Montreal’s new light rail train network inaugurated, will open for free over weekend
Posted July 28, 2023 8:04 am.
Last Updated July 28, 2023 5:35 pm.
Montreal’s electric light-rail train network has been officially inaugurated.
“It’s. It’s incredible the feeling of having people for the first time seeing the REM. It’s it’s really excitement for us. We’ve worked hard for that. We pass through a lot of challenges. We passed from a pandemic that we up here more than two years. So it’s really something special. I’ve been working for this project for the past seven years,” said Jean-Vincent Lacroix, spokesperson for CDPQ Infra, the owners of Montreal’s new light rail train network.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Francois Legault and Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante were among the dignitaries who attended a ceremony today to launch the first five stations of the 26-station, 67-kilometre electric rail network.
The first segment – a section running from Montreal’s South Shore to downtown’s central station – will open officially for service on Monday.
“This first ride was crowded and there were a lot of firsts. And but it was really special. We heard people that were surprised by the view. They were surprised by the light even. It’s not so much sun today, so it’s really special. We knew that people when they’re going to use it and it’s just the first day it’s going to change their perspective of their whole project because the REM is not just a, it’s it’s something that is a divide, something that is being used.
“We’ve started building it for the past five years, and after five, five years of work having this reality now, not just an idea and a just a concept, a reality that people can come to, they can ride it, they can enjoy it. It’s really something special.”
#WATCH: First official ride of the REM from Brossard to downtown Montreal Friday morning. On board was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault for its inauguration. A short 18-minute ride to Central Station.
READ: https://t.co/qmutdxR1Rc pic.twitter.com/PIgqceofdc
— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) July 28, 2023
In the meantime, users will be able to try the system for free over the weekend.
“Of course we want people to try it. This weekend’s going to be free. We we ask them to try it. Maybe there’s going to be a this is going to be your new bit of transportation. That was the goal. It’s the first launch. It’s going to be the next phases. So it’s really the starting of something now, not the end is just starting of something.”
The majority of the rail system, called the Reseau Express Metropolitain, or REM, will open late next year, with an airport link to come in 2027.
The project’s current cost estimate is $6.9 billion, but Quebec’s public pension fund, which owns and operates the network, hasn’t released an updated price tag.
