carried out in close collaboration with a number of partners, including such entities as transit authorities and Signature on the Saint Lawrence.

The REM will run on the central deck of the new Champlain Bridge, replacing the reserved bus lane. The REM will access the bridge by running in the centre of Highway 10, between the two traffic lanes. At the bridge exit, it will stop at Nun's Island (Pointe Nord) and then continue on to downtown, crossing the Nun's Island channel via a new dedicated bridge.

The REM Chevrier station is not planned for phase one of the project.

Until the REM’s planned commissioning in 2021, the existing Chevrier terminus will continue to operate. During the construction of the right-of-way and infrastructure required for the REM to travel in the centre of Highway 10, new access ramps and reserved lanes for buses will be built so that public transit service in both directions remains efficient for riders on the South Shore. The access ramps will be constructed in 2018, and be in use starting in 2019.

After the REM is commissioned, the bus station and park-and-ride lot at the Chevrier site will be moved south of Highway 30, to the REM’s Rive-Sud terminal station. The agglomeration of Longueuil aims to keep the Chevrier sector as a transit-oriented development (TOD) area, and the objective is to provide public transport service for this sector, with a method to be determined. To travel downtown, riders in the Chevrier sector will be directed to the REM station that is closest to their departure point.