We thought the project was moribund, but the western end of the “pink line” should finally progress in the fall: options for routes and modes will be disclosed in September by the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM), which is eyeing the Victoria Street railway right-of-way in Lachine.
Referring in veiled terms to the serial delays of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM), the organization says it wants to take the time necessary to properly plan this new network, promised six years ago by Valérie Plante. A federal contribution of 800 million has also been acquired since 2019.
“We are currently seeing other projects that are trying to put them into service. This stage where we go from planning, to carrying out, to commissioning, it is critical”, delayed Patrick Charpentier, project director at the ARTM, in an interview. “It often takes more than seven years to plan these projects, sometimes ten years. These are important projects. »
two solitudes
Mr. Charpentier and the rest of his team at the ARTM have spent the last two years studying the public transport needs of the “great south-west”, the territory to be served by the new system. The Plante administration would like it to take the form of a tram.
First puzzle: the division of this “great south-west” between the part perched at the top of the Saint-Jacques cliff (Westmount, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Montreal West) and the area at its foot (Verdun, LaSalle and Lachine). The two areas are very different and few people move between them. “We see that there are not necessarily interactions between the upper part and the lower part”, explained Mr. Charpentier.
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY THE ARTM
The territory to be served by the ARTM project
Another issue: “yes, there are a lot of trips heading downtown, but there is also significant demand within these sectors,” explained Simon Boiteau, communications manager for the ARTM. A demand currently largely met by the automobile.
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY THE ARTM
Share of automobile use (in navy blue) in trips for each sector
Victoria Street, “very interesting”
The project director Patrick Charpentier did not want to advance on the modes or the layouts of the new project. In September, he will submit a whole range of them to public opinion. “Between two and ten”, both for the modes and for the layouts.
For now, everything is on the table. Even the possibility of extending the metro’s green line to the west of the Angrignon terminus has not been ruled out. “All the possibilities are still, at the current stage, being considered,” indicated Mr. Charpentier, who nevertheless emphasizes – when this scenario is mentioned – the importance of taking the costs into account when planning such a project.
But Valérie Plante seems to have a head start on public consultations. “It will be on Victoria, it will enter in the middle of the district, it will serve the population of Lachine because it is absolutely essential if we want to densify”, affirmed the mayor at the beginning of June, referring to the Lachine redevelopment project. -East. His administration favors “unquestionably” the tram option.
Patrick Charpentier did not want to advance on these comments, if not to confirm that “the Victoria axis is an axis which is very interesting”. This “very wide” street already accommodates a railway right-of-way for several kilometres. It continues in rue Bouchard.
“We are doing the right things at the right stages,” he added.