The day after the publication of a devastating report on the REM de l’Est, the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, reiterated her support for the project, which she describes as “essential”.
• Read also: REM de l’Est: Legault will not move forward without the support of Montreal
“This project, we want it, it is necessary, and it deserves our greatest attention. It is about the advancement of transportation in Montreal,” she exclaimed Wednesday morning during a meeting of her executive committee.
The Mayor also expressed the wish that the City be part of a joint project office with the CDPQ Infra, in order to allow better urban integration of the future network.
“It has to be done together. We can’t pass a train, and then tell ourselves that we’ll do the streets and the intersections, and see how things live with the living environments. We have to think about it upstream,” she said.
Another “winning” condition that has not yet been met, Ms. Plante is asking the provincial government to inject funds in turn to allow it to be carried out.
“We are talking about a minimum of $1 billion to carry out this project in an integrated and intelligent way. We decided to invest $500 million, but that’s not enough, and I think that this project cannot only be paid for by Montreal taxpayers,” added the mayor.
On Tuesday, the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, affirmed that the project was in the hands of the City, and that the government would not go ahead without the support of Ms. Plante.
The whole thing comes at a time when the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) has released a report on the project, which concludes that other options should rather be considered because of the many inconveniences that the Eastern REM will cause.
The STM also skeptical
According to an internal note obtained by La Presse, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) has also been very critical of the REM de l’Est project, believing that its profitability objectives are not compatible with the common good.
By e-mail, the STM confirmed the existence of this document, without, however, wanting to make it public.
See also
Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com