The horror of the 105

Sherbrooke West has become a nightmare for commuters

by ELISABETH FAURE

March 31, 2011

BUS ROUTE OF THE DAMNED: Traffic at Sherbrooke and Cavendish
Photo by RACHEL GRANOFSKY

Grumpy NDG riders are raising a bus fuss over service on the 105 line. Residents and commuters alike claim delays and overcrowding on the bus, particularly during peak hours.

“The 105 sucks,” says Clifton dweller Mark Culligan, who has given up on the bus and now rides his bike to get to the metro.

“Sometimes I walk from the metro and I end up beating the bus,” claims Rhea Nelken, a theatre student who takes the 105 to classes at Concordia’s Loyola campus, and to her job at Co-op la Maison verte.

The 105 runs along Sherbrooke from Vendôme metro station to the Montréal-Ouest train station by Loyola. It’s a key bus for lower-NDG residents travelling downtown. It also fer ries hundreds of students a day, and is heavily used by non-NDGers who work in the borough.

Kathryn Ayres works at Loyola campus, and takes the 105 from Vendôme. She says that this fall and winter, she was often late to work. One February morning, she was offered a taxi lift by two female co-workers fed up with waiting for the bus.

“We just vented the whole way,” says Ayres. En route, the ladies hatched a plan and went to work.

A petition was prepared, deploring the sorry state of service on the 105 route. For the rest of the winter, the group busied themselves collecting petition signatures from disgruntled passengers waiting in line for the bus at Vendôme. Ayres alone has collected over 100 signatures.

An online version launched on March 10 (ipetitions.com/petition/105bus_ndg/). Petition comments call 105 service “awful,” “dismal” and “hellish.” “During rush times, people are packed into the bus like sardines,” gripes one signatory.

“I support the petition,” says CDN/NDG Projet Montréal councillor Peter McQueen, the lone opposition member on the Union Montreal-controlled borough council. McQueen wants to see articulated (aka accordion) buses on the 105 route. Ayres says she would be happy with articulated buses, or just more buses, period.

Snowdon councillor Marvin Rotrand is vice-chair of the STM. “The 105 is definitely NDG’s busiest route, and we’ve increased service several times in the past year,” he says.

Rotrand doesn’t rule out articulated buses in the future, but says currently, such plans are “premature.” He says the 105 has been targeted for a “major boost” in service come September, estimat ing 10–15 more buses will be added to the line.

Construction at the MUHC superhospital means more headaches are looming for 105 riders. Work on a sewer at Decarie and de Maisonneuve is set to expand, closing the southern sidewalk, and likely causing the 105 to re-route. Instead of turning down Decarie towards Vendôme, it would travel another five blocks, to Claremont. Rotrand argues Claremont is the best alternate route available.

Re-routes aside, Ayres doesn’t understand why it’s taking so long to improve service. “It’s not a difficult route, it’s pretty straightforward. They go to the end of Sherbrooke, they turn around, and they come back—that’s it.”

For the meantime, Ayres is resigned to more long morning line-ups for the 105. “You know you’re going to be late when you get on,” she says. “There’s a huge sense of frustration, of injustice. It promotes negativity, and it’s stupid. All they need is a couple of extra buses.” ■