Blogger Stirring Up Trouble for Williamsburg-Montreal Bus

Fabrice Depierrebourg on Rue Frontenac has written a piece slamming Excellent Bus Service and stating that officials are allowing the route to Outremont-Brooklyn to continue in order to accomodate the “Hasidic community.” The text of his post follows:

A Montreal company operates without the necessary permits, with the full knowledge of municipal authorities, two daily “clandestine” by coach between Outremont and Brooklyn to accommodate the Hasidic community and a low price.Twenty-two hours and fifteen, somewhere along the way Bates, the boundaries of districts of Outremont, Cote-des-Neiges and Mount Royal. A big white bus from New York, identified the colors Excellent Bus Service, was stationed for three quarters of an hour in the darkness, engine running.

A few meters away, behind a hedge, ten finish Hassidic prayer, then go up one by one in the vehicle to sit together at the front. The bus is crowded. Some of his passengers had been waiting for 9 hours, sitting with their huge bags. Others arrived in dribs and drabs in vans. There are many families, but also young. There was excitement in the air. We welcome through the windows

Almost every night, this raises bus passengers in Outremont, bound for Brooklyn.

A classic scene of departure … That evening, Orthodox Jews, easily identifiable, account for over half the customers.

$ 115 round trip

Sixty-five dollars each way, $ 115 round trip. That’s what it costs them in general to get to New York and back to Montreal. Questioned about the existence of this Montreal-line Brooklyn, excellent bus service told us to act “as a subcontractor on behalf of Bus Heimann.

Heimann’s name is mentioned in several websites and forums related to the Jewish community as a carrier providing a regular service on the Montreal-Brooklyn. Some of his regulars have even created a Facebook page. One phone numbers that are shown correspond to that of the travel agency Tov Travel and Bus Tours Canada, established in Outremont.

The existence of this line was also mentioned when a bus had a road accident near Albany, in November 2008.

Tov Travel Heimann and have a common address in Wilson Street, Brooklyn. Depending on what RueFrontenac.com could learn by pretending to be a prospective client, a bus part of Brooklyn every night to 21 hours for a scheduled arrival around 6 am in the Hutchinson-Van Horne. The departure from Montreal to New York takes place at night between 22 and 23 hours.

The problem is that neither nor Tov Heimann hold the “License bus” mandatory for this “type of transport against payment” and issued by the Transportation Commission of Quebec (CTQ).

“Their names do not appear in the files,” confirmed Richard Angers, Communications of government, after verification.

However, excellent bus service is included on another register, the “owners and operators of heavy vehicles.” This allows it to operate in Quebec.

Coaches already seized by the SAAQ in 2002

Tov Travel, headed by the Registrar of Companies in Quebec by a man named Jakob Heiman, has already had trouble with the Ministry of Transport. In 2002, two of his vehicles were headed to New York have been intercepted by inspectors from the SAAQ and returned to Montreal, failing to hold a license for CTQ in good and due form.

Yet it was for years the local Hassidic Jewish community acted in this way. For religious reasons, they argued then. Only coaches Tov, they said, allowed them to travel between them, separating men and women, to consume kosher food and delete video and radio.

Asked to comply with regulations, Tov filed in November 2002 an application for two permits for the transportation by bus for a daily (except during the Jewish holidays and the Sabbath) from Montreal, Boisbriand and Brooklyn.

Greyhound and Adirondack, which provide a regular and official from the Terminus Voyageur, downtown, were initially strongly opposed to this request, as citizens of Outremont.

In the absence of new elements, the request was buried in October 2005 by Commissioner Girard Léonce, after ten days of hearings that have sometimes turned to chaos.

Outremont is aware, but …

We thought the line buried. It was not the case. Not only this line will always be offered in contravention of the laws in force in Quebec, but it also violates the 1171 settlement of the borough of Outremont, on traffic and parking. ”

When it was enacted in 2003, it prohibited all traffic in the streets of buses “used in intercity, interprovincial and international, apart from the transit through the Van Horne.

This was watered down in 2007 to enable Hassidic up their own “terminal” near one of their schools, Atlantic Avenue.

“This is a business and industry,” explains Alain Titley, responsible for communications in Outremont. The aim was to ensure that their buses are almost door to door in the small streets, […] to remove nuisance. ”

Yet it is not unusual, as the representative of RueFrontenac.com have seen, these buses travel at night in residential streets such as rue Ducharme, rather than the few permitted arteries.

Pierre Lacerte, Outremont citizen who runs a blog rather caustic, for his part photographed on several occasions, sometimes in broad daylight, many of these cars offenders in the small streets of the borough. Mr. Lacerte denounced this in a brief filed before the Bouchard-Taylor.

Is this known to the borough? “Yes, we had complaints about this,” says Alain Titley. But admitting the failure of the administration deal with this “service which is quite regular,” he advises instead to those who are witnesses to call the police, “if the bus is moving, or safety of Outremont if it is stopped. ”

Why not return to the original regulations of 2003, since the carrier does not meet the rules? “It is the responsibility of the borough,” said Mr Titley. Greyhound did not wish to make comments.

Ruefrontenaccom contacted TOV offices in Montreal to get their feedback. A caller said that someone would remember, but nobody has responded so far.

 The following is a video posted on the blog:

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{Rue Frontenac/Matzav.com Newscenter}