REM branches delayed
The opening of the REM branches to the northern and western parts of the city is being held off till 2025, and while it’s being blamed on complications in the Mount Royal tunnel, I tend to wonder if it’s at least as much because of the drop in commuting numbers generally.
Uatu 10:36 on 2024-04-24 Permalink
A cynical part of me thinks that this is a shakedown for more government cash – i.e. pay us more to finish it faster so you don’t look bad to the electorate. And it fits the public/private model of letting the public pick up the slack..
DisgruntledGoat 14:12 on 2024-04-24 Permalink
I mean, CDPQ is “private” only in governance being independent from the government. It’s stuffed full of $430 of public pension plan money exclusively.
P 22:30 on 2024-04-24 Permalink
Uneducated comment by me: it would have been cheaper and faster to dig a new tunnel. What — 5km of nasty old tunnel to retrofit and rework (and steal from the people of Quebec)?
The aggressive stupidity of deciding to assume control of that tunnel versus just cut a new one. Monopolize an old garbage hole through the mountain and pay out the ass to correct a century of infrastructural woopsies and mistakes.
Meanwhile holding hostage the commuters who used to rely on the AMT/Exo lines that used it, and cripple chances of Via from establishing a high speed Windsor-Quebec City line.
If it took assholes in the 1910s seven (SEVEN!) years to build the Mont Royal tunnel, there is no excuse that it wasn’t feasible to do it faster and marginally cheaper 100 years later.
The REM broke ground in 2018. Even if the McGill – Edouard-Montpetit segment started later than that… It’s just maddening.
I get that there are official excuses. It’s just infuriating that there are excuses to begin with. There’s no creativity, no alternatives, no incentive. All you can do is tolerate it.
Anton 02:47 on 2024-04-25 Permalink
But Nono, the REM had to have an accelerated planning stage that ignored the BAPE, they didn’t have the time to figure out integration of REM and AMT lines in the tunnel, and had to ignore all sorts of concerns from transit planners back when the project was announced in 2016, also needed no deviated/backup train service (Deux-Montagnes — Namur on rail?) because the thing needed to be done super fast so that it’s gonna be built and running in 2020, perhaps 2021.