MONTREAL – Jacques Daoust has held Quebec’s transportation file for just one month, but he’s already got his work cut out for him.
Quebec’s Transport Minister doesn’t have any concrete plans in place to help people move from the western part of Montreal to downtown as work on the Turcot Interchange progresses.
At a press conference Tuesday morning, Daoust said he’s working to find a way to help commuters.
Construction to replace the aging structure with a new Turcot Interchange is expected to intensify in the coming years, possibly creating huge traffic headaches as people try to get to Montreal.
Mass transit advocates are calling for more AMT passenger trains to be added to the Vaudreuil-Dorion line to mitigate the congestion.
Baie-D’Urfé mayor Maria Tutino said four new trains were supposed to be added to the line during road work several years ago to replace the elevated structure.
She said that never happened because there were plans to build the Train de l’Ouest, a new service that would dramatically increase the number of passenger trains.
Tutino fears the congestion on Highway 20 will be terrible as people try to make their way downtown.
“We will be stranded,” Tutino told Global News.
The tracks used by the AMT are owned by CP Rail.
Adding new passenger trains will likely involve negotiating a deal with the private rail company.
In a statement to Global News, the AMT wrote: “The AMT is working with Transports Quebec and others to put in place mitigation measures to deal with the impacts caused by work on the Turcot.”
The new Turcot Interchange is scheduled to be finished by 2020.
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