MONTREAL — The first segment of Montreal’s Réseau express metropolitan light rail system will open on July 31, construction contractor CDPQ Infra announced Friday.
The initial five-station, 16.6-kilometer (10.3-mile) segment will operate between the South Shore community of Brossard and Central Station (Gare Centrale), with a trip taking less than 18 minutes.
The much-delayed service will eventually cover 67 kilometers (41.6) miles and serve 26 stations. Most of the rest of the system is expected to open in 2024, with the branch to Montreal’s Trudeau airport opening in 2027.
The first portion of the system was originally slated to open in 2021, but as noted in a CBC report, CDPQ Infra has said circumstances ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the war in Ukraine have prevented on-time completion.
The announcement comes a day after CDPQ Infra said it was taking steps to lessen the system’s noise issues [see “Montreal light rail system to address noise complaints,” Trains News Wire, July 7, 2023].
The automated system will use trainsets built by Alstom. Additional information on the REM network is available at its website.
“Paris of North America” will be more and more like its “Rail City Of Light” idol!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
The companies who are pouring billions into space exploration and making it a goal to go back to the moon by 2025 and then head for Mars if they were to put the same effort into building world class rail and transit systems here on Mother Earth look at what they can accomplish . They have the technology, and the know how and the skills and money needed to bring this about. Why not use that space age technology to build and improve better transportation systems here on Earth which will benefit civilization and mankind. Not al of us are going to travel into outer space or build new cities on the moon and Mars but we all have to live here on Earth and we defintely need to improve and make things better here in our home planet and that includes traveling and transit
Joseph C. Markfelder
Despite all the well-intentioned developments, North America today has still a lot to learn in the field of passenger rail transport, especially from China, Spain, France, Germany and Switzerland.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
20 hours per day, 7 days per week. Welcome on board the long-awaited REM of Montreal!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Good beginnings and good luck with REM to good-hearted Montreal!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Well, we all wish to see rail systems, passenger or freight, succeed. But it speaks volumes about project management and engineering skills when Canadian or US rail project take so long to deliver and are so expensive. Too many fingers in the pie.
Who can forget about the ALP-45DP debacle? IIRC, it derailed in Central Station and was then banned from CN tracks, resulting in the shutdown of the the Deux-Montagnes line.
And the service to YUL airport is circuitous and probably will require over an hour from the city. Both CN (VIA) & CP have direct straight line routes that run by the airport, but require a shuttle connection.
North America does rail and transit very poorly. We should outsource design/build of everything to China.
I don’t think we suffer from engineering skills in NA Greg. I seen project management skills starting to deteriorate as the age workforce moved on.
In my opinion, our biggest drag to getting anything done in a timely cost efficient manner is bureaucracy at all government levels and the NIMBY’s that seem to have their ear.
Just look at the mess with the Lac-Megantic bypass as a prime example.
It seems to me with regards to rail here in NA, by and large people just don’t see the advantage to passenger and freight railways.