MONTREAL- The Minister responsible for greater Montreal slammed the door on delivering a metro train service to the West Island.
Jean-François Lisée made the remarks during a government announcement to extend the blue metro line east to Anjou.
”We’re looking at a number of issues for the west, not on the subway system,” he said, flanked by Transport Minister Sylvain Gaudreault and AMT President Nicolas Girard.
Instead, public transit officials are promising a number of projects to help bring commuters from the West Island to downtown.
A permanent bus lane in the middle of highway 20 is currently under construction. And officials promise to increase commuter train service on the Vaudreuil-Hudson line in the near future. A feasibility study on building new tracks to allow more AMT trains is complete and is expected to be presented to the government by the end of the year.
East end residents are also anxiously waiting for improved public transit service.
St-Leonard and Anjou are some of the most densely populated areas on the island. Tens and thousands of people work and live in the two boroughs, but for now they don’t have any metro or commuter rail service.
The Train de l’Est, a $700 Million AMT commuter service, is supposed to be on the rails by the end of next year. And the government wants to build five new metro stations on the blue line extending it almost six kilometres east of the St-Michel station.
Construction costs of the metro are estimated between $250 million and $300 million per kilometre, bringing the total cost of the project to more than $2 billion but the government refuses to confirm the amount or even speculate the total costs.
”We’re not committed now to give a figure because we don’t know enough about it,” Lisée said.
A $38.8 million feasibility study has been commissioned and will take two years to complete.
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