The project to extend the blue metro line took a new step on Monday. The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) has launched a call for tenders for the construction of the tunnel to Anjou using a tunnel boring machine.
Expected for several decades, the extension of the blue line is no longer an “urban legend” with this new stage which has just been launched, argued Monday the chairman of the board of directors of the STM, Éric Alan Caldwell.
The STM had already conducted a qualification procedure to identify firms and consortia likely to carry out the project, but on Monday it did not want to say how many companies could be in the running for the call for tenders. “There is a watertightness of the process precisely to ensure the proper performance of the call for tenders. So those details cannot be disclosed. I myself am not aware, ”explained Eric Alan Caldwell.
Excavation using a tunnel boring machine will take place between Pie-IX Boulevard and the Anjou West sector. The tunnel segment between Saint-Michel station and Pie-iX boulevard will be carried out with a shearer. “The tunnel boring machine should enable us to advance 10 to 13 meters per day,” explained the director general of the STM, Marie-Claude Léonard. The call for tenders also covers other related work such as the excavation of the Pie-IX, Viau and Lacordaire stations, as well as certain auxiliary structures.
The STM hopes that the underground work will go smoothly and that it will not lead to cost overruns, as was the case for the Center de transport Bellechasse project, the bill for which has gone from 254 to 584 million since 2018. When we dig, we can always have bad surprises in all the projects we do. We still learned lessons [du Centre de transport Bellechasse] and we will make sure to have exhaustive studies before digging,” insisted Ms. Léonard.
Announced in 2018 by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard and Mayor Valérie Plante, the project to extend the blue line with five stations is now estimated at 6.4 billion. Its commissioning is scheduled for 2029.
Closing the budget hole
In the morning of Monday, the leaders of the STM presented the 2023 budget of the transport company before the Finance Committee. Struggling with a budget hole of nearly $ 78 million, the STM said it would seek “optimization avenues” to reduce its shortfall because the threat of a reduction in service still hangs over 2023.
Marie-Claude Léonard, however, ruled out the possibility of layoffs, although the payroll represents 67% of the STM’s budget. About 80% of the employees are unionized and the collective agreements will expire in 2025, she pointed out. “We need our resources right now. We need manpower in a context of labor shortage. We have trained people who know our environment,” she recalled.
The STM hopes to make up for its shortfall of $77.7 million thanks, in particular, to the help of senior governments. “Without that, inevitably, we will no longer be able to afford this service offer”, indicated Éric Alan Caldwell, emphasizing that the STM’s mission was to “move people”.
Recall that last year, the STM presented a budget for 2022 including a budget hole of 43 million that it had managed to fill with rationalization efforts totaling 18 million and an additional contribution from the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain ( ARTM) of 25 million. “The STM can this year be in the same horizon of efforts, but clearly, there will have to be sources of income to maintain the service offer,” insisted Mr. Caldwell. “The current system is unsustainable. »
Incidentally, Mr. Caldwell pointed out that the STM’s budget was tabled before the ARTM’s, even though the latter receives government funding to transfer it to transit companies. “In an ideal, normal world, funding would be in a flurry,” he said. “There is clearly a sequence to review. »
Municipal decisions
Calls for help from the STM for better funding of public transit are not new, but the solutions are slow in coming. Moreover, Monday morning, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, did not seem in a hurry to make commitments. “The transport companies are municipally managed,” she said at the microphone of Radio-Canada.
“I don’t think it’s up to the government to comment on each of the budget decisions because we would be talking about [l’autonomie] municipal”, she said, explaining that the City of Montreal had to assume its choices, including that of offering free admission for seniors in the STM network as of July 2023 and presenting a budget with a lack to win big.
Asked about the possibility of imposing a kilometer tax on motorists to finance public transport and remedy the drop in gas tax revenue with the gradual electrification of the car fleet, the minister had this answer: “New taxes in a context of inflation, I am not sure that the citizens would appreciate, ”she told host Patrick Masbourian. “There is a big global reflection to be had on all these huge public transport projects. »