CJAD 800's Amazing Construction Race continued Tuesday, with four reporters trying to make their way to CJAD 800's offices from the corner of Pierrefonds and Sources.
Andrew Brennan was in a car, taking Highway 40. Emily Campbell was also in a car, driving down Sources to Highway 20 — and just as on Monday, she had to deal with the closure of a key lane on the ramp leading to the eastbound Ville-Marie Expressway.
Eramelinda Boquer was once again packed into a crowded commuter train, while Tim Forster took a slow bus along Gouin Blvd. before hopping the metro.
On day two, the bragging rights went to Andrew, who made it to our studios at the corner of Papineau St. and René-Lévesque in at exactly an hour, by way of Highway 40 to the Decarie Expressway, and on to the Ville-Marie Expressway.
But it wasn't entirely smooth sailing.
"I'm a fan of tapping my toes when it comes to music," he says. "Your favorite song could become banal, it could become tiresome, and that's almost how you feel after being stuck in a moving pile of traffic for way, way too long."
Eramelinda made it in next, on the train and the metro, at around an hour and 10 minutes — and likely would have made it in sooner had she not boarded the metro on the wrong track. These things can happen — especially for folks who aren't regular metro users.
She once again reported unusually large crowds on the train at the Pierrefonds-Roxboro station.
"When I got on there, I learned how a sardine must feel like in the can, just packed together. It was crazy," she said.
Emily, who took Highway 20 in, made it in a couple of minutes later. She, too, might have made it in sooner, but for a testy moment between two other drivers as she tried to board the ramp leading to the Ville-Marie.
"Somebody cut somebody off, and the person who they cut off honked at them, and then the person who cut them off slammed on the brakes, and leaned out the window and started yelling at them," she says. "I sat behind them for a couple of minutes until truck drivers around us started honking."
Tim made it in last, at a little over two hours. He spent an hour on the 468 Gouin Express bus, which turned out to be anything but — negotiating heavy traffic and a lane closure before a smoother ride from Highway 13 on.
Day three of CJAD 800's Amazing Construction race goes Wednesday morning at 7:30, as another crew of intrepid reporters tried to make it into town by car, train and bus from the corner of Westminister and Sherbrooke in Montreal West.