REM: Entire light rail train network in service by 2025

The Caisse de dépôt is now targeting fall 2025 for the start-up of the Deux-Montagnes and Anse-à-l’Orme branches of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM).

The net cost of the project is now $8.34 billion, up 4.9 per cent from the last financial update over a year ago.

CDPQ Infra’s president and CEO spoke on the timetable at a press conference in Montreal on Thursday morning.

“Today, we are confident that the entire REM will be in service by fall 2025,” said Jean-Marc Arbaud.

Phase two of the network, designed to link the North Shore, Laval and the West Island to downtown Montreal has been delayed in part due to the “complexity of the work” in the Mont-Royal tunnel.

“There are two main events that we didn’t anticipate. First the dynamite in the tunnel, and then COVID,” said Arbaud.

Planned interruptions

Starting in 2025, “antenna integration tests will lead to necessary modifications to REM service.”

“There would be a necessary shutdown of services for that, like for the testing of every system like that, extension of line that has happened in the world for automated systems,” said Arbaud.

In January, REM service will stop on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. and resume Sundays at noon.

From February to June, REM service will be interrupted every weekend.

From April to June, service will stop at 9 p.m. on weekdays.

“We are going to put in place a service with buses that will run in parallel,” said Arbaud.

“It will be inconvenient at the time, for the future it’ll be good,” said REM user Emma Giroux of the interruptions.

“This is going to be a problem, but if that’s necessary, the end game was to reach out to the city, north and south, so I think this is going to be necessary, so I’m OK with that,” added REM user Luc Lonjon.

There will also be a four- to six-week shutdown “during off-peak periods in the summer of 2025,” to allow for “intensified testing, final integration and the lead-up to fall commissioning.”

Project costs

Postponing commissioning to 2025 and extending the period to build the network resulted in additional net costs of $392 million. This increase is due both to the extension of construction work on the entire network and to the completion of the Mont-Royal Tunnel.

The REM’s per-kilometre cost is $125 million.

“Rigorous and agile project management allowed CDPQ Infra to continue executing the project in an extremely restrictive context impacted by a series of major events, such as the discovery of 100-year-old dynamite in a tunnel in an advanced state of deterioration, a global pandemic and a sharp increase in inflation. As has been the case to date, CDPQ Infra bears all these additional costs,” said CDPQ Infra in a press release.

REM’s performance

They say that since May, their target availability rate for the REM has been met, considering the number of outages of 20 minutes or more that affected the network.

“While our goal is to maintain an availability rate of 99 per cent, our rate has been 99.5 per cent since August 1. We had no service outages of 20 minutes or more in September and only one in October. Regular updates to our systems and the experience gained by our operators have made it possible to achieve this result. In addition, the level of ridership observed on the South Shore branch reached new peaks of 45,000 rides per day since September.”

On Thursday morning, while CityNews was at Central Station, there was a service interruption of around 30 minutes because of an “intrusion on the track.”

“I think I’m going to take an Uber because I have an appointment at 9:30 so I cannot wait. And yeah, it’s a little bit like the first time,” said REM user Nathalie Salvas.

Work in the Mont-Royal Tunnel is progressing and they say that “dynamic tests” are going well on the Deux-Montagnes and Anse-à-l’Orme branches. Cars have already been circulating on those segments for a few weeks.

“I hope that people recognize all the efforts that we are doing so that the project came as soon as possible,” said Arbaud.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews. With files from Alyssia Rubertucci.