Montreal City Weblog

Kate 10:52 on 2020-03-01 Permalink Reply  

• TransitBuff 11:15 on 2020-03-01 Permalink

  No brainer. Tunnel’s been there forever and new garage now, too.

• Tim F 23:27 on 2020-03-01 Permalink

  Where was this three years ago when they announced the REM and the closure of the Mont Royal tunnel in the process? Still, better late than never, I suppose…

• Francesco 10:58 on 2020-03-02 Permalink

  It’s bad enough to have piecemeal transit development, but all of it in Montreal always seems reactive instead of proactive. The Orange Line Bois-Franc extension has always made sense, but even the bullish REM talk didn’t stimulate any strong push to go ahead; instead, it’s the steady stream of dump trucks into and out of the unstoppable Royalmount project (and the City’s desire to get shovels in the ground at Hippodrome before their mandate is up) that has spurred this talk of a sudden need for the extension. In other cases, decisions are left to successive governments or deferred because of election cycles — the Dorval REM extension (that all parties agree on but nobody wants to underwrite) was suggested at the earliest meetings in 2016. When momentum had finally built last summer, Fed Transport Minister Marc Garneau said nothing would be decided until “after the election.” I’m assuming the ball is in the Feds’ court because while transit is in the provincial purview, this add-on would connect the airport to VIA infra.

  Critics scoff at the Pink Line for its high costs and relative grandiosity, but take a quick look at Paris and its Île-de-France region (~12.5M in 12,000 square kilometres, or roughly three times the size and population of Greater Montreal): some 20 tunnel boring machines are working simultaneously on a €35Bn metro expansion in ÎdF — remember all the fanfare the one single, narrow-gauge TBM “Alice” has received before it starts to dig REM’s tunnel under the airport? I’m sure rail fans on here have all the facts and figures, but the amount of metro and rail in place and under construction in Paris boggles the mind of a born-and-bred Montrealer. But we continue to dither.

• Kate 13:24 on 2020-03-02 Permalink

  Seems no government has the iron nerve to make big plans. The orange line extension (two stations) probably appeals to them because it can be done within a budget they can face, some of the digging has already been done, and the route is eminently logical – even more so than the blue line to Anjou, which has been in discussion for more than 30 years.