As reported in the Montreal Gazette, after experiencing the infamous Bridge to Nowhere construction debacle not so long ago, Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau is hoping Montrealers won’t have to wait years for a “much-needed” REM extension to Dorval’s intermodal train station.

The Bridge to Nowhere, as it was wryly called because it stood unfinished for nearly a decade, was an express ramp built to access to Dorval Airport from Highway 20. Construction began in 2009 and was supposed to finish by 2013, but the provincial infrastructure project got bogged down in legal wrangling.

The bridge finally opened to traffic in 2017, more than $200 million over budget.

Rouleau said it would also be a lost opportunity if the $6.3 billion REM project failed to link Dorval’s transportation network — VIA Rail, the Vaudreuil-Hudson commuter train line, and nearby STM bus terminal – with the REM’s airport line that is currently designed to end at Montreal-Trudeau Airport, just 700 metres away from the intermodal train station.

“It’s just common sense,” said Rouleau, who released a study last Thursday which found that an REM extension would bring an additional 3,600 passengers to the light-rail train per day.

The study, done for the city by Trajectoire Quebec, also found that an extension would shorten travel times by 12 to 58 minutes for commuters getting to and from different parts of Montreal, including the St. Laurent Technoparc.

Rouleau said that “routing the REM to the north (of the airrport) rather than the south will prevent passengers from accessing these stations unless this short extension is built.

Keep reading in the Montreal Gazette

 

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