By Public Transit to Loyola Campus

September 18, 2024 - Before the start of the 2024/25 fall term, Concordia University announced it would be drastically reducing its shuttle bus service that connects the Loyola and Sir George Williams (SGW) campuses as a result of the ongoing financial situation created by the removal of subsidies to English universities by the Government of Quebec. SGW is located in downtown Montreal and is easily accessible via transit and active modes. However, the Loyola campus - located on the far western edge of NDG - is not only a difficult trip from anywhere in Montreal on public transit but is also hard to access from the downtown campus as it requires a substantial bus ride to get to any of the nearest metro stations. The shuttle bus offers a free one-seat ride (i.e. no metro-bus transfers!) between the two campuses that was scheduled to take around 30 minutes. Using the metro and the bus, a trip from the Loyola campus to downtown could take around 45 minutes, and set you back the cost of an STM fare. Previously, the service ran from 7:30 AM to 11:05 PM around every 15 minutes but only every 30 minutes late at night. That service has now been reduced to 9:15 AM to 6:30 PM - eliminating the possibility of its use to get to the multitude of morning classes that start at 8:45 AM, and getting home from classes that end after 6:30 PM. Not only has it inhibited the usefulness of the service during what is probably its most needed times, the cut to service will drastically hinder student life at the university. 

While many students may never have a class at the Loyola campus, there are a number of other major activities that take place there. All sports events - including intramural leagues - are at Loyola campus, frosh events take place at Loyola campus, CJLO - Concordia's campus radio station which is in need of volunteers - is based out of Loyola campus. There are clubs and many other associations that have their meetings there. There are students living in residence at Loyola campus that are going to want to go downtown and not have to leave at 6:30 PM! University life is not just about attending class - it is everything extra that makes it special. These cuts are removing a safe, convenient, and quick way for students at both campuses to get the full experience of extra-curricular offerings that we pay for through our tuition and to experience everything Montreal has to offer. I hope that funding can be restored and the shuttle bus can be brought back to its fullest extent. 

University students predominantly live car-free in this city. So, other than the shuttle bus, what are the other ways students can access the Loyola campus from downtown and other areas of the city on public transit? Let's explore the state of STM service to the western edge of NDG, what has been proposed in the past, and what could be in store for the future.

There are essentially three main ways of accessing the Loyola campus via the STM: 

• 51 Édouard-Montpetit to/from Snowdon Station

• 162 Westminster to/from Villa-Maria Station

• 105 Sherbrooke to/from Vendôme Station

While the 51 to Snowdon and the 105 to Vendôme are high-frequency routes meaning you won't wait more than 12 minutes for the bus, their journey times to the metro are 27 and 22 minutes respectively. Add in the maximum wait of 12 minutes and you are left with close to 40 minutes of travel time just to get to the metro, all of this depending on traffic conditions. From Snowdon, you can take the Orange Line north to Côte-Vertu in 10 minutes, or the Blue Line to Jean-Talon in 12 minutes. From Vendôme, you can take the Orange Line to Berri-UQAM in 13 minutes. Additionally, there is the EXO commuter train that stops nearby at Gare Montréal-Ouest, but the service is so infrequent and random that it's not very useful.

History

In the past, before Loyola College and Sir George Williams University joined together to form Concordia, Montreal had an extensive streetcar network. From Loyola College, you used to be able to take the Ste. Catherine line all the way to where the downtown campus is now in one seat. That may have taken a while back in the day, but its fun to reminisce on the time when streetcars roamed the Montreal streets. Visit this link to explore a map of Montreal's streetcar network in the 1940s: https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/2244450

Since the development of a rapid transit system for Montreal, which was opened as the Métro in 1966, there have been several plans to send rapid transit to the western edge of NDG and past Loyola College.

In all, myself and other Concordia University students are feeling a little bit shortchanged following the cuts to shuttle service. We pay the same tuition rates we did last year, now with just less services offered by the university. It reminds me of my participation last year in the student strikes against the tuition increases for out-of-province students where I talked to many Concordians from Québec who were not bothered by the hikes as it did not affect them - the effects on the university's ability to provide the students with resources was one of the first things I would bring up and now here we are seeing the effects. There is a fight to keep the shuttle bus running however - visit the link provided to sign the Concordia Student Union's petition: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScED9aR1qkQKqeNAMUrTaUzkFvXAvOZJEZ0rqA71QR2Vo_XsQ/viewform