The Great Commuter Race
CBC News
Posted: Nov 9, 2011 5:02 PM ET
Last Updated: Nov 10, 2011 5:44 PM ET
Every day tens of thousands of West Islanders sit in traffic, scramble to board a train or endure endless bus rides to the city.
Most would agree there's no perfect commute.
This week, CBC Montreal reporters hit the roads and the rails to find out which mode of transportation is the quickest and the cheapest: train, car or bus?
By bus
Kristin Henrikso, 18, has little choice but to walk and take two buses to get from her home in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue to Vanier College four days a week. Henrikso says she seriously considered going to John Abbott College, only because it's so much closer to home. But she really wanted to go to Vanier, so she's willing to slog through the commute.The commute
Distance: 30 kilometres
One-way trip time: One hour, 30 minutes
Monthly cost: $41 dollars for a student transit pass
By train
Larry and Alison Verkade started taking the train from their Kirkland home to work in the city about five years ago when the price of gas spiked. Now they say they love the train and would never go back to commuting by car.
The only problem: their lives are now ruled by the train schedule.
The commute
Distance: 30 kilometres
One-way trip time: one hour
Monthly cost: $113 for an AMT Pass
By car
With only two main road arteries linking the western end of the island to the city centre, bottlenecks and traffic jams are a daily reality for thousands of commuters.
Steve Hicknell tackles Highway 40 everyday on his drive in from Kirkland.
He has no choice, he says, because the AMT trains don't run often enough and just don't work with his schedule. The consequence? The at-times stressful commute, bogged down by volume, accidents and road work, can take up to two hours.
The commute
Distance: 30 kilometres
One-way trip time: one hour, 10 minutes
Monthly cost: $100 for gas for a hybrid car and $20 a day for downtown parking.
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