Plante’s push for Pink Line begins
Study to provide compelling case for $5.9B project
Montreal is setting up a municipal project office to carry out studies on the Pink Line, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante announced Monday.
At a news conference prior to the monthly city council meeting, the mayor said she was moving forward on the proposed métro extension, a key campaign pledge on which she was elected a year ago.
“I made a promise to Montrealers to place public transportation at the heart of my actions,” said Plante, who brushed off questions on the differences between her vision of transportation and that of newly elected premier François Legault.
With the bulk of his Coalition Avenir Québec caucus elected in regions outside Montreal, Legault has promised suburban-friendly measures like highway extensions on the North and South Shores and creation of a $4-billion third road link between Quebec City and Lévis.
He also supports the current $6.3-billion Réseau express métropolitain light rail project and extension of the métro’s Blue Line to Anjou. Legault has pledged to build a tramway in east-end Montreal and supports the $3-billion tramway project in Quebec City.
However, Legault has said the Pink Line’s projected $5.9-billion price tag is too expensive.
But Plante said she was confident the premier would listen to fact-based arguments in favour of the Pink Line. With 29 proposed stations from Montreal North to Lachine, the diagonal line is needed to take pressure off the crowded Orange Line, which will become even more packed when the Blue Line is extended eastward, she said.
The new métro line would also be the centrepiece of future efforts to combat climate change, which cannot succeed without significant investment in public transportation to reduce congestion and emissions, she said.
The project office will receive $1 million in next year’s budget to carry out studies on the project’s future impact on urban development, mobility and socio-economic needs, she said.
Those studies will complement technical studies already being done by the Société de transport de Montréal, she said.
In July, the former Liberal government announced $14.75 million in studies on nine public transit projects — including the Pink Line — that Montreal and regional mayors had identified as the top priorities for the greater Montreal region.
Plante said that rather than regarding the proposed east-end tramway as being in competition with the Pink Line, she welcomed that proposal and said the two projects could happen in parallel.
The mayor said that before the news conference she spoke with the new minister for the metropolis, Chantal Rouleau — the former borough mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles — to inform her about the project office.
In addition to easing crowding on the Orange Line, the Pink Line would provide a vital link to neighbourhoods in northeast and western Montreal that are cut off by physical barriers and poor transit links, Plante said.
The additional métro line would not only improve life for Montrealers but also be “good for the entire metropolitan community,” she said.
Pressed on when she thought work on the project could possibly start, Plante was evasive but said she was hopeful of getting the first results of studies by the project office and the STM by next spring.
“Hopefully in the next year we’re able to get a better idea of technology and price and see what would be the best way of moving forward,” she said.
Plante promised during last year’s election campaign to break ground on the Pink Line by the end of her first mandate.
At Monday’s news conference, she also announced the creation of a six-person advisory committee on the project. They are:
Josée Bérubé, urban planner and ■ architect with Provencher-Roy
Nadia Bhuiyan, vice-provost for ■
Partnerships and Experiential Learning at Concordia University
Frantz Saintellemy, president ■ and chief of operations at LeddarTech
André Poisson, director of the ■
Montreal Taxi Bureau
Florence Paulhiac-Scherrer, ■ professor of urban planning and tourism at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM)
Sidney Ribaux, co-founder and ■ director of Équiterre
Opposition Leader Lionel Perez said that one year into her mandate, Plante has made no progress on the Pink Line and only announced the creation of the office as a way of showing she was doing something about it.