Mayor Edgar Rouleau wants a tunnel for a light rail train to link the Trudeau Airport with Dorval’s AMT train station and STM bus terminal.
It’s a busy terminal with dozens of city buses moving thousands of West Island commuters. On the other side of the tracks — the AMT Dorval train station — is a critical stop on the Vaudreuil-Hudson line.
This transit hub sits in the shadows of the Trudeau airport. In fact, about one kilometre is all that separates the airport from the two transit stations. But there is no link to shuttle people between the two. Some say there should be.
“It would make it easier for everyone who comes from the airport to move around Montreal,” Dorval resident Roderick Francisco told Global News.
One person is trying to make it happen. Rouleau is calling for a new train tunnel to be built linking Trudeau with Dorval’s transit hub.
“It would be a shuttle,” The Dorval mayor told Global News.
He submitted a proposal in a brief to the Caisse de Depot. The Quebec pension fund manager has plans to build a massive new electric train network for greater Montreal. But it doesn’t include any link between Trudeau and the Dorval transit hubs.
Rouleau argues the tunnel should be included in the Caisse’s plans.
“Makes sense for not only Dorval residents but anybody who wants to take the plane at the airport,” he said.
There is an STM bus that travels between the Dorval terminal and Trudeau but it’s not a designated shuttle and it meanders through local West Island roads.
Marvin Rotrand argues there isn’t the demand to justify a dedicated shuttle.
The vice chairman of the STM doubts the Caisse de Depot will go for an extension to its proposed train line between Central station downtown and the airport.
“This is entirely hypothetical because the Caisse has said it isn’t going to do that. It’s going to take a completely different alignment,” Rotrand said.
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