LIGHT-RAIL PLAN SUBJECT OF OPEN HOUSE
The public is invited to an open house at the Holiday Inn in PointeClaire on Thursday to ask questions about the proposed Réseau électrique métropolitain.
The $5.5-billion light-rail project proposed by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec would link the West Island to the airport, the South Shore, Deux-Montagnes, and the downtown core.
Experts from the Caisse will be on hand to answer any questions, and information about the project will be displayed.
The Caisse proposed the project in April after it was asked by the Quebec government to build and operate two train projects — to the West Island including the airport, and to the South Shore across the Champlain Bridge.
After less than a year studying the issue, the Caisse proposed building and operating a light-rail train that would link to both destinations in one project.
The light-rail project is contingent on funding from both the federal and provincial governments.
The Caisse has committed $3 billion, but needs other levels of government to fund the rest before it commits to begin construction. If the funding is given a green light, the trains could be running by 2020, the Caisse said.
Leaving from Central Station, the 67-kilometre network will use the track running through the Mount Royal tunnel, taking over the Deux-Montagnes line from the Agence métropolitaine de transport. New tracks will be built over the new Champlain Bridge and link to the South Shore, ending near the intersection of highways 30 and 10 in Brossard.
Two other dedicated tracks will be built, branching off from the Deux-Montagnes line, where Highway 13 meets Highway 40. One will head to Trudeau airport, with a stop in the Technoparc in StLaurent. Another will follow Highway 40 to Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.
The Vaudreuil-Dorion train line won’t be affected by the project.
Light-rail trains are smaller and carry fewer passengers, but the service will be more frequent than the AMT service. The Caisse proposed driverless, automated trains, using the model of the Canada Line the Caisse helped build in Vancouver.
The Caisse has promised trains will leave every three to six minutes from the South Shore and every six to 12 minutes on the West Island and Deux Montagnes Line, for the duration of its operation schedule from 5 a.m. to 1:20 a.m. The Caisse estimates it will take 40 minutes to take the train from either Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue or Deux-Montagnes downtown. It will take 30 minutes to go from Central Station to the airport. It will take between 15 and 20 minutes to travel from Brossard downtown.
Macky Tall, president of CDPQ Infra — the Caisse’s infrastructure arm — said the decision to follow Highway 40 was made because of work going on in the Turcot Interchange, which would have prevented crews from building dedicated lines for the next five years. He said building along that corridor would also cost $1 billion more because it would require a track dedicated to passenger traffic.
The thorny issue of parking remains unsolved. Many stations along the Deux-Montagnes line are over capacity and there is no space to build new spots.
Tall said the Caisse will speak with municipalities about this issue.
The information session begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn at 6700, route Transcanadienne. For more information, visit cdpqinfra.com.