One of the candidates looking to run against Denis Coderre in next year's Montreal mayoralty election wants to guarantee transit service every 10 minutes.
François Limoges is putting forth several ambitious proposals to make public transit in the city more efficient — and ultimately, more attractive.
Among other things, the Rosemont-Petite-Patrie councillor is putting forth what he's calling a 10-45 mobility plan: regardless of where you are in the city, you'll be able to board a bus or a metro within 10 minutes, and arrive at your destination within 45 minutes. The plan would apply to the middle of the island for now, but would eventually be expanded to cover the entire island within 20 years.
To help make that promise a reality, Limoges is also floating the idea of metro extensions. Aside from the long-talked about eastward extension of the blue line to Anjou, he also hopes to expand the network to the west — the blue line would be extended westward beyond Snowdon and into N.D.G., and the green line would push beyond the Angrignon station as far west as Lachine and Dorval.
Limoges wouldn't actually have to the power to extend the metro on his own, of course — but he says his overall transit plans are a way of improving mobility on the island, and reducing our dependence on cars.
"It's a pact that we can make with the population," he says. "Everyone agrees that we have to change our way of life...that the old suburban way of life of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s is not good anymore. But you won't convince [people] to get on crowded and very slow buses and crowded and overheated subways."
Limoges is also proposing a single transit card which would coverall modes of transport, including bus, metro, commuter trains, Communauto-type car-sharing vehicles and Bixi bikes.
Projet Montreal is set to choose a new party leader in December, who will become the party's standard-bearer in the 2017 mayoralty election.
So far, two other candidates are running against him for the leadership — Ville-Marie councillor Valérie Plante and urbanist Gérald McNichols Tétrault.
The nomination period closes on Oct. 15.