(Québec) Avec son nouveau projet de lien de transport collectif entre Québec et Lévis, Geneviève Guilbault veut « donner le goût aux gens de renoncer à la voiture », favoriser la densification urbaine et freiner l’auto solo. Quant au tunnel autoroutier, qui aurait coûté près de 10 milliards, il n’y avait aucune donnée qui justifiait sa construction, a-t-elle reconnu.
« Pour ceux qui habitent ici, on n’a jamais vraiment eu d’offre de transport collectif autre que des autobus », a lancé la ministre des Transports jeudi, lors d’une conférence de presse attendue où elle a expliqué l’abandon de la promesse électorale caquiste de construire un tunnel autoroutier.
Elle a reconnu que les études commandées par le gouvernement ne permettaient pas de justifier la construction d’un tunnel autoroutier entre les deux villes, et que la pandémie et l’arrivée du télétravail ont réduit l’achalandage sur les deux ponts. L’an dernier, François Legault avait dit que le prix maximum de ce tunnel autoroutier était de 6,5 milliards. Mme Guilbault a reconnu qu’il aurait plutôt coûté de 9,5 à 10 milliards.
« Il faut prendre des décisions responsables. […] Politically, it is difficult for my 15 colleagues [des régions de Québec et Lévis] and me. […] I have very affected colleagues,” she explained.
But she also made a plea for “attractive sustainable mobility” and against solo driving. “The modal share of the car continues to gain ground in Quebec. […] It is not likely to be reversed if we do not have a different and attractive public transport offer,” she said.
However, by “having a really efficient public transport tube between our two shores, we cannibalized the road tunnel”.
No deadline
It therefore chose the solution of a “tunnel exclusive to public transport” to “promote modal transfer”.
Unlike his predecessor François Bonnardel, who believed that urban densification was a “fashion”, Mme Guilbault makes it a goal. Its tunnel, exclusive to public transit, will make it possible to “curb the growth of car traffic on the intershore links”, to “promote the densification of the central cores of the north shore and the south shore” and to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse “.
But the project is not advanced. We do not know its cost, nor its route, nor the mode of public transport that will circulate there. Minister Guilbault will provide an update “eventually”.
The day before, Prime Minister François Legault had already explained his “difficult decision, but it must be understood that the situation has changed a lot”.
Last September, during the election campaign, Mr. Legault said, however, that it was “obvious” that a third link was necessary given the development of the two cities and the traffic in the region despite the absence of studies to support its tunnel project.