Turcot 375 – Montreal will be celebrating it’s 375th anniversary when the Turcot plan proposed by the government would be finished in 2017 – was presented last Thursday by Pierre Gauthier and Pierre Brisset. Their alternative plan is a much more global solution to the the Turcot issues and includes public transit, an airport express, and reduced toxic emissions for the whole area, among many other things.
Here are some photos from the presentation by Gaetan Legault.
Mobilization Turcot people were there.
Sophie Thiebaut. Sophie, along with Jody Negley in Les Tanneries, is one of the founders of the whole Turcot movement. She started in Cote Saint Paul and is now borough counsellor for the Sud Ouest with Projet Montreal. These are two great hard working women who make Montreal a better place to be.
Richard Bergeron paying close attention. I first met him at the early meetings in the Turcot movement and was very impressed both by his willingness to participate in grassroots organizing and his ability to connect with a wide variety of people and issues. I am very proud to know this guy and the success of Projet Montreal to date. To his left is Pierre Zovile, an artist, who has an alternative transportation plan for the Sud Ouest.
Pierre Gauthier showing some tram possibilities.
The “Two Pierres” Gauthier and Brisset. Last fall two tress were planted in their honour in Les Tanneries at the post BAPE party.
These two men have put an extraordinary amount of their time into developing an alternative plan at Turcot and they deserve a lot of credit and respect from all Montrealers for doing so on their own dime. But perhaps the most important thing is that they have created hope and a true dialogue about the complexity and importance of what gets done at Turcot.
PostArctica 
Pourquoi toujours un tramway? Ca ménerve, surtout a chaque fois qu’il faut que j’evite une vieille rail de tramways qui dépasse de la chausser…. Il y a une raison pourquoi ca marque pas ici, avec tous le deneigement.
Il en a partout a la grandeur de la ville… Je trouve ca un gaspillage d’argent. Il devrait plustot faire un train passager electrique ou des autobus electrique, qui n’on pas desoin de rails
In Edmonton they had electric buses that did not go on tracks (at least a few years ago, maybe they have been phased out). They were also very quiet. One drawback that I noticed was two such buses could not pass one another. Also obviously the routes were not flexible in case of construction/accidents.
In Vancouver we have a new fleet of electric trolley buses, and they work very well. Express trolley buses can pass local buses, you just string up two sets of wires as per Hastings Street in east Vancouver (the express wire is no longer used much as the express bus now goes far past the ends of the wires and is now diesel).
Most trolley buses have backup diesel generators, so they can re-route around problems. Vancouver’s are a bit unusual in that they only have a battery backup and can only go about 1km off the wires.
Sounds interesting. The back up system would be a great solution for Montreal’s often quirky layout.