ARTM studies east-end tramway
The Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) is studying the possibility of an east-end tramway which would not be automated like the REM.
Meanwhile, the ARTM is working fast on the REM ticket machines, despite problems that have been experienced by some passengers trying to pay their fares.
I still haven’t found time to go ride the REM. Maybe this weekend.
Forgetful 20:22 on 2023-08-17 Permalink
The PSE as a tram is an odd choice for a +20 km line. The capacity and speed just seems inadequate, especially if the PSE is projected to be operational around 2040 and act as a relief line to the green line by 2050. I’m not saying the metro/light metro like the REM is THE solution for the east-end (hello! regional rail need some love too!), but it just feels like the ARTM never believed in the metro option and presenting a ridiculously inflated $36B price tag as well as deprecating elevated insertion was just their way to tank the proposal.
The ARTM played themselves when they proposed to put a metro underground along 10 km of what is mostly industrial land marked for new housing. They will probably go the way of the dodo. Their work on fare integration, collection and ticketing has been egregious and left many dissatisfied. We already know the CAQ is planning to move PSE planing to a new agency anyway.
bumper carz 09:24 on 2023-08-18 Permalink
Contrast all the food-dragging regarding mass transit with the quick “gift” of 600 million dollars to the multinational Ford Motor Company to build electric batteries:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2003698/ford-becancour-environnement-automobile-quebec-vert
I guess Legault and company are applying to work for Ford once their “government of QC” gig is over.
Kevin 09:43 on 2023-08-18 Permalink
There will be a lot more subsidies coming for battery and car makers in Becancour. The CAQ wants to turn that city into a continental industrial hub.
Forgetful 12:37 on 2023-08-18 Permalink
I was expecting Projet Montreal to be fully on board with this, PM being the “tram fan party”, but they seem to acknowledge that it might not be the best mode for this alignment.
There’s a more basic issue here; yes we need to build trams, but we’re also paying too much to build metros. $1B per km are New York prices, and we can’t count on CDPQ to flip half the bill on every new metro line. Trams can’t be marketed as interchangeable with metros. What I’m seeing here is really just revising project objectives downward, but nothing addressing underlying problems with building transit in Quebec.
bumper carz 13:50 on 2023-08-18 Permalink
Forgetful, the recent commitment of Legault and the feds to subsidize yet another car-related factory… means that they are still counting on cars to make a comeback. SUVs have proven themselves very reliable for fleeing forest fires and floods as of late, so I guess this is why our leaders are still living in 1974.
Next up: A new “lite” cigarette factory for Valleyfield to cash into the latest health craze.
Joey 14:01 on 2023-08-18 Permalink
Writing is on the wall for the ARTM, no? Legault is itching to create a transit agency (presumably, like the health agency, because he would rather work around the established and unionized bureaucracy) + the ARTM has bungled the REM de l’est options (out of spite/bitterness?) + even Projet Mtl isn’t falling for this half-baked tram idea. In the meantime, time’s a-wastin’…