| Work Detail |
CDPQ announced that work in the Mont-Royal Tunnel is progressing and that dynamic tests are going well on the Deux-Montagnes and Anse-à-l’Orme branches. As a result, CDPQ Infra is targeting fall 2025 for the next commissioning of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM).
The Réseau express métropolitain project is No. 9 on ReNew Canada’s 2024 Top100 Projects report.
“We are heading toward the next commissioning with confidence and a firm desire to limit the impacts on our riders. Our teams and partners have demonstrated a great amount of ingenuity and passion to keep moving forward despite the obstacles. When we compare the REM to other transportation projects around the world, it is rolling out quickly and at a lower cost, despite exceptionally difficult construction conditions in the last few years. We can be proud of what we are doing here,” said Jean-Marc Arbaud, president and CEO, CDPQ Infra.
Cars have already been circulating on the Deux-Montagnes and Anse-à-l’Orme segments for a few weeks at commercial speed. The precise timing of commissioning will be determined based on the success of the next steps outlined in the following plan:
Winter 2025
Prepare tracks to roll out testing across the network
Finalize work in the Mont-Royal Tunnel
Progressively migrate operations from the temporary control centre in Saint-Eustache to the permanent control centre in Brossard
Spring 2025
Start testing in the tunnel and across the network
Summer 2025
Ramp up testing across the network
Fall 2025
Conduct dry run
Commissioning
Starting in 2025, branch integration tests will require necessary modifications to the REM service. In January, service will be interrupted earlier in the evening on weekends. From February to April, service will be interrupted for entire weekends. In April, there will be interruptions on weeknights. Lastly, a shutdown of four to six weeks will be required during off-peak periods in summer 2025 to allow us to ramp up testing and finalize the integration, followed by commissioning in the fall.
These service interruptions between Brossard and Gare Centrale have been planned around peak and high traffic periods to allow the conducting of the work and testing necessary to integrate all branches, while limiting the impact on our customers. With our transit partners and the Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable, we will put in place a temporary service plan that will meet the needs of our riders throughout this transition period.
Postponing commissioning to 2025 and extending the period to build the network resulted in additional net costs of $392 million. This increase is due both to the extension of construction work on the entire network and to the completion of the Mont-Royal Tunnel. The net cost of the project is now $8.34 billion, up 4.9 per cent from CDPQ’s last financial update over a year ago. The REM’s per-kilometre cost is $125 million, well below the best comparable projects in North America.
Rigorous and agile project management allowed CDPQ Infra to continue executing the project in an extremely restrictive context impacted by a series of major events, such as the discovery of hundred-year-old dynamite in a tunnel in an advanced state of deterioration, a global pandemic and a sharp increase in inflation. As has been the case to date, CDPQ Infra bears all these additional costs. |
