The commissioning of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) scheduled for next December has finally been postponed to the spring due to tests that are still in progress.
CDPQ Infra predicted that the first REM trains would run from 1er December to transport passengers between Brossard and Central Station in Montreal. However, the tests will have to continue, which would have led to the commissioning of the REM in the middle of winter. Under the circumstances, CDPQ Infra preferred to postpone the inauguration of the service to the spring, according to information obtained by The duty.
CDPQ Infra did not want to comment on the file on Thursday. The subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec and its president and CEO, Jean-Marc Arbaud, however, called the media to a press conference on Friday morning to take stock of the progress of the project.
Announced in 2016 by the government of Philippe Couillard, the project was already suffering from a delay of about a year.
This decision comes as major traffic congestion problems are expected in Montreal and on the South Shore with the halving of the number of lanes in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel starting October 31.
For the director general of Trajectoire Québec, Sarah V. Doyon, CDPQ Infra’s decision is very disappointing given the circumstances. “It will put pressure on existing transport networks,” she believes. The Longueuil transport network (RTL) will be particularly affected by the postponement of the entry into service of REM trains, she said.
The RTL will have to overhaul its network without knowing the date of commissioning of the REM, she points out. “You always have to work with unreliable deadlines. »
She hopes that this delay will not have the effect of reducing the clientele of the future REM. “It will be an ultra-frequent service in both directions, so I dare to believe that the clientele will be there”.
Further details will follow.