The St-Jacques Street exit of the westbound Ville-Marie Expressway will be closed until the beginning of September, and this could cause problems for Concordia’s shuttle bus, which had to change routes as of Feb. 6.
The city of Montreal announced the closing of the exit for the second year in a row in order to continue working on the McGill University Health Centre’s superhospital, set to open in 2014 in NDG. The exit was closed last year due to sewer renovations at the construction site and was the source of major tailbacks in traffic.
“We advise everyone to come earlier because of this delay,” said shuttle bus driver Tony Vaita. “We’re worried that this may be a problem for rushing students and we are already considering a couple of alternate routes.”
One of the routes considered would be turning onto Guy Street after leaving the downtown campus, which leads all the way to St-Jacques Street, where the driver can then continue on the usual route. The other route would take the shuttle bus west on Sherbrooke all the way to Loyola. Vaita said that both these routes would add a potential 10 to 20 minutes to the usual route time.
Concordia spokesperson Cléa Desjardins said it was hard to predict the consequences of the exit’s closing and that no modifications to the schedule will be made until they are sure that changes need to be made.
“We won’t know the full effect until we actually experience these routes,” said Desjardins. “If need be, more buses will be put on as we move forward in the year. All we can do for now is advise students to leave extra early, and we’ll take it from there.”
The announcement of these new routes has students worrying about being punctual for class, some of them already having trouble making it on time with the existing shuttle bus route and schedule.
“I barely make it downtown for my one o’clock class when I finish at Loyola at twelve,” said political science student Demitra Stappas. “I don’t know how I’m going to make it with the new route.”
Psychology student David Seena also expressed concerns about overcrowding on the bus.
“The shuttle is already jammed when it comes,” he said. “Imagine now. More people are going to be waiting for the next one.”
