Will the extension of the orange line take as long as that of the blue line? The mayors concerned are impatient with the delay in creating a project office, nine months after the announcement of its establishment, learned The Press.
This would be the first step in a process that should lead to a new public transport offer north of the Côte-Vertu station (current terminus of the orange line) to the north of Laval. Montreal is hoping for an outright extension of the metro, but the government says it wants to consider all options.
“Of course we would have liked it to go faster, that’s really the message we’re sending,” said Sophie Mauzerolle, transport manager on Valérie Plante’s executive committee, in an interview on Friday. “It has to go faster. »
The elected official was accompanied by the mayor of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Émilie Thuillier, whose borough would be crossed by this extension. “People have been waiting for this project for a long time,” she said. “It will give structuring public transit to the people of Cartierville, who don’t really have it. »
SOURCE GOVERNMENT OF QUEBEC / LA PRESSE INFOGRAPHIC
Same story on the Laval side: “We are impatiently awaiting the creation of project offices”, argued the office of mayor Stéphane Boyer, who was also promised rapid bus services (SRB) on other arteries. “These projects have the potential to transform the way our citizens move every day. »
At the source of their hopes: an announcement of “setting up a project office” for the extension of the axis of the orange line made on May 27, 2022 by François Bonnardel, then Minister of Transport.
“The new priority for the metro network is the orange line,” he even told the local newspaper, the Mail Laval.
Since then, the Deputy Prime Minister has taken over the Transport portfolio. “We are setting up the project office for the extension of the orange line, as announced by Minister Bonnardel in the spring of 2022,” said his press officer, Louis-Julien Dufresne. “We will be able to communicate more details in due course. »
“It’s time to take action”
The mayors of Laval and Ahuntsic-Cartierville are not the only ones to worry about the start-up delays for this project.
In a letter to Quebec, that The Press obtained, the mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa, also expressed his impatience. “No other announcement has been made since [le 27 mai]. What is more, we learn that the agencies concerned have not received any official mandate in this sense or the necessary credits for the creation of this project office”, he wrote in his missive dated last October, after the provincial elections. . “I therefore ask for your support to continue the work begun. »
Mayor Alan DeSousa is particularly concerned about the section that touches his territory and which should connect the Côte-Vertu metro station to the future Bois-Franc station of the REM. The latter is due to open next year.
“When a government minister makes a commitment saying that […] the new priority for the metro is the orange line, I take the minister’s words like cash, ”said the elected official in a telephone interview. “I remain convinced that the ministers [de la Métropole Pierre] Fitzgibbon and [Geneviève] Guilbault will follow up as soon as possible. Time flies. If they’re serious, it’s time to take action. »
Parallel projects
Montreal elected officials also insist on the importance of this possible connection between the REM and the metro, as well as on the impact of a new transport service on traffic in this part of the island.
“Currently, our streets in Cartierville in the Laval–Bois-Franc axis serve as a transit route for cars and buses for Laval residents. And the people of Cartierville are a bit heavy on their hearts, ”lamented Mme Thuillier. “It helps everyone. »
The extension of the orange line is above all an opportunity for the Government of Quebec to demonstrate that it can lead more than one battle in terms of public transport in the metropolis, added Sophie Mauzerolle.
“We want the projects to go faster, to do them in parallel. That we stop waiting for a project to see the light of day before starting another, said Mme Mauzerolle. There are needs, both for local Montrealers and for […] a much larger community. »