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With parking spots lacking for REM stations, West Islanders hope for a change

Click to play video: 'West Island residents want more parking spots at REM stations'
West Island residents want more parking spots at REM stations
WATCH: The Pie-IX bus lane is expected to have thousands of parking spots for public transit users. As Global's Billy Shields explains, the announcement flies in the face of West Island residents who want parking spots at new REM stations – May 15, 2019

A Pierrefonds resident along Antoine-Faucon who only gave his name as Brandon pointed to the lack of cars on his street and shook his head.

“It’s going to be pretty crazy,” Brandon said. “Like, where are people going to park their cars?”

It’s not a new question for West Islanders, who watched thousands of projected parking spots for the new REM electric rail stations disappear this year as plans abruptly changed.

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After city officials unveiled a plan to add 1,200 parking spots along a dedicated express bus lane down Pie-IX Boulevard, some West Islanders began to rhetorically ask whether city planners had conceived the system to include them.

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WATCH: REM stations in West Island won’t have as many parking spots (March 14)

Click to play video: 'REM stations in West Island won’t have as many parking spots'
REM stations in West Island won’t have as many parking spots
The REM stations are badly needed, said Pierrefonds Mayor Jim Beis. “Yet we don’t have the adequate transport, the lanes and streets necessary to get [commuters] to these stations.”

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Beis pointed out that plans could still change, and he’s hopeful that the parking spots could return to the plans before the system is fully built.

As for Brandon, he told Global News that if his street becomes a makeshift parking lot for commuters, he might put his house up for sale.

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