Discovering Navark, Montreal's Little-Known Public Transport Network on the St. Lawrence
// This week, I discovered that the city I've lived in for the last 30 years has a well-developed urban transport network, one that I'd somehow never heard of.
Earlier in the summer, a friend sent me some excited texts, complete with photos, about riding a navette fluviale (river shuttle) out of Montreal's Vieux-Port. He said it was cheap, fun, and made for a great day-trip. I assumed it was strictly a summer-season, tourist excursion type of experience—and since I tend to stay away from Old Montreal in the summer, I stuck it in my mental cabinet in the "Of Limited Interest" File, to be opened only if I was short on ideas for showing visitors around town.
Boy, was I wrong. Last Thursday, I rode my 10-speed down the REV, the very well-protected rapid bike lane on Rue St. Denis, to the old port. Then I wheeled it down the diagonal ramps to the riverfront at the Quai Jacques-Cartier, past people waiting to board the Bateau Mouche—a glassed-in tour boat modeled on the ones in Paris—to a shaded waiting area, where people were standing in line beneath signs indicating departures for "N2 / Boucherville" and "N3 Pointe-aux-Trembles / Varennes."
An employee in a black hoodie asked me for my name, confirmed my reservation, and helped me wheel my bicycle onto the Navark Atlantis. A half dozen bikes were already on the open rear deck, and the employee secured them by lashing them to the railings with bungee cords. I joined two dozen other passengers in the enclosed interior of the boat, and, after the matelot (mate) gave us a brief safety talk—pointing out the location of the lifejackets—we pulled away from the pier, right on time for the scheduled 12:10 pm departure.
