Why Did This Mega-Project Cost So Little? | Montreal's REM Explained
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- We’d like to give full credit to Reece Martin for the footage used in this video. Reece creates exceptional content about transit systems, and you can check out his work here: • The World's Newest Met...
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Montreal’s Réseau Express Métropolitain (REM) is set to transform urban mobility in Canada with its state-of-the-art automated light rail system. Spanning 67 kilometers with 26 stations, the REM addresses growing congestion, suburban expansion, and the need for a direct airport connection.
🌟 What’s in this video?
• Origins of REM: How this ambitious $8 billion project began as a partnership with CDPQ Infra.
• Key Features: Automated trains, cutting-edge infrastructure, and sustainable transportation solutions.
• Major Challenges: Mount Royal Tunnel reconstruction, cost overruns, and construction delays.
• Global Impact: Why REM’s cost-effectiveness and scale set a new benchmark for North American transit projects.
The REM already connects Central Station to the South Shore, with ridership surpassing 1 million passengers within two months of its launch. By 2027, it’s set to link Montreal-Trudeau Airport, West Island, and North Shore, redefining public transit for the entire region.
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We would like to express our gratitude to the RM Transit channel for the incredible video material they have created and which we used for editing this video. We highly recommend RM Transit to everyone looking for top-notch transport-related content. Keep up the amazing work, and we look forward to your future videos!
Link of the channel: www.youtube.com/@RMTransit
The West island is incorrectly depicted in this video. It is not an island in itself as shown but is the west end of the Island of Montreal.
Agreed - it was weird to see Ile Bizard (pop 14,000), presented as if it was (Anglo) West (of the) Island (of Montreal)
6:37 indeed, the West Island is the unofficial name given to the city, towns and boroughs at the western end of the Island of Montreal.
lol at that part of the video was so misleading. He said low density residential area, but with 240000 residents on such small island it would give Malé the capital of Maldives a run of its money as one of the most densely populated area in the world.
Hahaha ouais j'imagine que ça doit être mélangeant pour les étrangers que l'île à l'ouest de la ville soit pas l'endroit qui s'appelle "l'île de l'ouest" (West Island)
@@AlexisRocheleau Les médias Québecoises l'appellent "L'Ouest de l'Ile". Au sujet de la vidéo, j'aimerai que l'extension du REM dans cette région s'achève. J'habite a NDG et cette région sera un des banlieux que j'aimerai fréquenter avec Laval et Brossard si ce n'est pas a cause de la congestion routière.
They Absolutely NEED to bring back the REM de l'Est project! Shelving that project was such a huge lost opportunity for Montreal 😢😢
I don't get why NIMBYs hate the project. I don't get how elevated railway lines affect property values.
its not gonna happen, if you drive around the neighborhoods where it was supposed to be built, you will see a bunch of anti rem signs on a bunch of houses. The nimbys are very passionate about blocking this project
@@girl_with_armor just because they don't want property values to go down lol
@@ianhomerpura8937 these people are actually stupid... its not like transit accessibility makes a house or apparemment way more desirable 😭😭
@@ianhomerpura8937 actually it would had increased significantly.
This video is a hour old but is not up to date of what's happening :
- they spoke of the express bus service on Samuel de Champlain Bridge as currently operational, which is not for many months
At 5m47s we are shown a map with the REM de l'est, which was cancelled before construction in May 2022
6m43 : they show Bizard island as the West Island. No : it's the western part of the island of Montreal which is the West island. Bizard island is a part of the West Island.
At 7m00s they is a station name Montréal Police on the map. There is no station with that name and none are planned. Same thing with other stations on the Deux-Montagnes branch with are wrongly named
18m42 the dates for the opening or the REM the West is known since a couple of weeks - end of 2025.
It's a okay video, btw : I am just surprised by that kind of factual inaccuracies.
Way out of date
It's AI. AI can make some glaring mistakes. Enjoyed this video for the most part. But yeah, calling Ile Bizard the West Island just proved to me it was AI.
When highlighting the different branches of the project at 5:31, he also showed the southern and central branches as being the Deux Montagnes branch and then showed the actual Deux Montagnes branch and called it the southern branch
Edit: it was also really funny to see RR imply that 240K people live on Île Bizard. Take a look at that island on Google Maps and you'll see why that's so funny. The real population on that island is around 15K people... and the REM doesn't even connect to it, so I have no idea why he's highlighting it specifically
Edit edit: it was also funny to see him talking about the Édouard-Montpetit station connecting to the É-M station on the blue line... before showing footage of the Vancouver Skytrain
I’d be surprised it is AI, but based on what you said a few things come to mind: the video may have been already cut and finalised a few weeks or months ago, and it does make me wonder whether he gets to leverage a patron base like RM transit does, to help clear up some of the editorial issues?
At the same time there is always going to be a risk of inaccuracies from anyone who isn’t local to a project.
It's so obviously AI. The voice style, the editing style, all of it screams AI. Either that or an extremely monotonous human.
A 26% cost overrun for a major civil engineering project is a miracle. We were expecting it to be closer to 50%-100%.
Yup. Just watching the Megaprojects channel (narrated by Simon Whistler), gives you some insight into that. There are so many reasons for projects going over budget, including unknowns and material cost changes since when the bid was originally placed.
It closer to 50%. The projected cost was around 6 billion. But it already exceeded 10 billion.
Also, most of the video is wrong.
6:52 youre pointing out Ile Bizard which is mostly inhabited. The west Island is the Western part of the Island of Montreal, generally seen as anything north and west bound of the Dorval Airport.
I was about to make the same comment.
This video is probably made using AI and he clearly has no idea what he's talking about. The sad reality of youtube.
please put the cost in km not in miles, we use km in Canada
...and everywhere else except one country.
I would also have liked it in km, but to be fair, the data did come from an American analysis
Railways in Canada still use miles, though I'm not sure if this includes the REM since it's an isolated system.
@@jaclmwhere though they got Kilometre markers now in yards, subdivisions, and Passenger rail that runs on them also use metric system.
Simply multiply the prices listed by 0.62 and it will give you a rough estimation for the price per km.
I really hope that they can build the eastern section of the REM. It would be transformational for the east.
The eastern extension was permanently canceled, there is no hope left
@ the Eglinton subway in Toronto was cancelled in 1995. The Eglington LRT hasn’t an open yet after being under construction for 13 years, but was it built 20 years later after being canceled. Montreal is a much more progressive city in Toronto, I feel like one day it will be built - especially if the funding is set up in the same way as the original.
I think it can be reintroduced in the future, but only after the current REM project is finalised. It is easy for people to believe the pessimism from certain media outlets, while work is still in progress.
Definitely 💯
No, Rem de l'Est is dead. They are planning a tramway project in the same right of way... Slower, more expensive, less capacity and higher operation costs... It's a disaster
I'm glad to see the REM covered - I worked on it before the Pandemic, and loved being a (very, very tiny) part of such a transformative project for the city (and perhaps the whole country).
It's constantly breaking down, a lot of people have become so frustrated with it that they went back to cars. Doesn't help that part of the CDPQ agreement was to give it a monopoly and stop all the express bus services that used to exist on the REM lines, making commutes longer for many people.
FYI - REM trains were made in India, thats why it must have costed them a bit less
To resume this video in a few words They saved money by reusing a 100 years old working tunnel (1918-1931) who was previously used by the Canadian Northern Railroad (Canora) Between The suburbs Town Of Mout-Royal and downtown Montréal; That Tunnel was used by two Commuter train (Deux-Montagne EXO Line) and Mascouche/Terrebonne Line and change the technology . i.e. Smaller but more frequent automated Trains i.e they use the cheapest solution available to built a better working model.
They reroute the Mascouche - Deux Montagnes line via Côte-Saint-Luc Yard to Gare Lucien-L'Allier and convert the Deux-Montagnes line on the REM format. A proper Alternative would have been to extend the Orange Line from Côte-Vertu to Bois-Franc 2 stations (Poirier and Bois-Franc) in Ville Saint-Laurent and connecting the DM line to Bois-Franc and keeping the southern Lines for the the Airport Branch. I would rather add a Des Laurentides Branch who connect the REM at Du Ruisseau and relieve the Orange Line at Montmorency via Highway 15 which could be extend cheaply the Highway Right of way. Instead of sending the REM in the distant subburbs of Deux-Montagne.
*Canadian National
@@weatheranddarkness Canadian National (CN) inherit of the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) and The Canadian Government Railway (CGR) assets when the Canadian Northern Railways went Bankrupt in the 1918.
@ didn't realise there were so many names in play back through history.
It's a good project that I hope more regions emulate including Edmonton and Calgary which are adding commuter rail lines in the next decade or two according to the about to be released railway blueprint for Alberta. All train projects should be automated and powered by overhead catenary is possible because of its long-term cost benefits and simplicity compared to alternatives...
Another thing that helped with the cost, the brand new Champlain bridge had 2 rails built in, just in case, with no project linked to it. Using this and other underused or unused rails, as much as possible, they manage to cut the land acquisition time and cost to a minimum. Which is the principle they use for the High Speed Rail project in Ontario and Quebec, using as much underused right of way as possible.
They didn't built it just in case, they knew it was going to be used for transit they just didn't know if it would be a bus/taxi way or a light rail one.
@@ZontarDow That's what I mean by just in case, they knew it could be useful for transit at one point and it would be much more expensive to not build it right away and engineer it in afterward. So there were added in, not knowing whether it would be rail or buses, and the cost ended in the bridge budget instead of in the REM budget, which would have gotten the price tag much spicier.
No it didn't. The original plan for the Champlain bridge was to have two bus lanes built in. Halfway through the project they converted the bus lanes into REM lanes. They got extremely lucky on that.
It did kill off the last electrified rail line in Canada. The EXO Deux Montag Line
And entirely replaced it with an electrified rail line that has dramatically higher frequency. A win-win.
@@guspazLost the chance to use the corridor for a planned High Speed Rail because it had run on 25kV overhead, and took over the platforms at Gare Centrale usually used for Commuter and Intercity Trains. Via Rail plans are now having to find a new way to connect Downtown Montreal with High Speed Rail.
You claim that the REM is 67 km, But this is not 67km of new tracks. This is not 67km of construction by CDPQ.
30km was stolen from the Deux Montagnes line. Stations are in the same location, so no land acquisition needed, space for parking already there.
The 3.5 km on the bridge that replaced the Champlain bridge was paid for by the federal governmemt speparate from the stated funding.
The roughly 6km on the south shore of the highway which was moved to create space in the middle for the tracks and stations was done and paid for by the provincial governmemnt outside the budget of the REM project. They just had to layballast and tracks and build their stations.
The west island leg, except as pylons are planted on the Fairview shopping centre parking lot are either on the old CN spur to Sources, or on provincial land (highway 40). The forest they had to clear to build the terminal station did have to be purchased from a real estate firm owned by CDPQ.
CDPQ also imposed taxes on the cities it imposed its REM on. Anything built near a REM tracks/station must now pay higher taxes because CDPQ imposed royalties because it says it increases property values.
Public transit is supposed to serve the public, not be a profitable endeavour that costs the public in both higher property taxes and higher taxes to government who needs to subsidize this system which the province could not afford (remember, many planned projects such as metro extension are on hold or severely slowed down becauyse of all that unplaned need for funds diverted to CDPQ. The government origially was only willin to fiund the link across the new bridge and the direct link to airport.
Surprise surprise they do a similar way to fund Transit in France by making people that leave immediately to the line pay for it, Also the people that live immediately next to the rem stations should pay more since they benefit the most. Also, idk why you're so worked up you guys in Montreal are getting 67 Km of rapid transit in under 10 years. If you think the REM is a mess just come look at our Projects in Toronto, we've spent 13 billion on an lrt that only runs 19 km, it's been 14 years and its still under construction!! You guys are getting a much much better value
@@abdulwahid113 Except here, it is a private corporation that gets the extra porpoerty tax due to vicinity to a REM station and that does not help transit in any way whereas in France, those taxes help build transit and maintain it.
Speaking of imposed taxes, yeah the 'public transit' tax on car registrations in Montreal is going from $59 / year to $150 / year in 2025. 3% inflation my a**.
Nice! Meanwhile in Austin TX, a 4.5 Billion I35 expansion project for 9Yrs is underway. When said and done this will not make a difference in the Austin commute situation. We will still be sitting in traffic and tooting in our cars and trucks… Viva Montreal!
at 06:30 You speak in the past. The buses have not been allowed to cross the bridge since end of July 2023 when the REM started (CDPQ exclusivitty clause prevents them from doing so, except fpr buses that serve areas outside the exlusivity zome). On the old bridge, they had dedicated bus lanes. And many bus routes went from neighbourhood to Panama and continued to the downtown bus terminal, with some high capacity bus routes doing Panama-Downtown frequently to pickup passenters from bus lines that terminated at Panama. The EXO bus routes were mostly moved to the Brossard REM station to remove congestion at Panama.
The west Island leg was to follow the old CN freight spur north of Hymus. remember that this did not involved transit planning, just the need to draw a line to please politicians to declare an area served.
Original plans at the Sources station at ground level (because the existing rail overpass over the 40 brought tracks to ground level) and CDPQ didn't realise that the station was in the backyard between 2 wharehouses (where the CN spur was). Secondly, they learned the hard way that the CN spur had been sold west of sources and there were buildings on it. Origially was to follow old spur to St-Jean and then turn northwest to cross highway 40 to the north. The end result: insread of replacing single CN bridge with double tracked one leading to both airport and SAdB, they built 2 separate bridges with the west island leg remaining elevated all the way. They changed the Sources station to be elevated and moved it just west of Sources rd (which kakes sense). Their standard station design has entrance on only one side of station where fare gates are. Would have made sense to have the Sources station directly over Sources boulevard so you could exit on one side to catch northboudn bus or exit the other side to catch southbound bus. But their "one exit" station design precludes that.
The line then crosses the 40 to the north side well before the original plans due to the buildings in the way and remains elevated along the highway service road all the way to the terinal where it goes down to ground level. The original Kirkland station was just went of the St-Charles boulevard, and their 3d origianl renders showed the rails passing not over the St0-Charles overpass but through it (so a level crossing on a bridge over the highway 🙂 The fact that its only entrance was on a one way service road right at the interchajge wasn,t too smart and residents opposed exproproations to open a major artery and parking lot from Brunswick Boulevard (north of 40) to the station. So CDPQ decided to move the station further west. While it is still along the one way service road, there is a cross road to residential area.
Because the owner of the Fairview shopping mall hates transit, they did not want the Fairview station to be on their land or on their parking, so CDPQ had to destroy a forest to build it west of the huge mall. At the corner of the one way highway service rod and a side street. But all buses will still have to negotiate the St-Jea-40 traffic hell. (currently, there is a large bus terminal on the north side of Fairview and the terminal is right at one entrance to the mall. The REM station will be far from the first entrance to the mall so very unpleasantwalk from the station to the mall on large expanse of icy parking lot.
It's a 5 minute walk from the REM station to the shopping mall. If you can't handle a 5 minute walk, then you can't handle public transit.
@@noseboop4354 I think his main point was that the station could have been built right in front of the mall (and not having to destroy the forest land). It would have saved people a 7 minute walk (which during the winter in that area is pretty unpleasant). I think the main reason the mall owner wanted the station where it is was to have it next to future residential developments in the forest area (which they also own). The mall's current bus station connection to the mall will be lost. Seniors & students who currently use the bus to get to the mall will be less likely to make the trip. But I guess the mall owner has done their economic impact studies.
0:23 to be clear: the old Champlain Bridge (on left) has since been demolished and only one bridge is in operation.
Using the Mount Royal tunnel for the REM means that you can't use it for high speed rail, making it harder to get that project going.
High speed rail will never be built in Canada or the US as long as the big 3 automakers lobby against it.
@@noseboop4354
The time of the big 3 is long past. It's the airlines that stand to lose with high speed rail. Very few will switch from car to rail. However, high speed rail is much more convenient than flying short distances.
We should have the CDPQ build the new rail transit in Ontario too.
The headline at 02:05 is incorect. The mandate was for the link from Panama to downtown to replace the SLR frequent buses, as sell as a downto airport link planned to use the existig integrated trai station under the USA terminal at airportm and ride along the existing CN right of way for direcly line to downtown.
What the REM annouced was very different with it taking over the tunnel under Mont Royal, demolishing the Deux Montagnes line, cutting off the ascouche line and a stupid extension along highway 40 in the west island to get support from the MP in the region. The CDPQ had not even inspected the tunnel to see oif its trains would fit. Deux Montages line was totally rebuilt in 1994-1995 with weekend outages, and a long summer outage in 1995 before reopening with fixed up tunnel, new 25kvAC catenary, totally new rolling stock, tracks and an additional station at Deux Montagnes. (stopped before at what was renamed Grand Moulins which at the time was called Deux Montagnes.
The CDPQ isn't the pension fund for some workers, it's the one that runs the entire provincial pension fund, our equivalent to social security only built in a financially solvent way. Many workers have pensions on top of and unrelated to that and most people have some form of private retirement investments.
What is happening with the transit projects in the US? These costs are insane 😢
Overscope, poor management and maximizing profit
2nd Ave is a really complicated build
@@HexaSquirrel basically contractors all the way down
Public procurement captured by grift at many levels, along with political hostility to the idea of public transit. There is no healthy competition by politicians at who will attract voters by building more transit for the same amount of money. The choice is build nothing at all, or throw money into the existing system of politically connected contractors and consultants.
@@HexaSquirrel It is being lead by people that know nothing about trains.
why dont you at least credit the people you take content from?
Great video, thanks.
Hi guys big fan of you from Greece. Can you make a video about the railway system of my country?
You confused the West Island and the Île Bizard. The "West Island" is not an island per se but the West part of the Island of Montréal.
There is also the Yellow line of the métro that goes to Longueuil.
Malheureusement la ligne jaune ouverte depuis 1967 était supposée se rendre au CEGEP E Montpetit et à l'hopital P Boucher
et ainsi diminuer la congestion routière autour du secteurpont J-Cartier et Méro U de S Longueuil
for info, SNC Lavallin is now called Atkins Realis
The Deux Montagnes line going through the Mountroyal tunnel reaching the downtown train station has been in service since the early 80's. The only change on this line is new trains and electronic system as the new trains are self riding, i.e. there is no train conductor on them.
The new line going from downtown to the west end of the island has been in service since the early 70's but was on the track along the river shore (seen in grey on the map).
The Metro extension to Laval and the "bleu line" riding east to west has been in service since the mid-90's.
The real new system is it is all integrated in one single system with hubs which provides interconnection between the light trains system and the underground Metro system.
Thanks for the vid👍
1:19 - Hello Vancouver! I see you there! ;)
why is one station called montreal police? it should be pierrfonds-roxboro
Indeed, though the correct name for that one is Sunnybrooke. And "Chemin-du-Tour" should be Île-Bigras, and in between that and Sunnybrooke is the Pierrefonds-Roxboro station (unmarked on the map in the clip) near where the line crosses over Gouin boulevard.
thank you, so well done
At 12:38 you show rolling stock interior that is not REM. REM has plastic lateral seating only. Less comfortable than bus, less seating capacity than bus.
I like Line REM Montréal
at 08:23 The CDPQ did NOT evaluate the tunnel before starting the project. It is the Montréal fire department that insisted on an inspection and rules that CDPOQ could NOT proceed due to lack of emergency exits. With train services, the frequency was such that there would be a single train in tunnel if it got stuck or caught fire. This provided access to the train from the other track. But with CDPQ promising frequencies that requyired multiple trains in the tunnel at same time, the fire depaartmet imposed strict conditions to make a dire surviveable. CDPQ refused to dig new emergency exist, and instead ended up having to enlarge tunnel and allegedly build a wall between two tracks. They initialy blame the delay on all the damage done by steam engines (steam engines never ran in tunnel) and then because of unexploded dynamite stick (which means they were digging in tunnel to enlarge it, which means they never did a sanity check on tunnel prior to stealing it from EXO and starting its project. It would have likely take less time to put a TBM and dig a new tunne next to old old and allow trains to use the old tunnel and not cripple Montréal, transit and passenger train potential.
The cost overruns were updated to almost 10 billions just a few days ago. That likely isn't a final number given that the Griffintown and Peel Bassin station are still in the planning phase and will have to be built while the line is running.
Great and informative video. Thanks guys 😉
Thank you for making an effort to pronounce French names properly, I only picked up on one slight mistake. Appreciate this as most UA-camrs butcher the language.
For all the good things I would have prioritized YUL airport but that just a personal desire
The shaft for elevators to Édouard Montpetit does not handle ventilation as the original CN tunnel had ventilation shaft on the west side of Vincent d'Indy (right next to ventilation shaft for the Metro blue line). This shaft has been used during construction to push in fresh air, power and compressed air etc. But will become a innocuous ventiualtion shaft once again.
Under rated - The rules employed by each rail division that drive fast movements under faulted conditions. And the complete understanding of how to both push the rules to the max and be safe for public. A crossing fails and a dozen high speeds trains pass without notice to all. Multiple plants have switch issues and control signals are useless, we right hand run and fleet signals on site. Cold trains get slowed down at weak track. At some point it becomes a game played by precision cowboys willing work and study 24 hours 7 days a week. $$$ updates make stuff work better lol, it's well understood rules that push trains to the max by signals and track maintainers that are well trained vets.
Billions over budget... lacks reliability in less than perfect weather conditions.... heating barely noticeable in cars.... takes longer to get onto the island.... Cement pilons already showing signs of stress and degradation with one emergency repair completed.... the wrong people are leading the project...
So many errors. AI-generated?
There are several reasons why the REM automatic light rail project was cheaper than comparable projects elsewhere. Firstly, in the eastern end at Brossard, the REM alignment was simply the former BRT lanes built by the provincial government over the decades. Secondly, the design of the federally owned new Champlain Bridge provided space for light rail tracks, which were formerly supposed to go to an LRT project but was taken over by the REM promoters. Thirdly, the segment which is the former electric commuter rail line from Central Station to Deux-Montagnes, purchased years ago by the provincial government from CN, was given to the REM to be downgraded to light rail. So the REM benefitted from a lot of provincial gifts. As well, fourthly, the segment parallel to Highway 40 is built above ground and not tunnel, and as such crosses almost all low-density industrial zones. Thus very little expropriation and demolition of existing structures. It’s off the highway shoulder, again which already belongs to the provincial government.
CDPQ's involvement for Canada Line in Vancouver was at the finance level only. But when pitching its REM, it claimed to have technical expertise in how to buid trains based on that project alone. It had however already setup Bombardier Transport to fail ( re-capapitalised it to own 30% of it , but with condition of guaranteed dividends for a money losing company which was then forced to sell itself since it ould not pay those dividends, and CDPQ conveniently arranged for Alstom to take on the burden with CDPQ converting its 30% in bankrupt Bombardier Transport into 18% of then money making Alstom (absorbtion of Bombardier made Alstom turn to becoming money losing). While CDPQ Infra brags about its expertise, the fact is that the REM project was outsourced to Alstom who also runs/operates it and CDPQ Infra does the management ad user-facing side.
The connection at Édoiuard Montpetit is not complex at all. The metro HAD an exit right over where the REM station is and linked to the actual metro station via a tunnel under Vincent d'Indy street. The tunnel was boarded up at the metro station, they demolished the metro exit and dug way down to the former rail tunnel and the elevators from REM fare gate level will have a stop one floor below groun to be able to use the non-fare-paid tunnel to reach the metro station and afrer going through fare gates, go way down to the metro track level. Metro service had a period where train had to stop for a few minutes whenether they dynamited near the tunnel, with crews inspecting tunnel after each blast before metro service restarted. But once they were below that level REM dinamyte no longer effected metro service.
The TTC and the Government of Ontario could learn from this. Over a decade now and the Eglinton Crosstown is still not open.
Who would have ever thought that projects can be built quickly and economically if you don't have many companies involved and politicians actually care about a project!
You highlighted Ile Bizard as the West Island. In fact, the West Island is made up of all the boroughs on the Island of Montreal, west of the city. Senneville, Ste Anne de Bellevue, Baie d'Urfé, Beaconsfield, Pointe-Claire, Dorval, Kirkland, Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Dollard des Ormeaux, Lachine, and arguably some others make up the West Island of Montreal. I also want to note that the REM will not be meeting up with major transportation hubs in the West Island such as John Abbott College in Ste Anne de Bellevue. It also won't reach Vaudreuil-Dorion, a massive and quickly growing off-island suburb, as initially promised. The REM like every other project in MTL is being half-assed and will not be as successful as hoped.
I was very happy to see the REM covered on this channel since I've been watching this channel for a while, but I gotta say, there is sooo much wrong information it is depressing... Not sure if you used AI this time to make the video but used your own script, but if so, keep doing that to lose your subscribers...
It's not AI. Honestly, we don't even know what AI tool we could use for video editing. We are people too. We can make mistakes. Especially about the geography of the city, which is 7 thousand kilometers away from our city.
@@RailwaysExplained I'll be honest, I'm glad it isn't! I agree that mistakes are normal and I did not expect you guys never to make any. The amount of them in this specific video was a bit much though.. I would suggest partnering up with locals in those cases like this one to fact check! I know channels like RMTransit and Not Just Bikes among others do so to prevent this from happening. I can be one of those if you make a future video about a project in Quebec/Canada.
It wasn't meant to be just a hate comment btw. I like your content, I just thought this one wasn't as high quality as the usual content you make, that's all! Thanks for taking the time to answer!
You are absolutely right. But even establishing cooperation with "big channels" can often be hard and time consuming, and the making of this video itself took so long that the value of the project changed in the meantime 😅 and as for cooperation on other videos on the territory of Canada, feel free to let us know you write to our email. We will be very happy to share a draft version for you to look at. Another pair of "eyes" never hurt.
@@RailwaysExplained No I didn't mean establishing cooperation with other channels, but simply people around the world that can get footage, fact check information, translate stuf, etc. But hey, keep up the good work! And sure, will do!
i could hear the accent reading the grammar on the thumbnail before i even clicked lol
at 05:26, your map incorrectly placed Anse à L'orme station (called Ste Anne de Bellevue from its original name and SADB is the code word on th construction site). The station is along the 40 highway and the only place on the west island leg that gets to ground level. The garage is directly west of the station tracks which means it is designed to never be extended unless trains go through the garage. Tracks cannot go to the south because they are right next against the highway. The terminus station is about same distance from Anse à l'Orme as the final position of the Kirkland station on the one way service road of the 40. (that station was moved a few times, including unnecessary destruction of some businesses at a time the location would be over there).
My favourite city within a 2 hour drive
Just two things - there is rail service to the airport (Dorval Station), used by intercity and regional trains (with a short 5-minute shuttle to the terminal). Second, why are you showing Euros being printed (you do show Canadian dollars in other parts)?
Il y a déjà un terminal à YUL Dorval mais parce que le REM passe dans un tunnel sous les pistes on doit construire un nouveau terminal qui coutera plus de 700M$ qui seront des frais aéroportuaire chargés aux passagers décollant ou passant par Montréal
Cee Dee Pee Queue
Cee Dee Pee Queue (english pronouciation) Say Day Pay Cul (Q) (french) it's an abreviation of Caisse de Dépots et Placements du Québec or diminuate simply as la La Caisse (i.e: The Cashflow) it'S a huge Investing fund company in Canada.
Came here expecting an informative video made by actual people that put some effort in it, and found nothing but AI slop full of wrong statements and stolen content from actual creators. I'd be incredibly ashamed to publish something like this, but I guess it's lucrative.
Building above ground is the way to go. Tunneling is expensive and unpredictable, and is one the reasons the Broadway skytrain extension in Vancouver is way over budget. I wish they had just built it elevated and invested in sound-dampening technology if they needed to placate the NIMBY's.
Going underground is certainly more expensive, but each approach has its benefit, given the right situation
Try living next to a REM lane. Even with sound-dampening technology it's extremely loud. And since the REM runs until 4 am, well you do the math on your sleep time.
@@noseboop4354 Tens of thousands of people already live next to above ground skytrain lines in Vancouver, which I guess were perfectly acceptable for the more working-class areas of the city. They've only insisted on putting them below ground on the West Side.
Our Metro is very inpired and shares a lot with the Paris Métro. The REM shares nothing except for using equipment from Alstom (which CDPQ owns 18%). The REM was pitched as light rail despote using metropolis metros to avoid transit unions, and pitched as light rail and ensure it cut off all connection to any "train" rails to ensure it did not have to meet 1950s rail regulations in Canada.
i wish we had one in saint constant honestly
With all of the alleged experience, CDPQ has to shutdown the REM every weekend now because after only 1 year, the way their attached tracks to the elecated concrete sections has resulted on wear of the concrete so they need to lay new concrete on elevated guideway surfaces. Also, it will be closed all summer so they can connect the tracks at centrak station to the tunnel (their excuse). For something announced in 2016 and delayed over and over again, I guess they didn't have time to properly plan conncting 2 tracks to an extension and didn't plan how their control centre could cope with the expansion. They were eager with signeable though, because on south shores the signs are already there to the airport, west island and deux- montagnes lines.
BTW West IOsand refers to the western part of the Island of Montréal (Dorval, Pointe Claire, Beaconsfield, Baie d'Urfée , Ste Anne de Bellevue, Senneville, Pierrefonds (M), Île Bizzard (M) and Dollard des Ormeaux. (M = part of city of montreal since early 2000s).
In your video, you seem to think that Île Bizzard was the West Island.
le REM vers Ste Anne de Bellevue cannibalise EXO de l'ouest vers Vaudreuil Dorion
en prenant le monopole du tunnel centenaire le REM nuit à EXO de l'est vers Terrebonne Mascouche
Le REM vers l'ouest cannibalise la ligne EXO Vaudreuil Dorion
@@j-paulthivi1053 Pas vraiment car la ligne désert le sud de la 40 tandis que le REM désert le nord. Mais EXO semble déjà résignée à abandonner les efforts de grandir la ligne de train. Ses Autobus de la Presque Île se rabbateront à la station REM Anse à Orme au lier des gares de train.
@@jfmezei Très faible excuse considérant les G$ dépensés pour cannibaliser le tunnel et nuire à EXO de l'est et l'EXO de l'ouest
possiblement que l'antenne ouest coute des G$ gaspillés en plus du tunnel sous les pistes YUL
pensez -y quelques secondes ; de l'aéroport à lagare centrale le 3/4 du trajet sera parcouru sous terre comme des taupes
et j'espère que les tram utilisés auront plus de places assises que le REM de Brossard ...
Sérieusement CDPQ Infra est bullshitteur ...
et M J-M Arbaud aussi sur le prétexte de ne pas avoir fait un nouveau tunnel sous le Mt Royal pour le REM
en achetant ce tunnel pour 150 M$ et ensuite gaspiller des G$ pour câbler et construire un mur mitoyen
ce qui empêchera les futurs trains TGF de VIA prévus par le gouv fédéral
quand on lit tous les retards et couts créés par ce tunnel je pense que le creusage par le tunnelier
ça aurait été moins compliqué et plus rapide que d'adapter le vieux tunnel aux besoins du REM automatisé sans conducteur
@@j-paulthivi1053 Creuser un nouveu tunnel juste à l'ouest du tunne existant sous McGill College aurait probably côuté moins cher et terminé plus rapidement. Mais le mandat de Sabia était de rlier Dorval via les voies existantes du CN (et l'emprose réservée au travers de Turcot déja bâtie, ainsi que station sous terminal USA déjà bâti. Il n'aurait jamis put justifier son projet si il devait creuser nouveau tunnel. Le BAPE avait ses réserves sur le projet à cause de cela. Mais le gouvernement a tout approuvé sans troip y penser et CDPQ a pas fais sa diligence d'inspecter le tunnel existat et de consulter avec le service incendie avant de rendre publique son projet éléphant blanc. Et ce seront exactement les même rames sans sièges ou rack à baggages qui déserviront l'aéroport.
What economic cost on shutting down 2 Montagnes while construction of REM ? I think they could have done more train service on alternate route instead of buses.
The secret ingredient is theft.
Of ROWs ofc
Caisse is pronounced kess. The trouble with the REM is that it is unsightly. Sometimes one has to spend more for a better product.
I welcome transit expansion although whether the REM is a success is a debate. For years Montreal‘s subway extended outside of city limits, with Toronto’s subway system having only begun to do so late in 2017 to Vaughan Metro Centre. that said, it’s been a while since I’ve taken a subway to anywhere but a different part of Toronto proper, with only a handful of TTC bus routes that extend anywhere north of Steeles Ave. (most of whose length, from what was Ontario Highway 50 in the west to the York-Durham Line in the east, marks as a border between Toronto and the neighbouring Region[al Municipality] of York).
16:54 The bar lengths are not proportional to the values
The REM should nave been a Mag-Lev train instead. It is perfect for that. It was super expensive compare to other project in the world of the same size and type. Mag-Lev would have been better as they create no sound pollution, are stable, much faster and derailing is impossible. It is at least electric, no air pollution at least.
REM is in now way a Light Rail system, it literally uses heavy rail Alstom Metropolis which Paris Metro and Sydney Metro uses. The Maximum length of 80m is in the low end of heavy rail metro lengths that you can see in like Paris or Tokyo. It’s even wider than the Montreal Metro trains. People nowadays just see overhead catenary and think light rail, no for the fact it’s also automated which most Light Rail system aren’t.
During the planning phase when I attended the public information sessions, they told me that they had the ability in the future to expand the train length from the current 4 up to 6 cars if future demand required it. I do believe that this would require extending platforms, though, which would be very expensive, since they're indoors and elevated. Or in some cases carved out of rock under a mountain. More likely their other plan for increasing future capacity would be used first: reducing headway on the trunk line to as little as 90 seconds.
It's Light Rail.
So it's a heavy rail light metro then.
@@EdwardM-t8p Oh Lordy....Of course it can run on heavy rail, but it's "Light Rail Transit".
On their opening page, right at the top:
The Réseau express métropolitain (REM) is an automated light rail system with 26 universally accessible stations across Greater Montréal.
@@stephensaines7100 Metro Leger in French is practically Light Metro, The VAL People mover in various regions of France is not considered as Light Rail in France. The distinction divides it from the new Tramways that are nearer to Light Rail being built everywhere else.
Tell me how exactly this is a Light rail system with hitting every quality of a metro?
0:55 *light metro system
EDIT: as others have pointed out, this video is riddled with errors (but the second half is mostly ok 👍)
I believe that you mean 8 - 9% per year, for 99 years. Not over 99 years.
8 - 9% for infrastructure is pretty good.
The degrading of tunnel wall due to salt is another bogus excuse by CDPQ. Much of the tunnel between Cathcart street where it begins to the south and Sherbrooke where it is no longer under a street was demolished to make way for the MgGill station. Do the condition of that section of tunnel was irrelevant, levaing only the short stubs between Cathcart and Ste Catherine and between de Maisonneuve and Sherbrooke. Note that neither the McGill nor Édouard Montpetit stations were in the original plans, and when the political promise was made, they didn't do due diligence on what it would involve so they blames cost overruns on anything/everything they could imagine.
Surprise surprise they do a similar way to fund Transit in France by making people that leave immediately to the line pay for it, Also the people that live immediately next to the rem stations should pay more since they benefit the most. Also, idk why you're so worked up you guys in Montreal are getting 67 Km of rapid transit in under 10 years. If you think the REM is a mess just come look at our Projects in Toronto, we've spent 13 billion on an lrt that only runs 19 km, it's been 14 years and its still under construction!! You guys are getting a much much better value
Clearly, research on locations and accurate station names was lacking during the preparation for this video. The "West Island" highlighted on the map is only Île-Bizard, whereas the actual West Island extends from Dorval, DDO and Roxboro all the way to the western end of Montreal Island.
Loved the video... You covered all the important aspects really well. I rode the REM on opening day, but live in the western area that isn´t open yet. The video has lots of little niggles, I guess you are far away and not familiar with local geography:
fwiw: the line map is slightly off throughout... the western tip is shown turning north along anse-à-l'orme... it just goes straight along the 40 highway to a terminus just west of the southern end of Anse-à-l´Orme. It doesn´t turn north.
@5:37 "Four stations on the south shore" but showing the northern terminus on the island of Laval, and the North Shore.
@6:55 what you identify as the west island in yellow... is actually ile bizard... "west island" is actually the western part of the island of Montreal, and includes ile bizard (and sometimes ile perot is included also... but not always... ) basically everywhere west of the airport is "west island" ...
At some points you cover the opening, but at other points you refer the express bus over the bridge ... to be replaced in the future... It is a little confused. The branch across the champlain bridge has been operation for a year or two.. the express bus is gone. The grand opening of the first section killed it.
The guaranteed return on investment was not part of the original pitch, the one that was approved. It was only after that that CDPQ annouced it would need public funding both for capital and operating, as well as transit exclusivity to guarantee existing transit funnel all passengers to a REM station instead of bringing people downtown directly. (this matters mucy on the poorly designed west island extension because we risk osing our existing express buses to downtown, and the existing commuter tarin on the CP line , while allowed to remain, cannot be improved. The areas served by the train are south of highway 40, while the REM serves north of the 40, the 40 being an impassible obstacle with the overpasses severely congested. And as a result of this, when a user takes a bus and then the REM, the rem will take the majority of the reveues from that users ticket and reduce revenues allocated to the bus company (STM, STL, RTC , EXO). the RTL (south shore) has already had this done since every passengers gets off its buses at Panama (formery bus terminal to get to the express buses to downtown) and is forced to use the REM to get to downtown. No more single rides to downtown, but more importantly, no more RTL having all of the revenues from a ticket.
CDPQ assuming all financial risks was only valid during the initial pitch where it promised to be self funded and revenue positive for operations. Once it got approved and CDPQ went begging for money, this all changed. When Aériports de Montréal approached its near second bankruptch in 2020 and cancelled its great white elephant project of covering the terminal in a glass dome so that the REM station under bow partly demolished parking lot would be "inside" could no longer fund its part of the RE station in the airport, and CDPQ did not assume the risk, it went to the feeral government who promised to fund some $300m for it, but judging from lack of progress, CDPQ is not risking any of its funds and waits for the slow trickle of money that comes every year. They say 2027 opening, but based on the fact that the station hole has not progressed in the last 12 months, I doubt they will open in their constantly being-delatyed time of 2027. Slow rogress of a construction site = lack of funding.
CDPQ oblige un rendement de 8 % par an pendant 99 ans sur les couts de plus de 8 G$ .
Ces frais de centaines de M$ devront être payés par les villes . les TOD et les gouvernements .
Ce qui empècherau des investissements en transports collectifs modernes ailleurs dans la CMM
It’s not Light Rail
Grammar: 'How (or 'Why') Was This Mega-Project So Cheap?' [one or the other adjective, but not both].
The "how" is explained by inflation, it seems reasonnable nowadays because thats how governments dilute debt over time.
Does anyone else hears the CDPQ spelling like crazy slow and unnecessary spaced? 😅
The city did not decide on the REM. The ARTM (transit planning authority) did not decide on the REM. A non transit authority (CDPQ) IMPOSED it on the city after the provincial goverment asked it to build a simple line to use the new bridge to downtown from south shore, and use existing tracks to the airport, including reserved tracks already there through the maor Turcot interchange built. CDPQ refused to use the direct right of way to airport so instead stole the key rail tunnel through mon royal and if/when the airport link opens, the trains will do a great big loop first going north from airport, then east, and then all the way back south and will take longer to downtown that the current 747 buses (that at least have seats and luggage racks). This also required the tearing down of the modern elctrified train line to Deux Montagnes and cut off the lie to Mascouche that had opened 2 years before since no longer able to access downtown due to loss of tunnel.
So, the lesson is to have billions of dollars, at your disposal, before beginning a project of this size? I guess Montreal is unique in that its investor class knows better than to believe the grass is greener elsewhere.
2018 estimated cost $2.4 B...2024 estimate cost $9.4 B....increase of $7 B...Cost so little?..and it isn't even finished
So many mistakes…. Ile bizard is not the West Island……and the l’anse a l’orme Line goes a long the highway… in this video it ends in a flood zone….
Not sure why it would end there. No population.
Because french are the smartest people on earth.
Please spell the family name of Quebc's correctly. It is Couilard, NOT Kard!!!! And his given name is Philippe!!!
The REM's cost is backloaded because the provinciall pension plan owns and operates it for profit
Because like everything in Quebec Alberta paid for it.
Yes the Quebec Pension Fund, Hydro Quebec, Province of Quebec fund that paid at least 70% of the cost came from Alberta. stay delusional
AI video
thx
dont tell the montrealer that, lot of them are laughing or hate it for some reason. there is always a reason to hate anything progressive in montreal.
Fast and repliable??¿?? Not finished yet. Over budget, already by 25%. I can't wait to see if we will be the first nordic city to have an outside train that works during winter season. This train will profitable because it will get $ from tax payer. This service will nevers be profitable, mark my Word.
Calgary and Edmonton have colder winters than Montreal and their LRT systems has been running for decades. Please be serious
There are a number of factual and representational issues with this video
Île Bizard as the west island???
île Bizard was part of the Borough of Sainte-Geneviève(-de-Pierrefonds)/ Île-Bizzard and Pierrefonds is part of the West Island. Do not confuse West End (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce(NDG), Montreal-West, Côte-Saint-Luc(CSL), Hampstead) and the West Island ( Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Senneterre, Pierrefonds, Kirkland , Beaconsfied, Pointe-Claire, Dorval and île-Dorval and Dollard-des-Ormaux (DDO). The other Question does Lachine, Lasalle , Ville Saint-Pierre and Ville Saint-Laurent. are part of the West Island ?
Hello A.I., île Bizard is not West Island.
How Did This Mega-Project Cost So Cheap......Salt spray willl destroy the concrete. It won't be cheap on TCO. Title is misleading.
That's not West Island. It's Ile Bizzard. West Island is inside close to the airport. There won't be 240000 commuters on Ile bizzard
Yeah.... I laughed so hard when they highlighted Ile Bizzard and it shows that the video authors don't know the dynamics of the Montreal area. Love the REM though :)
Cancelling REM de l'est was a BIG mistake
True and False, True the Rem de l'Est was a good project but the problem we got with the original REM would have split the CPDQ-Infra attention too thin between project. Let them finish the original REM before planning futur extension.
It would be great to have a human narrate. For this length of video, hearing errors constantly repeated and “CDPQ” pronounced like a robot over and over gets grating…
So many issues with this video. Inaccurate content, stolen content. It should really be taken down.