QS promises 38 new métro stations in greater Montreal

If elected, Québec solidaire is promising to equip the greater Montreal area with 38 new métro stations by 2030, an extension that would include Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante’s proposed Pink Line.

The party unveiled a vast project Thursday called “Grand Montréal express” that would come with $10 billion in spending in transport infrastructure during its first mandate.

The party’s spokesperson, Manon Massé, said the project is “a big piece” of Québec solidaire’s “economic transition plan.”

In addition to the 30 or so métro stations on the proposed Pink Line, which would link Montreal North to downtown and to Lachine in the west, Québec solidaire, if elected, is also committed to supporting funding for the already planned extension of the Blue Line to Anjou. It also promised two new stations on the Orange Line, to better serve St-Laurent and Cartierville, a new station on the Green Line that would reach André-Laurendeau CEGEP, and two new stations on the Yellow Line in Longueuil as early as 2023. It also plans to eventually extend the Yellow Line to the McGill station, in order to reduce congestion at Berri-UQAM.

The party is also proposing a tramway on Taschereau Blvd. on the South Shore and a 30-station “train-tram” on Notre-Dame St. in Montreal, which would connect downtown to Pointe-aux-Trembles — as well as river shuttles, which would also go to Longueuil.

For Laval, it’s promising an eastwest rapid transit bus service that would link to the Réseau électrique métropolitain (REM) project and the métro system.

Québec solidaire is banking that the “interconnectivity of modes of transportation” would encourage citizens to use them, Massé said, arguing that “today, two out of three people take the car by themselves to go to work.” The party would like 50 per cent of trips in the greater Montreal area to be made by public transit come 2030.

Vincent Marissal, the QS’s candidate in Rosemont — “where there is no métro station,” he said — maintained that despite Quebec politicians laughing at Plante’s Pink Line proposal, “Montrealers still voted for it.”