The Yellow Line of the Montreal metro system which links Montreal to Longueuil will close for 25 weekends next year for repairs required on the tunnel's ceiling.
Commuters can expect work to take place from March until May, and then resume in September and continue until the end of the year.
"We are in the process of maintaining our assets," said newly-appointed STM chair Philippe Schnobb. "We have to do certain renovations and this is one of those that was planned a long time ago. It's just a coincidence with the problems with the Champlain bridge."
Schnobb said the work is essential but not urgent, and if the Champlain Bridge faces any additional emergency closures next year the work can be postponed.
Work is being halted through the summer months due to all the scheduled activities and events on Ile-Sainte-Helene.
When the metro is not running the STM plans to run shuttle buses along three routes between Berri-UQAM and Longueuil, with stops along the way.
Those buses will run every 4 to 10 minutes, the same scheduled departures as the metro.
Commuters are worried their trip will be anything but smooth.
"I don't want to wait an hour just to go to school," said Elizabeth Torres. "I don't know how I'm going to manage my time with that."
Almost 20,000 commuters take the metro's Yellow Line on weekends.
