We will have to wait until 2027 to see the cars of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) connect Montréal-Trudeau airport to downtown Montréal. The commissioning of this antenna will be about three years behind the previous schedule.
It is the work of the planned station at the airport which explains this delay. The site has been underway since mid-March, but delivery is only scheduled for two years.
The schedule was confirmed Wednesday by the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) on Wednesday, following a site visit organized by Aéroports de Montréal (ADM), a non-profit organization that manages Montreal airport. -Trudeau.
“We plan to hand over the station in 2026 so that the REM can carry out the securing work, the installation of the rails and the control systems,” explained Steeve Bouchard, project director for the airport station.
This delay, however, affects one of the reasons for the project, which must connect the Montreal-Trudeau airport to downtown Montreal.
The airport station is the only one of the 26 stations that is not under the responsibility of NouvLR, a consortium retained by the CDPQ to build the REM. ADM is responsible for the construction.
“As soon as the station construction work is done, we will be able to connect it to the REM and perform the necessary tests,” said Caisse spokeswoman Emmanuelle Rouillard-Moreau. We plan to commission the antenna in 2027.
This project was to cost 250 million in 2018. The bill has more than doubled and reached 600 million. Quebec and Ottawa had to intervene in April 2021 to advance the money. ADM, a non-profit organization that manages Montreal-Trudeau and Mirabel airports, awarded the contract to AECON and EBC last January.
The new schedule surrounding the commissioning of the antenna may have consequences for the Technoparc Montréal, in the borough of Saint-Laurent. Located downstream from the airport, the future Marie-Curie station, called to serve the industrial park to the high-tech sectors, will remain deprived of service as long as the airport station is not open.