People counting on public transit to get them downtown on time were sorely disappointed Monday morning.
The AMT faced numerous delays on its Vaudreuil-Dorion line and the route from Candiac, just in time for the most significant restrictions to traffic through the Turcot Interchange.
Several trains were anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes late during the morning rush hour.
The AMT announced that one morning train would be cancelled but it ended up showing up and leaving the LaSalle station two minutes early, leaving many commuters at the station.
The AMT said it is running at maximum capacity on the Vaudreuil-Dorion line because it has no more rail cars available.
The STM has added two dozen extra buses on 13 routes in the area, and added an extra train on the Green line to cope with the extra demand as commuters switch to public transit.
Traffic analyst Rick Leckner said the lack of planning for extra commuters was inexcusable given discussions about replacing the Turcot began a decade ago.
Turcot Eastbound bottleneck
The train problems came as Transport Quebec closed one eastbound lane through the Turcot Interchange leaving only one lane open from Highway 20 to the Ville Marie Expressway.
Transport Quebec spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun said the Ministry expects this bottleneck will produce traffic jams stretching back four kilometres, to the Ville St. Pierre interchange, for the next several years.
With the typically light volume seen on Mondays, traffic was slow but steady for the morning rush hour, although many drivers avoided the 20 East, opting instead for Highway 40 East -- and causing significant delays there.
Leckner attributed the easier-than-expected commute to advance warning but said it might have been better if there had been a huge traffic jam.
"Today was the perfect day. There was no rain, there was no snow, driving conditions were pretty good," said Leckner.
"I think many people did opt for what they could in terms of public transportation."
Very few drivers took the options suggested by Transport Quebec.
Notre Dame St. and St. Patrick St., which parallel Highway 20, were virtually empty throughout the morning rush hour.
Traffic delays for those heading east are only expected to get worse.
"This is the new reality, people have to get used to delays, because every access through Turcot to downtown Montreal is now affected. And as we've been saying, the big storm is coming mid-November when they close the Ville Marie completely," said Leckner.
Closure of Greene Ave.
Next month the four lanes of the Ville Marie Eastbound from the Turcot to the tunnel will close and be replaced by two lanes on the new Route 136, currently under construction below the elevated highway.
To complete that work, crews will be closing Greene Ave. underneath Highway 720 on Friday Oct. 21, 2016, and it will remain closed until the work is completed, likely in mid-November.
Route 136 will be two lanes eastbound for at least two years, eventually growing to four lanes, but is likely to become a route to avoid given the choice.
"It's going to be narrower, a narrowed two lanes, so I think that stretch is going to be pretty congested. That's one that we're really going to have watch very carefully because I think that's where the big impact is going to come," said Leckner.
