Rivire-des-Prairies residents demand more public transit options

Residents and the mayor ofRivire-des-PrairiesPointe-aux-Trembleswant to make sure their borough isn't left behind amid upcoming public transit expansions.

One resident, Stphanie Gauthier, is doing so with anonline petition onthe National Assembly's site which since December has gainednearly 600 signatures.

She bought a duplex on the eastern edge of Montreal Islandtwo years ago, and assumed public transit options would become more efficient over time, but she said that hasn't proved to be true.

"If I want to plan anything outside Rivire-des-Prairies I need to plan an hour and a half to get to where I need to go," she said.

She's grown increasingly frustrated with ambitious transit plans put forward by the city and province which appear to ignore her neighbourhood.

The Coalition Avenir Qubec's tramway project would serve Pointe-aux-Trembles, and the long-awaited extension of the Metro's Blue line would stop inAnjou.

• CAQ proposes $10B transportation plan ahead of October election

Even the proposed Pink line would end in Montreal North.

New borough mayor Caroline Bourgeois agrees that public transit is lacking in the area and said the issue is one of the reasons she ran for office.

"She will find someone in me who believes in public transit," she said of Gauthier. "I will defend public transit and mobility in the district."

Bourgeoissaid she plans to speak to Montreal's public transit authority, the Socit de transport de Montral (STM), in the next few days.

• Montreal presses forward with Pink line despite province's ambivalence

For its part, the STM said it recently added the new 81 Saint-Jean-Baptiste bus line last September to help commuters in the area.

"Also, the bus network remodelling that is underway will allow theSTMto re-evaluate its bus service throughout the island of Montreal, while taking into account major transit projects," STM spokesperson Philippe Dry wrote to CBC in an email.

Those projects include the REM light-rail network, the Blue line extension and a dedicated bus lane onPie-IX Boulevard.