The REM is still in trouble on Friday morning.
Updates from February, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The owner of two buildings in Old Montreal which were firebombed, resulting in the deaths of nine people in total, is suing the city on a trumped‑up claim that the city’s police and fire department didn’t do enough to deter the firebugs.
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Kate
A young man was shot dead Wednesday evening outside his home in Cartierville. TVA says his name was Mouaade Fakhoury and he was not known to police.
Homicide #4 of 2025.
Friday, TVA says police know that the 20-year-old was involved in a gang.
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Kate
Latest from Radio-Canada is that one quarter of the snow removal process is complete.
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Kate
New condos downtown are not selling well because they’re too expensive and too small. Some promoters are turning to renting them out, but at more than $2000 for 600 sq.ft. they’re not exactly competitive either.
More places are being built as rentals on purpose, but they’re not stellar deals either.
Kevin
WFH and the fear of another pandemic has killed the 3 and and half.
And developers/fire codes/building codes make it too expensive to build multiple-bedroom units in high rises.Kate
Can you unpack why those factors have killed the 3½, Kevin?
Steph
People who WFH need more space. For the same reason it’s healthier to keep your bedroom uniquely as a ‘sleeping space’, closing the door to your workspace helps compartmentalize it away.
Kevin
I’ll do my best not to write an essay 😉
For office workers having a regular place for a home setup has become a new essential because even if only 20% are working most of their days at home (according to Stats Can), a lot more are at home 1 or 2 days a week.
Building codes require two exits in buildings over two storeys, and all bedrooms need a window.
So in Montreal that usually means a long hallway with apartments on each side, which means putting in more than one bedroom in a single unit ends up as a very large unit with some extra rooms that cannot be bedrooms.Ian
Why it sounds almost like the codes were written around the concept of the plex, not apartment buildings. Which makes me kind of wonder why nobody builds walkups … is the concept just not sufficiently profitable?
I know it’s easier to sell out a new condo building full of 1 bed apartments becasuse of price point as starter homes, but if the city and or privince is serious in any way about preventing sprawl when those “new families” start having kids, there needs to be some kind of incentive in place for family units to be built. That said as long as our Minister of Housing is a real estate speculator, that’s not going to happen, lol.
Considering the current public transit “solution” seems to be encouraging sprawl (looking at you , REM-north-of-the-40) and new development for housing seems to be more about profiteering than providing homes (looking at you , 1-bed condo plexes all through Montreal’s former light industrial areas) I don’t think we’re going to see any solutions.
I know a 25 year old with a good job and decent credit who is looking for an apartment downtown and pretty much every one is roach-infested 1 bed condo building with units going for around 2k/m each that want a full credit check, a cash deposit, and to know if you ever opened a case with the TAL. Landlords don’t give AF about the toothless laws. You don’t like it? Apply somewhere else … and they’re all the same.
Kate
There are some relatively new walkups here and there, mostly built as fill‑ins on residential streets that had a single lot or two for development – there’s one just up the street from me – but obviously it’s not a major construction style in our time.
Ian, the Quebec government is simply not interested in fixing the housing crisis, and the probable reason is that they’re profiting from it, and meanwhile holding back the cash that was supposed to help the homeless. They really are heartless bastards.
Kevin
Ian
It’s more the codes are written for single family homes, and by people who watched “The Towering Inferno” and thought it was a documentary 😉
In many Canadian cities something like Montreal’s triplexes, or Parisian/Manhattan walkups, are banned, and so the only way to build an apartment block is to build it like a hotel (a double-loaded corridor). It’s why Vancouver has a housing crisis — it’s historically been composed of single-family homes and high-rise apartment buildings, and very, very little in between (ignoring the illegal granny suites).If you want to read an essay, check out the Larch Lab.
https://www.larchlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Eliason_CoV-Point-Access-Blocks-report_v1.2.pdf
Ian
Single family dwellings don’t necessarily mean townhouses. The classic triplex is basically three single family homes stacked, which is ideal, I think.
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Kate
Le Devoir asks a HEC expert and some business people whether we need a TGV between Toronto and Quebec City. But this piece is all about economics and doesn’t take into account the environmental benefit of reducing the large number of flights between Toronto and Montreal.
The question I would ask is this: does the route really have to go beyond Montreal to Quebec City? I realize it probably has to do so politically but is there enough demand in reality?
I would also like to know whether studies show that the kind of people who fly between Toronto and Montreal would stoop to taking a train, even a faster one, between the cities. Especially since it’s pretty clear that the Montreal end of the route can’t be downtown, and will probably mean shuttling people to and from downtown in a bus or in the REM.
24Hres talked to a different expert on the same question, and at least raised the question of environmental benefits.
Updating to add: Some on Reddit think the logical move would be to have the TGV terminate at the airport, and have passengers switch to the REM there.
dhomas
A-t-on vraiment besoin d’un TGV entre Toronto et Québec?
Oui
Article overBlork
I don’t understand how this will fly if they can’t bring it into downtown Montreal. That’s the whole point of HSR; speed and convenience. Downtown Montreal to Downtown Toronto in one shot, three hours. Boom! Sold! You could literally go to Toronto for lunch and be back home for dinner.
Compare that to flying, where you have to get to and from an airport in thick traffic, arrive hours in advance, wait in lines, etc.
But if you build it as a “Mirabel” with a long and (undoubtedly) complicated and probably unreliable last mile? FAIL. Total fail.
Kate
How close is the Longueuil metro station to a train line? Laval’s de la Concorde station is directly on a train line – could that be repurposed?
After all, most people don’t stay directly nearby Central Station either. They expect to arrive then take the metro or a taxi to their eventual destination. That wouldn’t be so different if they were able to access the orange line at de la Concorde.
We tend to forget the labyrinth of twisty passages that faces passengers at Central Station, especially confusing for people who’ve never navigated them before. It might actually be a simpler and more straightforward transfer in Laval.
If they were smart, the Toronto-Montreal ticket would include an AB day pass so passengers could get directly into the metro in Laval without fussing over local transit fares.
azrhey
I don’t drive. I love weekends in Quebec City. That I don’t do nearly as I often as I could because the last couple of times I took the train the less than two hours supposed ride turned into a 4h+ because we had to stop cargo trains or whatever they’re called several times.
Is there is a need for a high-speed train MTL to Quebec City? I don’t know, but, anecdotally, there is a demand for a train from MTL to Quebec City that doesn’t stop for 2 hours in the middle of a field because cargo has priority. Right now you know when your train departs, but you don’t know when it arrives…. so MEH.jeather
I used to do day trips for work to Quebec City all the time pre pandemic and I always wanted to do the train, but I never once could because the hours are not set up for a single work day. (I took the bus, which was great.)
Paul
“If they were smart, the Toronto-Montreal ticket would include an AB day pass so passengers could get directly into the metro in Laval without fussing over local transit fares.”
That is a great idea.
Michael
A TGV between Ottawa and Montreal is going to be a game changer. The cities are 200km apart, which would make it a 40-50 minute ride, effectively making them “suburbs” of each other.
carswell
I would also like to know whether studies show that the kind of people who fly between Toronto and Montreal would stoop to taking a train, even a faster one, between the cities.
In France (and maybe some other parts of Europe), people are not given a choice. If you’re in Paris and want to travel to Bordeaux, you have to take the train or other land transportation. The only people allowed to fly between the two cities are those who have flown into Paris from elsewhere and have a connecting flight.
IIRC, the rule is if there is under-five-hour train service between two cities, you’re not allowed to fly between them unless you’ve flown into one of them.
A similar rule could be imposed here: no originating air travel between Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. Adding tolls to the 401 and 20 would also drive traffic to the train.
carswell
The lack of a useable tunnel from Central Station up to Jean Talon Station or wherever the HSR line will pass is a disgrace. That said, there’s a half-decent workaround until such a tunnel can be built.
It’s a safe bet that some trains will run between Toronto and Ottawa without continuing to Montreal and others between Toronto and Montreal without continuing to Quebec City. Trains to and from Quebec City would, for the foreseeable future, have to take the northern route through the greater Montreal area (say, Cartier Station, Jean Talon Station and Dorval Station) but trains whose end of the line was Montreal could use Central Station or Lucien-L’Allier.
Blork
Maybe I’m being transit-utopian, but with downtown-to-downtown (MTLTO) in three hours, people could do things like go to the other city for a game or a concert and come back the same day, avoiding the need for a hotel or Airbnb. (Assuming the schedule included night trains, which it should.) But if the station is in Laval? Who wants to arrive in Laval at midnight after a three hour train ride?
Imagine going to Toronto for a Raptors game and the train deposits you in Scarborough or Whitby. WTF?
Imagine taking the train to Quebec City for the weekend and it drops you in Levis or St-Foy. Ewww.
(Those two examples are for your imagination; I know the TO and VdQ stops won’t be in Whitby or St-Foy. Just image if they were, and how that would take the bloom off the rose. Well that’s what it would be like for anyone coming to Montreal and being dropped in Laval, or to a lesser extent, Jean-Talon.)
Robert H
That’s right, Blork. It must be downtown to downtown or forget it. The ideal would be a new tunnel into Centre-ville, but could Windsor Station be considered as well as Central?
Tee Owe
If downtown to downtown is a must, then Michael’s suggestion for a TGV between Montreal and Ottawa will require building a new station (Ottawa) as well as downtown access to Montreal. IMO it’s too big to be realistic.
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Kate
La Presse looks at the homeless crisis in Bonaventure metro, also pinning down an instance of a chronic problem: after governments promised a total of $100 million late last year for homeless services, projects totalling $92 million were presented by relevant groups – but only $24 million has been paid out since then, even though we’re experiencing a fiercer winter than we’ve known for years. Government likes to appear like it’s doing something, but they find it very hard to come across with the actual cash for ventures like putting a roof over the heads of human units who don’t generate profit.
As a sidebar, there’s also a piece saying the tourism industry is concerned about the bad impression made on visitors by the presence of so many itinerants at Bonaventure. Maybe their concerns will actually be heard.
CE
My experience, working with tourists, has been that homelessness is so high elsewhere that it doesn’t seem so bad here.
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Kate
CBC’s Benjamin Shingler recounts the history of the snowblower, a local invention.
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Kate
The REM has hit another bad patch Thursday morning, but at least there are more replacement buses in service.
Maxime Bergeron clarifies: these buses will run all the time, despite the REM’s presumed monopoly on transit over the bridge, whether or not the REM is running, till further notice.
Later Thursday: Brossard wants the buses back crossing the river, permanently.
Uatu
It was reassuring that this morning I wouldn’t have to worry about getting docked for being late.
Nicholas
The people leading the consortium to build high speed rail!
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Kate
A lot of buses are to be put into service as of Thursday morning to replace the REM.
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Kate
Quebec is tickling its sleeping union dragon with the tabling of a bill to limit strikes and lockouts. This would go beyond the Essential Services act and automatically force strikers back to work.
The CAQ may be choosing its moment, as Quebec City’s blue collar workers plan to strike on Thursday and the politicians may think they have public feelings on their side.
roberto
Can the media be more responsible in differentiating a strike and a lockout? I found it very unfair that the Canada Post lockout was reframed as a strike.
Nicholas
A general strike would be a strike to see. This would make the red square student strikes seem quaint.
roberto, you and me both.
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Kate
Mayor Plante is asking Montrealers to be patient: only 15% of the snow was cleared as of Wednesday morning.
MarcG
It’s pretty fun out there but I feel bad for folks with mobility challenges.
Ian
I’m very surprised the sidewalks on major streets haven’t been cleared. Parc is still a single-file goat path, I had to help an older person just step down from the main sidewalk trail to the shovelled out area in front of a pharmacy. I had seen the excuse made that no sidewalks were getting plowed as the drifts on the sides were too high, but the main streets have been plowed…. I noticed the parking meters on PArc were all neatly cleared, presumably by the city’s contractors…
Kevin
At least once a winter the city gets really stupid about snow removal. Now is that time.
In NDG only one direction of Sherbrooke is cleared and the other direction hasn’t been scheduled.
There has been no clearing around the four schools closest to my home.
And one block over from me, the city is trying for the third night in a row to clear a normal residential street.
Tim S.
I’ve seen a few spots where the sidewalk plows have given up in the middle of the block, left a big pile of snow and turned off into the street. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that there was simply too much snow to continue rather than that they suddenly became incompetent mid-block.
Kevin
Tim S.
On Sunday I was walking to a store and saw a sidewalk plow coming toward me. On the way home I could only tell it had gone by because of two tire-sized ruts in snow up to my knees.The city put out a video today https://web-cdn.bsky.app/profile/montreal.ca/post/3likgo3lb6s2z
walkerp
The city being stupid? How about maybe we have a record quantity of snow and it is a significant logistical challenge to remove it. Also, what about the citizens being stupid? How many idiots put out their garbage and recycling on my block last night, which is now going to make snow removal that much harder.
Read this to maybe have some empathy and understanding for the challenge the city and its workers are facing right now:
L’enfer du déneigement, vu de l’opérateur.Tim S.
Thanks walkerp, that was an important read. And good to see so many supportive comments.
Kate
Good piece, walkerp. Thanks.
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Kate
The prime minister has just announced that the project for a fast train between Quebec City and Toronto will go ahead.
Meantime, Via Rail has cancelled trains on that corridor Wednesday,
Joey
If we start actually doing things like high-speed (or high-frequency, or ideally high-speed and high-frequency) rail between Montreal and Toronto, we’ll run out of longstanding things to bitch and moan about. Anyway, this concluding paragraph from CBC is worth keeping in mind:
“It’s expected to take four to five years to design the future high-speed line. Funds are to be allocated at the end of that time period, so it’s possible a future government could modify or cancel the project.”
jeather
I have faith that we could find new things to bitch and moan about.
Alex L
Finally, this is happening. Or should I wait before rejoicing?
Bert
Trudeau initiating a project that will undoubtedly result in a bunch of expropriations, including in regional and farming reasons. Man, this year of 1969 is just wild!
Ephraim
Meanwhile, I’m looking at the partners… “the consortium Cadence — made up of CDPQ Infra, AtkinsRéalis, Keolis, SYSTRA, SNCF Voyageurs, and Air Canada”
For those who don’t know:
Keolis is 70% SNCF and 30% CDPQ.
SNCF Voyageurs is the division of SNCF that actually runs the trains.
AtkinsRéalis is the new name for SNC Lavalin
SYSTRA is 20% SNCF and 20% RATP (The Paris region transit company)I’m particularly happy to see SYSTRA involved, they have been involved in the majority of tram development in France and a lot of the high speed rail as well. They bring in a lot of experience.
Joey
I can’t imagine getting into the details on this unless, at the very least, Mark Carney is on board. Otherwise, it’s just a waste of energy.
Anton
So, uh, how are they gonna get from gare centrale to North of the river.
Taylor
@Anton
I have an article in development on this issue, it’ll come out soon
The answer: it likely won’t
Not using Gare Centrale is an option apparently. Having the HSR station located ‘outside the downtown core’ is an option too.
Also worth noting who isn’t involved in this project: VIA
This is basically the REM of national passenger rail
Tee Owe
I have done Que-Toronto and vice versa both by train and plane, I am not an expert, just a user. Overall, train works well, air travel is compromised by airport travel time and time spent in the airport. My gut feeling is that the connection in Montreal is going to compromise this whole plan. As Anton and Joey refer to, there will need to be a new station, and then connections to downtown – not optimal. To be competitive, this needs to whizz through Montreal to get to TO fast – wonderful for the Que-TO traveler, politically incorrect otherwise. I agree about high-frequency mattering as much as high-speed. I am not optimistic.
Blork
Maybe they will install a train station at Mirabel? 🙂
Tee Owe
Sorry, Anton and Taylor 🙁
SMD
Anybody know what Air Canada is doing on that list, instead of VIA Rail? I don’t get it.
CE
I remember this being discussed in the media last summer. https://globalnews.ca/news/10675060/air-canada-tgv-train-company-bidder-electric-fast-rail-project/
bob
” jusqu’à 300 km / h ” – but not really. Three hours from Montreal to Toronto is about 170km/h. An hour and a half from Montreal to Quebec is about the same. That is not high speed rail – it is a little faster than the speed of Via Rail’s LRC that was in place in the 1980’s-90’s. Those Via trains could do Montreal to Toronto in 4 hours (and did so in the 80’s and 90’s) – so we will spend $100 billion so shave an hour off that?
Assuming that $100 is a valid esitmate – “Dans le passé, Transports Canada avait initialement évalué le coût d’un TGV Toronto-Québec à plus de 100 milliards de dollars. ” — but that was then and this is now. Will it be $150 billion? $200 billion? “la phase de conception du projet s’élèvera à 3,9 milliards de dollars” – $4 billion to design the project, before they start actually designing the railroad – which is supposed to happen in six years, if you believe that. The Tokaido Shikansen took five years to build *sixty* years ago. The first TGV (Paris-Lyon) in France took four years to build – *fifty* years ago. French TGV rail costs about $20 million per km. Spanish TGV costs about $15 million per km. At the French rate $100 billion would buy high speed rail from Vancouver to Halifax. But we don’t get the French rate, we get the Canadian rate, which includes corruption that would make the dictator of a banana republic blush.
Anand – “The existing transportation system has not kept pace.” Kept pace with what? The near complete absence of demand for train travel between Montreal and Toronto? Ridership has stagnated at 4 million for *thirty five* years, while the population has increased by 50%.
This is pure pork – a multi-billion dollar parting gift from Trudeau to the usual suspects (like SNC whose prosecution for fraud he scuttled). It is not high speed rail, it is looting.
Orr
Looking at the map that traces the route through the Montreal region, it appears to follow existing commuter train lines (sort of) bypassing downtown, and appears to go past the parc metro station & nearby EXO commuter train station and where there happens to be a closed building that was at one time a very nice train station.
GC
Where do you see the map?
Kevin
@Taylor
Via is involved.
The Via subsidiary that was planning high-frequency rail has been renamed Alto, and is in charge of overseeing whatever Cadence plans.MarcG
I don’t follow this stuff but I guess there’s a reason it can’t follow the existing VIA route through Montreal to Quebec City (Dorval->Bonaventure->Victoria Bridge->South Shore rail line)?
Also interested in Orr’s map.
carswell
@MarcG The north shore route is considered preferable for several reasons. It doesn’t have to cross a major river twice. It includes a stop at the Jean Lesage Airport and in Quebec’s third and fourth largest cities (Laval and Trois-Rivières respectively), increasing the potential passenger pool; Drummondville, the only city on the south shore route outside the metropolitan areas, is about half the size of Trois-Rivières. It also provides train service to Trois-Rivières, which has had none since 1990.
Those are the arguments I recall but there may well be others, such as the relative ease of expropriating land.
carswell
Also, with the south shore route, the HSR trains would have to cross the St. Lawrence on the existing bridges, the Pont de Québec and the Victoria Bridge, meaning it’d have to share rails with and be subject to delays imposed by freight rail operators on at least part of the line. But one of the big arguments in favour of a dedicated HSR line is precisely that it won’t be subject to such delays.
MarcG
That all makes sense, thanks carswell.
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Kate
The lineup for Osheaga has been announced.
MarcG
Lasso, evenko’s country music festival, as well.
EmilyG
I see Shaboozey is playing both festivals.
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Kate
One person died in a residential fire in St‑Henri on Tuesday evening.
On Thursday, the victim was identified and the building’s lack of smoke detectors reported.
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