Mount Royal tunnel: a deal may be struck
Since the REM will soon have exclusive use of the Mount Royal tunnel, the Train de l’est is going to be blocked from getting downtown by that route. Now a new idea has been floated to loop the route past Du Collège metro and approach Central Station from the west. A previous suggestion had been to link it to Sauvé metro on the orange line’s eastern branch, but that’s already maxed out at rush hour. It seems so long as passengers can get downtown, this may work out, even if their train trip is necessarily longer.
Either way, passengers will have a block and a half to walk between the train and the metro stations, which were not built for this intermodal use. And while there is a station at Sauvé, there’s never been one where the train line passes over Decarie near Du Collège. The walk wouldn’t be so bad this time of year, rough in winter, but bound to be always difficult for people with mobility problems.
Ephraim 11:42 on 2019-07-09 Permalink
Wouldn’t it be easier to do at Parc? It’s maybe a block? They could likely dig a tunnel and connect the two right there.
ant6n 12:26 on 2019-07-09 Permalink
So basically, rather than bringing the St-Jerome line through the Mont Royal tunnel along with the Mascouche line to reduce travel times by 20 minutes, the Mascouche line would instead be brought around the mountain like the St-Jerome line and increase travel times by 20 minutes.
Who actually believes this will be a temporary solution during construction only.
(btw, the idea to extend both the Deux-Montagnes and Mascouche lines about 1.5km to du College during the construction had been around, at least it was mentioned in my BAPE memoir 2 years ago…)
Faiz Imam 14:05 on 2019-07-09 Permalink
Small aside, but the Railway Gazette reports that the Via rail Toronto to Quebec city high speed rail project announced a couple weeks back will indeed include sharing of the Mount Royal tunnel.
https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/news/n-america/single-view/view/quebec-toronto-high-frequency-rail-study-awarded-funding.html
Ant6n 15:30 on 2019-07-09 Permalink
“The government’s $16·1m contribution will support VIA Rail’s activities as part of the joint project team, and fund technical studies to ensure interoperability with local services in Montréal and Toronto. This would include sharing the Mont Royal Tunnel in Montréal with future Réseau Express Métropolitain automated light metro services.”
It’s a study…
Tim F 19:26 on 2019-07-09 Permalink
Can I ask a stupid question?
Why didn’t we* drill a parallel tunnel above the existing one for the REM? The elevators would have had to go less deep and we could have sent the trains onto the CP line toward Parc?
*costs aside
Ant6n 20:42 on 2019-07-09 Permalink
It would’ve been way easier to just design a shared system, including that tunnel connection towards the line that connects at gare parc. I guess we’ll never know why cdpqinfra wants a monopoly on the tunnel. Cuz the rem with it’s short trains is using it at less than half it’s possible capacity.
Faiz Imam 04:42 on 2019-07-10 Permalink
Its not “a” study… its “the” study.
It’s the key preliminary report required to advance the project, and includes all key factors involved.
But of course your view is all government documents are lies, so i guess there is nothing further to say.
ant6n 12:46 on 2019-07-10 Permalink
Advance which project, the REM? Cuz that’s done and done, no matter whether via will be able to use the tunnel
Faiz Imam 19:06 on 2019-07-12 Permalink
The new Via rail High frequency route that will use the new North Shore route to Quebec city…