Urban planning and mobility plan | Montreal dreams of 200 km of tramway by 2050

Montreal is banking on a vast network of nearly 200 kilometers of trams to serve a majority of its territory from east to west by 2050. In the north of the island, the intention is to increase rapid bus services (SRB ). And within 25 years, the City also wants to revive the pink line, a project dear to Valérie Plante.

This is what we learn in the Urban Planning and Mobility Plan (PUM) 2050, made public on Tuesday. A map of the City’s public transport vision shows the extent of the City’s ambitions, which wants within just 15 years to have developed a tram network “connecting the territory from east to west of the orange line” .

In total, the ten tram circuits proposed would total 184 kilometers. No timetable or costs have been put forward, but the City is talking about “major investments”, in tens of billions of dollars.

“We are very aware that we do not control financial decisions regarding transport development. We are, after all, quite dependent on the government. […]but for us it was important to show the way,” argued Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante on Tuesday, reiterating that this vision is in a way “a gift” for Quebec and its future transport agency.

For the moment, only one tram project is planned in the metropolis, the Eastern Structuring Project (PSE), which replaced the dead REM de l’Est. At the end of May, The Press revealed that the latest version of the project must be 38 km long, have 31 stations, cost 18.6 billion and go from the east of Montreal to Repentigny, with a portion underground under the Rivière des Prairies. Delivery is planned for 2035.

In the north-east of the island, the City intends to focus more on the massive development of Rapid Bus Service (SRB) routes, as is already the case on the Pie-IX axis. The City aims in particular to develop them along the orange line, as well as in Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, or even Montréal-Nord.

The principle of a “sustainable mobility corridor”, pairing an SRB with an Express Bike Network (REV) as is planned by 2027 on Boulevard Henri-Bourassa, is also expected to multiply in the center and south of the island. All of this would be accompanied by the significant development of reserved lanes; the PUM reports around ten of them are currently “under study”.

Twice as many cycle paths

Within 15 years, the Plante administration also hopes that the extension of the western branch of the orange line will be “completed”. To date, the most put forward scenario is an extension north of the Côte-Vertu station, passing through the future Bois-Franc REM station to Laval.

In the long term, in 2050, the performance of public transport would be “enhanced by the addition of a new metro line, the pink line”, we read in the PUM, which gives very few details on its potential route. Its current form, called the “great South-West project”, should for the moment connect Lachine to downtown Montreal, but has not taken any formal step beyond consultation.

Ultimately, Montreal aims to add “nearly 300 kilometers of infrastructure” to its structuring public transportation network in just 25 years. This would increase the proportion of the population with access to a transportation system close to their residence from 30 to 75%.

On the active transport side, the municipality intends to “double the size of the upper cycle network”, by adding more than 450 kilometers of two-wheel paths. We thus hope to continue to establish a “cycling culture”, even in winter, the increase in recurring users having already jumped by 42% between 2015 and 2020.

200,000 housing units

As revealed The Press Tuesday, the idea is to develop 200,000 more housing units, 20% of which would be “off-market,” to stimulate ridership around public transportation. In the short term, the City aims to reach a threshold of 12% “non-market” housing within 10 years. This rate is currently 7%.

“We want to unlock Montreal’s development potential. And that will involve intelligent densification objectives,” explained M.^me Plante, in interview.

To do this, the City will make way for a new measure of densification, based on housing per hectare, with scales for a low, moderate or high densification zone. A sector classified as first category can develop between 15 and 60 units per hectare, while a district considered “moderate” can have between 60 and 200 housing units per hectare. Finally, at the highest levels of densification, we will be able to exceed more than 200 housing units per hectare.

As for the authorized heights, this will depend on the sectors and districts, which can specify their regulations. The principle of predominance of the height of Mount Royal will however remain.