[IMAGES] Test the REM for free to facilitate the transition

The general public will be able to test for free for two days the route of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) between Brossard and Montreal, whose commissioning on July 31 is not only happy among residents of the South Shore.

“It will cost more than the buses and everyone will take the REM at the same time. There are going to be long queues,” apprehends Rosana Urteaga.

The Brossard resident took bus 49 to get to the Panama terminus and take shuttle 45 to downtown Montreal, where she works two days a week.

However, this shuttle from the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) will be replaced by the REM. The municipal official will have to pay $4.50 for her title, rather than $3.75 per passage, the equivalent of $12 more per month for one who works face-to-face two days a week.

“It would be nice to pay the same price for the same distance,” said the municipal official.

Paid parking lots

The commissioning of the REM will also shake up the habits of Christine Varin, who parked for free at the Chevrier incentive parking lot in Brossard to take the RTL express shuttle 90 to downtown, which has also been abolished.

To board the new light rail, she will now have to park in the Panama and Brossard terminus parking lots, many of whose spaces will be chargeable, unlike the RTL’s incentive parking lots, where spaces were free.

“I have no gain, I expected it to be faster, but it won’t be. With parking, it will cost money, ”laments M^me Varin, who was nevertheless delighted with the arrival of the light rail in Brossard.

Open doors

To facilitate the transition, an “open house” operation will take place on July 29 and 30, on the eve of the commissioning of the first five stations on July 31.

Between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., people will be able to test the first REM branch for free, which will connect Brossard, L’Île-des-Sœurs and Central Station.

“Who will take the REM on a Saturday and a Sunday, during the construction holidays?” wonders M.^me Urteaga, for whom the real test will begin in August.

“By offering everyone the opportunity to see the advantages of the REM, we hope that users will want to adopt it on a daily basis. This free weekend is a pledge of our government’s support for public transit,” said Geneviève Guilbault, Deputy Premier and Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, on Monday.

Eventually, the REM will connect the various strategic hubs of the metropolitan region, namely the South Shore, the North Shore, the west of Montreal and the airport, and this commissioning is scheduled for fall 2024.

For Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, the arrival of the REM “will revolutionize public transit in Montreal”.

“Such an occasion has not occurred since 1967, and it will be a defining moment for the metropolis and also for all of Quebec.”

– With QMI Agency