Allison Hanes: Some commuters may be relieved about latest REM delay

Article content Passengers in Greater Montreal will be waiting another year before they can hop aboard the rest of the REM, the light-rail network that is the only major new public transit project Quebec has constructed in at least a decade. When the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec’s infrastructure arm announced earlier this year that the start of service would be postponed from 2024 to 2025, it didn’t really specify when next year. Any hopes we could be mere months or weeks away from a launch were dashed last week.

CDPQ Infra revised the timeline for the portions of the REM that will connect downtown Montreal with the West Island and Deux-Montagnes to the fall of 2025. And if we give them the wiggle room the vagueness of an entire season affords, that probably means when the first snowflakes are forecast rather than when the leaves are at their peak brilliance. So commuters who have been waiting patiently for the REM may be frustrated.

But those who take other public transit, in particular existing Exo lines, may be breathing a sigh of relief. The irony is instead of getting more transit when the rest of the REM finally enters service, Montrealers could end up with less. The REM’s remaining sections will arrive amid much financial uncertainty for transportation agencies.

Because of a lingering pandemic hangover, shifting commuting habits and a long-running structural deficit, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain, which plans and funds transit in Greater Montreal, faces escalating operational shortfalls. In 2025, that could reach as much as $500 million, but the Quebec government has agreed to cover only part of it. This has left transit agencies in a precarious position.

Exo has warned it might have to cut entire commuter train lines , including Candiac and Mont-St-Hilaire, while scaling back service on the busy Vaudreuil-Hudson and St-Jérôme routes. The Société de transport de Montréal has already reduced the frequency of buses and said it might have to close the métro earlier at night unless the provincial government ponies up a more stable funding model. And as it seeks efficiencies to ensure continuity of service, the STM has had to postpone maintenance work.

But such deferrals end up affecting service indirectly. When cracks were recently discovered in the St-Michel métro station, the STM had to shut down part of the Blue Line for weeks. Thousands of passengers who depend on the métro had to rely on shuttle buses that got stuck in snarled traffic and added to their travel times.

Any time there is a reduction in the offering or quality of transit, it drives people away. This leads to a doom spiral that further undermines ridership and finances. Things could get even worse when the remaining REM service begins.

It will gobble up already scarce revenues from the other transit agencies and compete for some riders. That’s not how it should work. The REM is replacing the Deux-Montagnes Exo line, which used to traverse the Mount Royal Tunnel before CDPQ Infra took it over.

And the Mascouche line, which opened in 2014 at a cost of $700 million, will no longer go all the way downtown . Passengers will have to transfer to the métro or the REM, adding to their travel time. And even though the REM to Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue follows the Highway 40 corridor, it could siphon off up to 20 per cent of passengers from Exo’s Vaudreuil-Hudson line in the West Island, which runs parallel to Highway 20.

There would be grave injustice in using this to justify cuts, since there are no plans to extend the REM off island to fast-growing Vaudreuil. So commuters would have to cross the disaster of the Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge to access it. If the Vaudreuil-Hudson line were squeezed, it would cut off an entire region from fluid and efficient public transit.

Having to drive or take a shuttle bus to the nearest REM station at Anse-à-l’Orme would make taking transit more onerous and less attractive. If people have to fight traffic anyway to cross the bridge, even when the new one opens, why not keep driving? And if they take a bus, it will lengthen travel times. Studies have shown up to 10 per cent of riders are lost with each modal transfer.

Given the new Île-aux-Tourtes bridge is already under construction, it defies logic that space for the REM wasn’t included. Since it’s not, the Vaudreuil-Hudson train remains a lifeline for many off-island residents. And what about passengers along the Mont-St-Hilaire and Candiac lines? Even though the first leg of the REM to the South Shore opened in the summer of 2023, it’s a vast region.

Forcing these rail commuters to drive, take buses, or transfer to the REM in Brossard if their lines are slashed would just add to congestion, emissions and travel times. Why invest $8.3 billion — the updated cost of the REM — if it’s not going to improve service and give people more options? The REM should be complementing existing train service, not cannibalizing it.

Transit is a public good that is essential to the health of Montreal’s economy, productivity, quality of life and environment. It’s the key to reducing Quebec’s largest and growing source of greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change. We need more transit, not less.

The government of Premier François Legault has hemmed and hawed over various new projects, like a REM 2.0 to east-end Montreal and tramways to Lachine and in Quebec City. Yet it hasn’t managed to get any of them going.

But what’s the use in investing in major new infrastructure if the government is starving the service already in place? These portions of the REM should be welcome additions to the public transit map of Greater Montreal when they open next fall, not expensive replacements. [email protected].