Diesel-powered trains could survive push to green public transit in Quebec, in short term

Quebec Transport Minister Chantale Rouleau is helping to pilot her government’s push for the electrification of public transportation in the province.

Tuesday she announced an $18-million grant for bus company Transco to assist in the purchase of electric school buses.

“One hundred and twenty new buses, electric buses, will be on the Island of Montreal,” she told reporters when she made the announcement.

It’s part of the Quebec government’s goal to transform 65 per cent of all buses in the province to electric, and a broader plan to electrify public transportation, like the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) light-rail system being built.

Rouleau said the purchase of the buses is one of the latest efforts in the government’s push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 37.5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.

The electrification of public transportation raises questions for some about the future of mass transit conveyances that use petrol, like the commuter trains in Montreal, a key component of public transit in the suburbs.

“The commuter train provides a very good service,” said Beaconsfield Mayor Georges Bourelle.

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With the construction of the REM, the survival of the commuter trains is top of mind for many commuters, but Bourelle doesn’t think people shouldn’t worry.

“I don’t see that the REM will necessarily replace the service that’s now provided by the Exo train,” he told Global News, “particularly on the south side of (Highway) 20.

Many commuters live south of Highway 20 but the REM is being built closer to Highway 40, a few kilometres to the north.

Bourelle thinks the light rail and the commuter train will compliment each other.

Advocates like Samuel Pagé-Plouffe of Vivre En Ville, a community group that pushes for sustainable living in cities, also pointed out that more mass transit is needed, not less.

“If the trains were to disappear it could mean an increase in the use of individual cars, which would mean an increase in the (greenhouse gas) emissions,” he said.

All those signs point to a need to maintain both systems for the short term.