On the eve of the election campaign, François Legault takes out his eraser and removes one more name from his list of enemies.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
After making peace with the mayor of Quebec over the tramway, he gives the mayoress of Montreal a reason to smile. Finally, Valérie Plante will participate in the development of the Eastern REM project.
This is therefore the end of the mandate of CDPQ Infra, a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement. Its aerial section downtown simply did not pass.
To those who accuse him of arrogance, Mr. Legault can answer that he listened to the experts. Many city planners and architects worried about this aerial scar. The report of the independent committee also feared a visual fracture effect in the city center. The huge noise-reducing concrete wall didn’t reassure them either.
The committee dreamed of a solution that will never see the light of day: an underground section in the city center. According to CDPQ Infra, it was technically perilous. Mr. Legault was afraid that it would become a financial black hole.
According to CDPQ Infra forecasts, nearly 67,000 passengers would have used this segment. This would have accounted for 40% of daily trips. This is a regrettable loss.
Because of the lack of social acceptability, it was to be expected. What is surprising is that Mr. Legault wants to extend the route to Laval and to Lanaudière.
The idea is out of the right field… It would increase the cost, make it difficult to realize (you would have to dig under the river) and reduce the relevance. As these areas are less densely populated, the number of passengers per station would be lower.
These options will be studied. This does not mean that they will be retained.
Politically, it’s clever. On the eve of the next election campaign, the Caquists will let the sparkle of a new public transport service in the crowns, without a single dollar being spent. And they calm the discontent in the face of the apprehended disfigurement of the city center.
The East Montreal Chamber of Commerce is bitter. She says “take note” of the decision. A euphemism that usually means: “We would like to complain, but we hold back. »
François Legault and Valérie Plante swear they have one thing in common: their impatience. They risk being violent.
Ejecting CDPQ Infra will slow down the project. From now on, everything will be more complicated. The REM de l’Est will be piloted by Montreal, Quebec, the STM, the MTQ and the ARTM. There is congestion of acronyms.
However, the slowness comes with an advantage: critical recoil.
CDPQ Infra had a financial logic. She was looking for a return. It made him want to maximize passengers, which is a positive. But she did it without an overall vision. In his calculations, a person who prefers the metro to the REM, it didn’t work out.
That said, she was just following her mandate. The fault lies with Quebec.
It would have been preferable for Mr. Legault to proceed in order. By first defining the need, then finding the best way to meet it for the entire network.
This planning work was precisely the role of the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM). Since its creation in 2017, it was bypassed by governments and unloved by cities. The appointment of a new president at the ARTM, Patrick Savard, will not harm him. But Quebec does not help him by requiring him from the start to study sections in Laval and Lanaudière.
If CDPQ Infra was going fast, it’s because it was allowed to. For the first phase of the REM, it moved at the speed of a Ferrari, and with the delicacy of a bulldozer. With the Eastern REM, she was more conciliatory. But it nevertheless benefited from a streamlined process, particularly for expropriations, calls for tenders and documentation.
To avoid delays, Mr. Legault and Mr.me Plante just have to act accordingly. Surely there must be a balance between bypassing consultation and the bureaucratic nightmare of projects like SRB Pie-IX.
Despite the end of the aerial section downtown, several concerns remain.
Although less controversial, the structure in height in Mercier also makes some unhappy. Traffic on René-Lévesque sometimes resembles that of an urban highway. We do not know how to integrate a structuring public transport service on Notre-Dame Boulevard. And the REM lacks interconnections with the metro.
CDPQ Infra offered only one. His argument: the green line will be saturated in the medium term. Therefore, too many passengers should not be sent there.
Still, with an overall vision, we could better plan the network. For example, strengthening the power supply and ventilation to be able to increase the frequency of metro cars, and transport more people.
We also hope that the costs of urban integration will be part of the project. It would be ungrateful for Montreal to pick up the bill for these thankless jobs while Quebec cuts the ribbons on TV.
A decade from now, May 2, 2022 will be remembered as a key date for the Eastern REM. The one where he started to go off the rails. Or, the one where it was revived for the better.
For now, both options remain possible.