East of Montreal | The tram will be cheaper and “quicker to deliver”, says the ARTM

The option of a 13 billion tramway is confirmed in the east of Montreal, as revealed The Press, in order to replace the 36 billion underground light rail proposed last summer. The project will be three times cheaper, but above all “quicker to deliver,” says the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM), which is already considering extensions to Lanaudière and Rivière-des-Prairies.

“We will propose a new project three times cheaper, as efficient and faster to deliver while allowing an improvement in urban development. It is a project based on the needs of the current and future population,” argued the director general of the ARTM, Benoit Gendron, on Friday.

In a preliminary report on the Eastern Structuring Project (PSE), that The Press obtained, his team notes that “the ridership and maximum hourly load data militate in favor of a surface rail mode”. “The capacity of a mode on tires, like an SRB [Service rapide par bus]equally competitive in terms of commercial speed, could not adequately meet travel needs, given the expected number of passengers to be moved during peak periods,” it is written.

According to the report, a final version of which will be submitted in the coming weeks, passenger comfort “would suffer in a mode on capacity tires”, such as an SRB, while “in return, the mode on rail offers more space and its capacity can be increased by adding cars as needed.” A ground system also makes it possible to better establish ourselves in neighborhoods, we judge.

Extensions under study

As we reported at the beginning of January, the choice of the tramway will reduce the total cost estimated at around 13 billion. The proposed tramway would have 31 kilometers of rails and 28 stations, spaced 1.1 kilometers apart on average.

The target timetable is around 2035 or 2036. The commercial speed of the future tramway would be between 27 and 31 km/h, a rate higher than what was planned for the Quebec tramway, which has gone back to the drawing board. For comparison, an SRB would only have traveled at around 22 km/h. Other modes, such as a tram-train or a light rail system (LRT), are also analyzed, but do not seem favored.

Marc Dionne, the head of the PSE, explained on Friday that the speed of the surface mode is based on “much less frequent and widely spaced stops”. “The insertion is also entirely on its own site, therefore without interference from traffic routes,” he argued.

The route would remain similar to the initial scenario, along the axis of Lacordaire Boulevard and Sherbrooke Street East, between Cégep Marie-Victorin and Pointe-aux-Trembles station, along the green metro line. Extensions are also envisaged towards Rivière-des-Prairies and Repentigny, in the MRC of L’Assomption. Without these two extensions, the project would be 21 kilometers long, would have 22 stations and would cost 10 billion.

Initially, extensions to Lanaudière could take the bus, or even an SRB. Moreover, the addition of a rapid bus connection using reserved lanes on Highway 25 “would have a potential effect of increasing ridership of approximately 14% on the project studied,” according to the ARTM.

In short, the connection of the tramway with the Montreal metro would be on two lines: first, with the future Lacordaire station, included in the extension of the blue line whose work must end in 2030, then with the Cadillac and Honoré-Beaugrand, on the green line.

26,300 peak users

The ridership of this tramway would be “around 26,300 users during the morning peak period” within 12 years, in 2036, the equivalent of 850 passengers per kilometer. The margin of error gives ridership oscillating between 23,300 and 27,300 trips, for a total of approximately 86,000 trips per day.

The maximum hourly load, i.e. the number of peak passengers at the busiest station, would be 3,650 passengers per hour on the north branch and 4,200 passengers per hour on the east branch. The modal shift from motorists to public transport would be around 17%. “That means that one in six users would abandon their car, so 4,500 fewer cars in the morning,” argued Mr. Dionne.

It would take approximately 16 minutes to cover the distance between Pointe-aux-Trembles and Honoré-Beaugrand station with the tram, a saving of 10 minutes compared to the current situation. On the north branch, we would go from 42 to 20 minutes, a gain of 22 minutes, between Cadillac station and Marie-Victorin CEGEP.

In the office of the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, we remain cautious. “We will wait to receive the report and analyze it before commenting on it. However, we reiterate our commitment to the east of Montreal: we want a structuring transport network possible to ensure its development,” argued the director of communications, Maxime Roy.

In September, Prime Minister François Legault committed, in front of an audience of business people from the region, to bringing the REM de l’Est to Lanaudière.

“We will take the time to analyze the report and have the necessary discussions with the government before commenting on it,” argued the head of mobility on the Montreal executive committee, Sophie Mauzerolle, repeating her desire to see the birth of a structuring transport project “in order to ensure the development of eastern Montreal”.