Ten transport ministers, 7 mayors of Montreal, 5 mayors of Laval… No, this is not a new version of the Green Mouse nursery rhyme. This is the number of elected officials in power since the Pie-IX SRB was included in the City of Montreal’s transportation plan… in 2007. We will not redo the genesis of this fast bus service which welcomes (finally !) its first passengers on Monday, but let’s just remember that we’ve been discussing a structuring means of public transport on Pie-IX Boulevard since… the Drapeau era.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Yes, we can look forward to the start of operation of this rapid bus service that will link Laval to the Pie-IX metro. But let’s face it, the Pie-IX SRB is the symbol of everything that is wrong with the planning and development of public transport in Quebec, and more specifically in Greater Montreal: lack of planning, delay, underinvestment (the government has always prioritized road infrastructure over public transport infrastructure), maintenance deficits, governance problems… we are beginning to know the diagnosis. But what are we waiting for to administer the remedy?
Our public transit needs are more urgent than ever, needs amplified by the climate emergency and the need to reduce our dependence on the car.
However, not only are we not developing new projects quickly enough, but we are not even able to make up for lost time, which many estimate at more or less 40 years. In other words, today we are funding projects that should have seen the light of day yesterday. A delay that is all the more difficult to make up for because even if the required tens of billions of dollars were rained down, there would not be enough manpower to carry out several major projects at the same time. A problem that could have been avoided if the projects had been better planned, as several Canadian cities do, Ottawa and Vancouver for example. (Only exception: the REM. A project developed by a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec which benefited from exceptional powers to develop its project.)
The extension of the blue line illustrates this well: we are only at the preliminary work stage when we have been talking about this extension for 35 years (!). We should already be working on the extension of the orange line and the yellow line. Another example: we are still studying the options for structuring transportation to the southwest and east of Montreal, but in the meantime, we could have developed other fast bus lines to serve these enclaves.
The problem is that we seem unable to carry out several projects at the same time.
Will we have to wait for the inauguration of a new station on the blue line in seven years before starting another major project?
The climate emergency is not the only reason that should convince us to step on the accelerator. In the greater metropolitan area, the next 25 years will be marked by three major repair projects: the Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine bridge-tunnel, the Ville-Marie highway and the Metropolitan highway (the 40).
Work, it should be noted, is 100% funded by Quebec, which only funds 85% of the repair work on public transit infrastructure. This is an aberration that needs to be corrected quickly so that we can rejuvenate our metro which, it should be remembered, is the same age as the bridge-tunnel and the metro: 50 years old. He needs a serious upgrade too.
By now, our mass transit and mobility planning specialists should therefore be making sure that there are enough options in the metropolitan area to get around quickly and comfortably over the next 25 years. At the same time, they should plan major transport projects for the next 50 years. Is it too much to ask?
This inability to walk and chew gum at the same time highlights the two weak points of governance and funding of public transport in Quebec.
We’ve been beating around the bush for too long: Montreal will have to decide to use the tax powers at its disposal to create a fund dedicated to financing major public transit projects. The inertia in this file hurts us. We will also have to tackle the taboo of the politicization of our public transport. The development of a transport axis must be based on evidence, not on political color or the changing mood of governments.