REM: Going PPP was not the solution

La Presse’s Vincent Brousseau-Pouliot lays out some figures showing that bringing in private money is not the best way to build public transit – the REM specifically, but he also looks at studies and experiences from elsewhere.

The Caisse du dépôt has neither brought the project in on time, nor under budget.

A week ago when it was announced that the REM would miss its December 1 launch, a regular reader asked who would absorb the cost overruns. Brousseau‑Pouliot doesn’t make that clear, although he does mention the billion dollars in public costs to cover the adaptations needed to integrate the REM.