PQ says REM route is purely political and ‘a waste’
Calling it a route based purely on politics, the Parti Québécois lashed out against the planned Réseau express métropolitain on Tuesday.
PQ MNA Alain Therrien, the party ’s spokesperson on the economy, said the $6.3-billion electric light-rail project will include a branch that will go along the Trans-Canada Highway toward Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. He said that branch was only included by REM planners, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, because of the insistence of the Liberal government and those ridings are held by high-profile MNAs Carlos Leitão, Martin Coiteux and Geoffrey Kelley.
REM projections show a total of 22 million trips will be taken per year from the Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Pointe-Claire and Kirkland stations out of more than 600 million trips for the whole network. The PQ said that shows the branch is simply not financially feasible.
“This is a branch that will go through an area that does not have the population density to justify such a colossal investment,” Therrien said.
Calling it “La Ligne Rouge” for the red colour of the Quebec Liberal Party, the PQ showed off a poster with the proposed route to- ward Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, with three stations labelled as Leitão, Coiteux and Kelley.
Therrien said the branch of the REM will cost taxpayers roughly $1.2 billion, and then the governments will subsidize each ride to the tune of 72 cents per kilometre travelled. The PQ called this a waste of taxpayer money, saying it can do much more with roughly the same amount the REM will cost.
Saying it would cancel the REM project if elected, the PQ has promised a wide-ranging alternative public transit plan called Le Grand déblocage, or The Big Breakthrough. It calls for exten- sions of nearly all existing commuter train lines to the outer reaches of the Montreal region, like Ste-Hyacinthe and Joliette, several tramways within the city of Montreal including one to the airport, and adding express buses on several major highways.
For the western region of Montreal, the plan calls for two additional morning departures on the existing Vaudreuil-Hudson line and two new departures on the weekend, and for that train line to be extended west by four stations to Coteau-du-Lac. The PQ’s plan also calls for more departures on the Deux-Montagnes line and to add double-decker cars so it can carry more passengers.
Therrien said surveys have shown that most people are satisfied with the existing service on the Vaudreuil-Hudson line, so having the REM provide service every six to 12 minutes for 20 hours per day would be overkill.
“They made a route, and they never met specialists or urban planners. They did it completely divorced from the reality on the ground,” Therrien said, adding the Grand déblocage is based on studies and is a much more efficient way to use resources.
The PQ has said its plan will remove 133,000 cars from the road by 2025, nearly 80 times more than the 1,700 in the case of the REM.
“It’s using the right mode for the right spot,” he said. “That means if there is already an existing train, we’ll use that train.”
Critics have said the PQ’s plan promises something for everyone and will cost far more than the $7.4 billion the party is claiming. What’s more, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has said it would cost the province about $1 billion in financial penalties to cancel the project now that contracts have been awarded.