Canadian Railroads > 3 commuter train lines in greater Montreal might shut down

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/3-exo-commuter-train-lines-closure-artm-1.7320278

REM is partially to blame for this. First killing the Two Mountains line (by far was the busiest, still no REM there), removing the Mt Royal tunnel from the RR network (still has no REM service), butchering the Mascouche service (used the Mt Royal tunnel), and poaching South Shore ridership on the Candiac line with REM at edge of Brossard.

All to save at best C$21 M per year (REM cost $7 B). 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/24 03:21 by joemvcnj.

The conversion of the Mt Royal tunnel to REM has also put a major roadblock in the VIA high frequency rail plan (HFR). The plan was to use the Mt Royal tunnel to connect the Ontario- Montreal segment coming into Central Station with a line to Quebec City running on the North Shire of the St Lawrence river.

WP17

This has got to be the stupidest execution of public transit planning I have ever seen. Beloved REM has jettisoned not only EXO legacy commuter train routes while not directly serving most of its communities, but any future VIA or other intercity trains on the North Shore Line to QC.

Many of us were worried that this would happen even before the REM was opened on the South Shore, forcing people to use the REM and make the ridership numbers look better to justify the cost. The idea of shutting down service to St Hilaire is just a travesty. Thousands of new homes sprouted around the stations along the line based on a guarantee of access to reliable service to and from Montreal. Traffic along the 116 from StHilaire is a nightmare during rush hours, and even with some bus lanes the ride would more than double the time required to get to Montreal.

The commuters in Lake of Two Montains are suffering a 2 to 3 year wait to have service restored, and they already had a reliable commute with modern electric trains. My heart goes out to all the commuters who have already lost and may soon lose a reliable source of transportation as the result of poor decisions made at the provincial level. The REM has been shoved down our throats at the hands of those who wanted to show off a modern transportation system to the world, with a total disregard for the impact it would have on local communities.

There have been economic success stories in Brossard, but the goal of any commuter based transit should be the essential service they provide, not to make profits for mega projects. 

These are my own opnions of course, but like usual the middle class pays the price for political decisions made without consultation. And while the REM is reliable now in the South Shore Brossard-Montreal corridor, it was supposed to be an integrated system using trains, buses and light rail. 

While many cities in North America are expanding transit services, Montreal and surrounding municipalities are losing theirs. Disgusting. All we can do is to vote out those who made these decisions.

Brian N.

Based on news reports today, there's a fair amount of pushback regarding this ARTM (the transit agency) proposal.

Ray