Montreal's Eastern Tramway Proposal

Another month, another Montreal transit proposal. But, this one might stick.

I’ve tried to avoid reading any other hot takes on this topic until I’d gotten my own irreverent thoughts carved into the internet. But as Montreal City Weblog noted, this has gone somewhat under the radar as we’ve been preoccupied with more existential matters.

CBC wrote a brief article on the proposal, as did La Presse.

In terms of the proposal there’s not a lot to go on, save an artist’s impression of a tramway running down the central reservation of a highway, similar to how the REM is set up in Brossard.

But we do get a map at least, and here we see the inspiration has been drawn from previous transit plans to serve Montreal’s East End and the Eastern off-island suburbs.

A Timeline

Before any hot takes, let’s recap on the history of transit planning in the East End up until the ARTM became involved:

• In 1976, the Metro’s Green Line opened its extension to Honoré-Beaugrand in time for the Summer Olympics, which took place in the same year. Although to this day the line doesn’t protrude deeply into the East End, it does provide de-facto transit interchanges at its terminus as well as at Radisson, a station into which we’ve already done a deep dive as part of Station Stories.
• A line from Montreal to Mascouche was opened in 2014 and serving much of the northern East End. It is to this day one underused piece of transit infrastructure.
• An ambitious proposal for a new Metro line – the Pink Line – helped bring Projet Montréal and Valérie Plante to power as mayor of Montreal. This line would have connected Montreal North to Downtown via Rosemont and the Plateau. (n.b. The Pink Line proposal deserves a proper autopsy on this blog at some point)
• The Metro’s Blue Line was finally green-lit to Anjou after what seems like decades of proposals and promises. It will parallel the Green line to the north and shovels are already in the ground. However, even when the extension is complete, much of the East End will remain underserved by transit.
• The CDPQ proposes the REM de l’Est: A second REM line which would start underground downtown and serve both Montreal North and the East End as an elevated railway. The proposal meets with massive pushback and the CDQP withdraws.

This last proposal seemed the most promising, as at the time the CDPQ were already demonstrating they could get stuff built. Unfortunately their proposal on the surface appeared to be defeated by strong local NIMBY pushback.

Much of the pushback didn’t make a lot of sense. The main objection was in having the new line emerge from an underground station on downtown’s René Lévesque and then run elevated down the middle of the street. People didn’t like this in spite of the fact that (a) René Lévesque is a horrid street anyway and is perfect for elevated rail, and (b) elevated transit can look great, as anyone who’s been to Vancouver will tell you.

But the plan had other flaws such as a lack of connections with the Metro or REM downtown, concern about hostile competition with the Metro’s Green Line and a lack of evidence at the time the CDPQ could successfully deliver a project. In spite of my own reservations as to the REM model and my current concerns about how the CDPQ are handling current issues with the REM this winter, I still think this by far would have been the best implementation.

But the CDPQ withdrew their proposal and washed their hands of the project, which left the ARTM (Greater Montreal’s regional transit planning authority) to step in and thow some ideas against the wall.

And their first proposal to find something which would stick was a an extortionately expensive fully subterranean metro line. Eyebrows were raised because the density of this part of the city didn’t warrant so much expensive tunnelling. And speaking of expensive, the proposed costs made eyes water all over the place. So much so in fact some wondered if the plan was simply proposed as a gesture, to make the ARTM look like they were doing something productive without the worry of having to follow through.

This plan was also put on the Montreal transit proposal bonfire, which after 5 decades is now roaring away and keeping everyone nice and toasty.

And so we arrive at the latest proposal, which is a tramway connecting Montreal North to Repentigny via the East End, and I’ll say this: It’s interesting if uninspiring.

The Route

There’s lots to like about the route:

• ✅ It serves several populated areas which are currently transit deserts¹
• ✅ Great connectivity with two metro lines and exo
• ✅ It goes to Repentigny
• ✅ No branches present, which will aid operational stability

I think the connectivity with the Green Line and the Blue Line extension are important; Nodes createth a network. It’s definitely interesting to see the route parallel the Green Line for four stations. It’s a nice bonus to have multiple transfer options depending on where you’re coming from and where you’re going.

There’s also a connection with exo’s Mascouche Line at the mouthful of a station name which is Saint-Léonard–Montréal-Nord. But with exo’s poor frequencies, riders would have to time things well to get a shortcut up to Repentigny, or East to connect with the Orange Line and the REM.

What will be absolutely critical to the project’s success is a clear separation from road traffic with its own right of way and proper station platforms. Toronto’s trams are rightly maligned because they always get stuck in traffic. When they stop to let people off, they often have to walk into traffic to get to the sidewalk.

It’s OK to have points where the trams need to turn across traffic, but contact with traffic should be as limited as possible.

Trams!

Trams are more exciting than buses, but it can still be hard to get enthused about them. They often seem like a shortcut to building a real rail system, but there are plenty of examples where this mode has been a success.

London built the Croydon tram, serving a wide area of south London. Most of the network runs on disused railway line with a small central section of street running through Croydon town centre. Manchester opted for a tram network which works in a similar way. There’s no reason at all why this approach can’t be a big success.

Plus, trams have the added advantage of being able to stop at street level, giving it an advantage over a Metro or elevated railway when it comes to quick access.

It’s Not Going to be Cheap

In spite of going with the cheaper option, it’s still going to cost a fortune, estimated at $18.6 billion for only 38km – approximately a billion for every two kilometres. That’s not great value for something which will be mostly on the surface and uses existing infrastructure.

I don’t really have more to say on this, except that the US and Canada have a serious problem keeping transit projects at reasonable costs.

We Need to Talk About Repentigny

I’m really happy Repentigny will be part of this line. It’s a growing town with an expanding population and increasing density – which is great! And yet it has some of the worst transit I’ve seen for an urban area of its size.

As an off-island suburb, its bus network is run by exo. There are bus connections to Montreal, but they’re slow and inefficient. As we’ve seen in the past, there is a commuter rail station in La Gardeur, the very corner of the town. But the service is useless to most people due to the location of the station, poor connecting transit and most of all hardly any trains outside of weekday rush hour.

I think a tram isn’t going to convince a lot of car dependant inhabitants to switch to transit to go into Montreal. It’s going to be a stopping service and it requires a change mid-way onto the metro. Yes, the traffic getting from Repentigny to Montreal is some of the worst I’ve seen, but it may still be faster to drive.

What Repentigny needs is fast, frequent transit which runs from early morning well into the evening. Basically, what the REM is aiming to provide Brossard and parts of Laval and the North Shore.

But getting a couple of tram stops is better than nothing, and a lot of people will benefit from proper rapid transit between Repentigny and Montreal.

The Path Not Taken 1: Devolution

How do we break this cycle of transit proposals which get hyped and critiqued in the media before ending up on the scrapheap? Let’s look at a couple of paths not taken in Québec, but which have found big success elsewhere.

I’ve written about devolution in the past so I won’t repeat myself here. Instead, I’ll quote writer Jonn Elledge writing for the New Statesman last week on the case for devolving the UK’s railways:

There are projects the length and breadth of this island that will never top the Treasury priority list, but would be transformative to communities, if only we let them raise the money themselves.

And this is exactly the same issue in Montreal, except replace the word “Treasury” with “provincial government”, and you can even apply this reasoning to all the other Canadian provinces as well.

But it’s unlikely to happen as the consolidation of power at the provincial level is baked into the Canadian constitution, and the provinces are unlikely to give their cities too much power to raise funds or plan and implement their own transit projects. So if power won’t be devolved, what solutions are there at the provincial level?

The Path Not Taken 2: Standardisation

One of the reasons why countries such as China have managed to have such an impressive transit boom whilst keeping costs down is they’ve standardised their technologies. All their Metro systems use the same technology stack, the same types of train, the same construction principles. Knowledge is built, kept and reused. Costs are kept down by planning projects in advance and making bulk orders for things like rolling stock.

In Québec, first came Montreal’s Metro. Then the REM, which is a different technology. Now another technology will be used to build a tramway. Up in Québec City they’re building their own tramway, but will they use the opportunity to cut costs by ordering the same rolling stock as Montreal? Probably not.

What Québec should be doing is looking at this as an opportunity to plan transit across several of its cities and regions, and lock in those design decisions so they can consolidate that engineering knowledge across multiple projects and order the same rolling stock to reduce costs.

And better still, that technology can be exported elsewhere meaning Québec could sell a proven and cost-effective transit implementation to the rest of Canada and beyond, helping other jurisdictions benefit from the cheaper development costs. In fact, this idea isn’t new in Québec as it’s what the CDPQ were aiming for with the REM. I’m hoping the new MIQ (Mobilité Infra Québec) which will oversee this project might be a first step in that direction.

Either way, there should be some long term transit planning going on across the province in lieu of allowing municipalities to do it.

Will It Actually Happen?

My worry is we’re years away from shovels in the ground (not before 2027 at the earliest), and that’s long enough for a new government to come in and cancel this project. Whilst I’ve been highly critical of the ARTM’s fitness for purpose, I do believe they should hold a tsar-like role in provincial transit planning which safeguards approved projects against the destructive winds of political change.

In spite of my cynicism I’m still willing to feel positive. Montreal has been stagnent in transit development for so long, and over the past few years things are actually getting built. They may not be happening in a coordinated way, nor at the pace which is needed. But, sometimes things need to be done as baby steps and I remain convinced once these systems are built, bedded in and part of the city’s fabric, people will ask for more.

In the meantime, if you’re still not excited, then here’s a song about trams.