Route Verte - 265 km "in development" includes Montreal
Orange marks new cross-city bike path (Source: Vélo Québec)
The Route Verte has 265 km in the "in development" stage.
Where are these new sections located?
This is a very good question. We looked for an answer.
The online maps at Velo Quebec's Route Verte website provide a clue.
One route verte improvement is shown on the map above.
This new section is an away-from-traffic bike path north across Montreal island.
This is a big improvement. Very big.
When will it be built? Soon we hope.
Very soon.
It is a big job to create a bike path along this axis. Let's get started!
The "in development" bike path across northern Montreal.
Blue dots: new bike path. Red dots: existing bike path.
Blue dots: new bike path. Red dots: existing bike path.
The existing bike path ends at Beaubien at the Home Depot. The new path goes north following train tracks (first part along an abandoned line) uber directly until the Pont Perry bridge to Laval/Gouin bike path at the north shore of Montreal island.
posted by Cycle Fun Montreal @ 7:59 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Seems to me the orange section highlighted on the map is simply following the train tracks.
that does seem to be the route. direct, but not scenic.
Ounce upon a time, there was neither car nor airplane. The train was the king of transportation and the Government did give away land to private railroad corporations.
The land that is required to build this bike path belongs to the Canadian Pacific Railways. In recent years, the railways companies have found a new income stream : the sale of valuable land. In the XIX century, those lands were of little value, but now, they worth a fortune. Both Glen Yard (future site of the McGill University Health Center) and Turcot Yard (sold to the Quebec Government) have been abandoned and the land sold for a hefty profit. The University of Montreal has also purchased the Outremont Yard from the CPR. At this site, there is still the problem of the of the tenant, Quebec-Gatineau Railways, which is still using the yard and has to be moved elsewhere.
The last time that I have heard about this future bike path, the negotiation with the CPR were difficult. CPR knows that there is little or no alternative for an efficient north-south crossing of Montreal because, along the CPR rails, there is almost no level crossing from the port of Montreal to Rivière des prairies. I expect that the CPR will ask a very high price for the land. In a world in which tracks are abandoned, sales of land becomes a source of income that has to be maximized.
The Google map is obsolete. As can be seen on this 2010 image, there is a building across the disused rail track. The bike path will have to either pass on the streets or take a slightly longer path along the existing tracks.
Hey Pierre, thanks for your comments.
I am wondering how far these negotiations have progressed, but if Velo Quebec published it on their map I have hope it will be finished in a few years.
I have a wait-and-see attitude, and I am optimistic.
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