The first section of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM), on the South Shore of Montreal, will ultimately not be ready for the start of the 2022 school year.
Posted at 4:31 p.m.
The antenna, which connects Brossard to Montreal’s Central Station via Île des Sœurs, was to be inaugurated in the spring or summer. The site took two to three months late and should be completed in time for commissioning in the fall, according to our information.
“In the current pandemic context, which has lasted two years, it is indeed increasingly difficult to maintain the objective of summer 2022 to commission the first REM branch on the South Shore,” said Jean. -Vincent Lacroix, spokesperson for CDPQ Infra, in a statement made by telephone.
This antenna was first to be inaugurated “at the end of 2021”. This objective had been revised in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, after construction sites had been closed for several weeks.
The section includes six stations, as well as the crossing of the St. Lawrence River on the new Samuel-De Champlain bridge.
Omicron Effects
Also according to our information, the tightening of health measures in recent weeks, as well as the outbreak of the Omicron variant, have had an impact on the progress of the work. With 3,000 workers assigned to the construction, each day brought its share of sick employees or in isolation.
The current outbreak of COVID-19 is also hitting the workshops and factories where the parts needed for the project are designed.
Even though all the cars needed to bring the south shore section into service have been received, the electrification work – particularly on the bridge and in the Montreal part of the section – is progressing less quickly than expected.
CDPQ Infra is starting to notify its partners of this delay, so that transit companies in Greater Montreal can plan for the inauguration of new bus lines at the same time as the commissioning of the REM.