Eastern structuring project | Mixed reception for the ARTM’s 18.6 billion tramway

The 18.6 billion tramway that the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) wants to build receives a mixed reception. If Quebec seems to give it a favorable reception, other actors are concerned that the project is “not likely to open up the east” as the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) would have done.

“We confirm our intention to move forward with a project in the east. […] We want to open up the east of Montreal, we want a link in Lanaudière. And it is a project that could become one of the first mandates of the Mobilité Infra Québec agency,” reacted the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, on Friday.

Earlier, The Press revealed that the eastern Montreal tramway would ultimately cost nearly six billion more than expected, for a total of 18.6 billion, depending on the option recommended by the ARTM.

It is Quebec which will ultimately decide, five scenarios having been presented in total, but it seems that a favorable consensus is already emerging. Behind the scenes, government sources indicate that the 18.6 billion route “is the most interesting by far”, even if nothing is excluded.

Essentially, this route will reintegrate an underground part under the Rivière des Prairies, will include three new stations – one in Montréal-Est and two in Repentigny – all over an additional seven kilometers, which will have the effect of generating ridership of 10,000 rail users. more per day. It will also run along Highway 40, instead of Notre-Dame Street, in Repentigny. On the island, there will be few changes.

Friday, the head of the Eastern Structuring Project (PSE), Marc Dionne, called for “involving vehicle suppliers as early as possible” in the design process as well as those who will maintain them “in order to ensure that operational issues experienced [avec le train léger] of Ottawa and other northern cities” are not repeated in Montreal.

An “inequity” denounced for the east

At Vivre en ville, general manager Christian Savard is more skeptical. “The proposal will meet certain internal needs in the east, but it is not likely to open up the east in the same way as the western REM for the other half of the agglomeration. This inequity will weaken the east,” he said.

“I am particularly worried about the northeast of Montreal – Montréal-Nord and Rivière-des-Prairies – which was promised a pink line and a REM, but which will still find itself without heavy mode, despite the distance and population density,” persisted Mr. Savard. “It’s a project treated in silos within a too-restricted mandate,” he argued, even questioning the effectiveness of the tramway method.

The general director of Trajectoire Québec, Sarah V. Doyon, deplores that a connection with downtown Montreal has still not been reinstated. “This should not be done in a second phase when the green line is at saturation as the ARTM says. If this is the case, we will be in sardine class for another 20 years at the speed at which we do public transport in Quebec,” she notes.

Trams to be delivered

At the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM), President and CEO Michel Leblanc invites Quebec “to consider a group call for tenders for all tramway projects in Quebec likely to see the light of day » within 15 years, including that of the South Shore of Montreal. “We would have more chance of attracting the interest of the big players in the sector,” said Mr. Leblanc.

On the political scene, the liberal transport critic, Monsef Derraji, deplored Friday that “the people of the National Capital are wondering today where their structuring plan is.” “There is no tram, no third link, no bridge. The difference is that in Montreal, the ARTM took the leadership, but here, we wonder where the minister’s leadership is,” he judged.

Stung to the quick, M^me Guilbault replied that “the last time the Liberals did something constructive in Quebec was a number of years ago.” “For Quebec, it’s imminent, we will submit the CDPQ Infra report with our vision,” she said. Everything should be done by mid-June.

Minister Guilbault also disengaged from the decision of the municipalities of Greater Montreal, adopted Thursday, to increase the tax on registration by 150% to finance public transport, insisting that it is normal “that elected officials concerned take part of the responsibility.”

With Hugo Pilon-Larose, The Press