Creation of the “purple line” of the Montreal metro and more than 80 km of tram lines: Quebec solidaire (QS) unveiled on Wednesday the Montreal component of its plan “to revolutionize transport”.
“Montreal is the largest city in Quebec and in Montreal, the number of vehicles is increasing faster than the number of people,” said QS spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. We’re going into the wall, it can’t go on any longer.” The lack of “ecological and practical alternatives” to the car is in question, he raised, passing through the metropolis on day 11 of the electoral campaign.
To remedy the situation, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois has promised to inject $47 billion by 2030, that is the duration of two possible mandates, to carry out his transportation plan. In front of a sign announcing the extension of the green line, he announced that it would go to Tétreaultville, east of the Metropolis. The western branch of the orange line would be extended to Laval.
A “mauve” line, an “enhanced version of the pink line” proposed by Mayor Valérie Plante, would leave from the Place-des-arts station to reach Laval, via Montreal-North and Rivière-des-Prairies, has explained Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
The political formation also intends to create a vast 80 km tramway network, which would include “an east-west axis between Lachine and Pointe-aux-Trembles, with branches towards Repentigny and Terrebonne; a north-south axis in the axis of boulevard Lacordaire”. The South Shore would also be entitled to its tramway network.
Finally, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois also wants to implement a hundred kilometers of lanes reserved for buses throughout Montreal. Nearly 100 km would also be served by rapid bus services in Montreal, Laval and on the South Shore.
If Quebec solidaire is brought to power, it would be “the largest public transport project since the construction of the metro in 1967”, argued Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. “You have to have the same kind of ambition” as that which carried this project, he argued, flanked by his candidates from the east of Montreal.
But we must not delay, warned the solidarity leader. “We must plan and start financing these projects now, if we want to see them succeed in the coming decades. People are tired of waiting.”
More details will follow