Published December 20, 2023

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Transport Quebec officials reiterated its stand last week that it has no plans to redraw its design for the new Île aux Tourtes Bridge to include an extension of the Réseau express métropolitain light rail line to Vaudreuil-Dorion. But the department has what it calls a “corridor” reserved parallel to the new span to build an additional structure across the Lake of Two Mountains to support a rail line if it opts to do so in the future.

“Currently, there are no plans to extend the REM in the west (to Vaudreuil-Dorion),” said Transport Quebec spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun in an email to The 1019 Report. “This is why the ministry decided to plan a corridor, south of the future bridge, which could allow the establishment of a mode of public rail transport, such as the REM.”

Bensadoun explained the ministry’s analysis of the need for a commuter rail line to link the Vaurdreuil-Soulanges region to the island of Montreal does not support the extension at this time.

“The analysis carried out for the Île aux Tourtes Bridge reconstruction project concluded that the use of a wide shoulder for buses in both directions is the most relevant preferential measure for public transport,” Bensadoun stated.

In an interview last week, Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon said that in his view, any possibility of extending the REM rail line to the region would not happen before 2030.

The rail line, Pilon said, represents enormous costs, “and we will have to pay,” he said, explaining the it is not the construction costs, but the annual operating costs that municipalities in this region would have to shoulder. “The municipal (level) will have to absorb it,” he said.

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