Who leads to Montreal? And who will lead after November 7? The outgoing mayor or the candidate mayor? Or the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)? The first no longer speaks of the pink line, for which she was elected, that lip service. The second is starting for the Eastern REM as proposed, as long as it displays a “signature” for Montreal. The third is to implement, without transparency, by “bulldozing”, a network of suburban trains.
Let it be clear: REM trains are intended for commuters. City dwellers will not use them: they have the metro, even if they deserve better. In terms of infrastructure, the pangs of the suburbs are known: congested, noisy and polluting highways, soulless shopping centers along endless anonymous boulevards, repetitive and alienating architecture, seas of parking lots, streets without sidewalks.
It is this spirit, stupidity and ugliness, that the CDPQ has decided to extend to its network in the central districts of the city, including downtown. After analysis, she claims. The results of what is under construction are convincing. It’s a disaster.
While the aerial model for infrastructure in central cities is abandoned all over the world, and even as these highways built in the air 50 years ago in North America are being demolished, Montreal is perpetuating the genre. For incomprehensible reasons and without consultation – talk to the mayors concerned.
Is the need really there, urgent? We don’t expect profitability, but will the result / effort ratio be there? There is still a chance. Do not build the Eastern REM as proposed. The CDPQ tells us it’s take it or leave it. It is to be left. Yes, the east and north of Montreal deserve better public transport service. The center too, and the west, and Vieux-Longueuil. But not the suburbs, not in priority.
Let’s consolidate before we spread out. Why not design the network globally, starting from the center and central, densely populated districts? And if it takes an infrastructure in the axis of the rue Notre-Dame, think of a train on the ground or in the trenches. If the MTQ is capable of making an 8.3 km tunnel under the river between Lévis and Quebec, we are indeed capable of making a ground train on Notre-Dame. And in a covered trench under René-Lévesque – like the New York subway. For a distance of 3.2 km between Pied-du-Courant and Place Ville-Marie. Look, there is already a trench in this sector: the Ville-Marie highway, which has four lanes in each direction between Papineau and Robert-Bourassa, eight underused lanes …