Posted at 3:00 p.m.
What smoke!
My dear Michel, you are completely right. The CDPQ had no experience in transport, but because it is the Caisse, governments turn a blind eye. What ignorance! So cost overruns and non-compliance with deadlines. What a humbug of billions!
Monique Jerome-Forget
Clear improvement
It is wrong to claim that the REM cannibalizes the Deux-Montagnes line and that all we do is replace one train with another. The commuter train had an anemic frequency due to one-way traffic on several sections of the line. At rush hour, we were still up, packed like sardines. The REM will have a frequency four times higher at rush hour. Yes, smaller trains, but due to the increased frequency, greater capacity, better distributed over time. Runs every 5 minutes at peak and every 15 minutes the rest of the day, seven days a week, that’s a huge improvement, not to mention the increased number of accessible destinations.
Robert Dufresne, former commuter train user
Face reality
Mr. Auger is absolutely right. How many other reports, analyses, journalistic chronicles will it take for the Legault government and its Minister for Transport to agree to see reality in the face? The REM does not serve Montrealers. He works for the CDPQ.
Jean Pierre Beaulieu
Why denigrate the third link?
With your remarks on the cannibal of Montreal, one wonders why you denigrate the third link in Quebec. Between Montreal and Quebec, we are really far from the mark in terms of public transport. In Quebec, the only carrier that will be cannibalized is the Quebec-Lévis ferry.
André Brunelle
Call the Caisse to order
Making plans without real consultation and without taking too much account of existing transport networks denotes an attitude that is incompatible with the definition of a public service. The Caisse de dépôt must be called to order and it must agree to share the planning of its public transport projects. Period. Otherwise, his plans will not materialize.
Pierre Chatelain
Mess
The cannibal also ate the Chevrier station in Brossard. This station where every day, for many years, thousands of residents took the express bus to downtown Montreal (a 10-minute trip). Hundreds of these residents had bought their house near the Chevrier station to avoid using their car to work in downtown Montreal. This station will be closed soon and these thousands of workers will have to use their car if they want to get to the new REM parking lot located 2 km further south (south of the 30), therefore further from downtown Montreal. Many of these workers will decide to go to downtown Montreal by car. Such a waste.
John Burke
The speed of the REM
The greatest quality of the REM is time. This is the factor that makes people switch from their car to public transport. How long does it take me by car versus public transport? By passing every 2 minutes and with its speed of movement, it will be more efficient than any other mode of transport. Yes, it will take some of the metro customers, but that’s good because the green line will soon be saturated if we don’t do anything. The route of the green line was the best in 1960, it is just normal that it is the one considered for the REM because that is where the density is optimal. More consultation yes, but please, the east end of Montreal has waited long enough. A waltz-hesitation that will postpone the entry into service for another 10 years, no thank you.
Guillaume Goupil
Undress Paul to dress Jean
In addition to reimbursing the huge investment, including rolling stock manufactured outside Quebec, taxpayers will have to assume the operating costs of the new network plus an 8% profit. Also, there is no guarantee that operating and maintenance costs will be lower than those of existing transport organizations. Finally, with the REM, we will contribute to the impoverishment of the current networks. We undress Paul to dress Jean, all with the support of governments.
Jean Sansfaçon
A useless monster
Excellent column. I live in Rivière-des-Prairies, and I don’t want this useless, costly monster that doesn’t complement the current REM network. It is a waste of funds.
Normand Drapeau, Montreal
Getting Quebec into debt
Excellent column! I agree that the other transport options must first be evaluated before giving the green light to CDPQ Infra. First, with the experience of the REM de l’Ouest, we already know that the REM de l’Est will certainly cost more than $10 billion. Secondly, I can’t believe you can’t come up with a smarter idea that respects the urban and visual environment to meet the transportation needs in Montreal’s east end. With this project and the equally useless third link in Quebec, the Legault government is in the process of bogging down Quebec in a debt from which it will have great difficulty freeing itself.
Christian Bouchard
let’s stop the bulldozer
Very clever whoever predicts the finality of the future development of public transport in the east end of Montreal. As for me, the REM de l’Est project should stop now. In my humble opinion, CDPQ Infra, with its bulldozing approach ignoring other players in the field and with the Legault government giving it its blessing without thinking about the long term (a very understandable fault with the smell of fall elections), it is time to withdraw the powers granted to CDPQ Infra.
Asking CDPQ Infra for transparency is like asking an alcoholic for temperance. If the past is a guarantor of the future, CDPQ Infra’s decisions will continue to be made behind closed doors with, as you say so well, a single objective: profit for itself to the detriment of users.
And Mayor Valérie Plante must have been quite surprised last week when she learned that she had the power of life or death over the Eastern REM. Hope she puts it to good use.
Daniel Despres