MONTREAL — Opening of the largest portion of Montreal’s light rail network has been pushed back to fall 2025, the head of the company building the system has said.
A 16.6-kilometer (10.3-mile) segment of the Réseau express métropolitain, serving five stations,opened in July 2023. At that time, most of the rest of the 67-km (41.6-mile), 26-station system was expected to open this year. (A spur to Montreal’s airport has been projected for a 2027 launch.) [See “Montreal’s REM light rail makes debut,” Trains News Wire, July 29, 2023].
But CityNews reports Jean-Marc Arbaud, CEO of CDPQ Infra, said at a Thursday, Nov. 14, press conference that completion is being delayed in part by the “complexity of the work” in converting the Mount Royal tunnel from its historic heavy-rail use to light-rail operation. Arbaud cited the impacts of COVID-19, as well as discovery of dynamite with the tunnel, as sources of delay.
“We are confident today we’ll launch the entire REM in fall 2025,” Arbaud said.
Further delays had been announced earlier this year, but at that time, no new target date for operation was announced [see “Montreal’s REM faces new delays,” News Wire, April 24, 2024].
The project is now projected to cost Ca$8.34 billion, an increase of 4.9% from the previous estimate last year.
Initially slated for completion in 2021, the REM system is unique in being privately built and managed with a for-profit motive, rather than the usual government funding and operation. Pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Quebec is financing the project, built by its construction arm CDPQ Infra. The driverless system uses equipment built by Alstom.
DYNAMITE!? In a tunnel that had been in use for a hundred years. That’s quite an oops.