Montrealers who live in the East Island are patient people.
They’ve been promised a big public transit project for so long they have to hum the song Lyrics, lyrics, lyrics in the shower.
Like Dalida, they probably sing “More words, always words, the same words…”.
After all, they have been told about the extension of the blue line since 1979! And a north-south transport infrastructure for almost as long. They were also dangled with a pink metro line and a REM.
In 2023, at a time of energy transition, climate change and pro-densification discourse, a resident of Montréal-Nord (a very densely populated neighborhood) can take up to an hour and change buses twice to to get to Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, a journey of barely 10 kilometers that takes half the time by car.
No wonder the majority of residents in this sector of Montreal (61%) travel exclusively by car.
We were therefore impatiently awaiting the conclusions of the working group chaired by the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) on the structuring project in the East. However, the final report, submitted on July 3, had the effect of an icy shower: the ARTM is proposing a 100% underground REM in the East at a cost of $36 billion. Ouch!
We would have liked to sabotage the project that we would not have done otherwise.
It must be said that the working committee’s mandate – to improve the Eastern REM project of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) – did not leave it much leeway to come up with other solutions.
Still, the damage is done: in less than 24 hours, the file has become eminently political, not to say toxic. And since then, it’s been radio silence. Not a politician to take up the torch and reiterate the importance of serving eastern Montreal by public transit.
Prime Minister François Legault says he choked on his sip of coffee in front of the ARTM estimate, while Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault said the costs should be lowered.
Their “surprise” at the conclusions of the report is astonishing when we know that their officials participated in the work of the committee that produced the report. Is communication so bad within the government apparatus?
We expected Valérie Plante to quickly take up the torch and reiterate her desire for a project for the East. After all, it was she who made the pink line her electoral commitment in 2017. And it was she who fought last year to have a place at the decision-making table of the Eastern REM. But the mayoress of Montreal has been very silent for two weeks. With the exception of an “I am enthusiastic”, nothing to reassure the citizens concerned. However, they are entitled to know what will actually happen in the near future.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Christian Savard, Executive Director of Vivre en ville
The sign of life finally came from the Vivre en ville organization. Its general manager, Christian Savard, proposed the idea of a “pink REM”, a cross between Valérie Plante’s pink line project and the CDPQ’s REM. It would be an underground light rail that would make the link between downtown Montreal and the northeast of the island (Montreal-North or Rivière-des-Prairies), and which would perhaps go as far as ‘downstream. It would stop in highly populated neighborhoods – think of Rosemont or Plateau-Est – and join the blue line of the metro. Rough estimate of costs: between 17 and 24 billion dollars.
The idea has several qualities: the route meets identified needs, it is unanimous, and it would open up areas that are very poorly served by the metro. As for the chosen mode – light rail – it is favored in several cities around the world. We just need to shed light on a great mystery: why it costs more in Quebec than elsewhere to build one?
The proposal of the boss of Vivre en ville, who sat on the first committee of experts for the Eastern REM, has another quality: that of fueling the debate and keeping it alive. East Montreal must not fall back into the blind spot of our politicians. Its residents have waited long enough.
Instead of Dalida’s sad words, they would surely prefer to sing “I see life in pink”.