A new parking garage near the Côte-Vertu metro station of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) will allow a dozen more metro cars to park and help improve service.
STM officials say the garage will increase service by 25 per cent on the line, cutting passenger wait times on the platforms by 30 seconds during rush hour.
‘’We’re going to be able to have trains that are parked here in the garage,’’ Leila Britel, STM project director of Côte-Vertu garage, told Global News.
But what many local elected officials in the borough of Saint-Laurent would like to see is an extension of the orange metro line to the Bois-Franc Réseau express métropolitain (REM) train station, less than two kilometres away.
Two entrance ways have already been dug to eventually build a tunnel and extend the metro line.
Connecting the metro to Bois-Franc would create a bimodal station giving public transit users the option to take the train or the metro, a plan the Montreal mayor supports.
Connecting different networks is the way to go,’’ Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said.
For now, the Quebec government is studying the proposal but no commitments to extend the metro line are being made.
“I cannot announce something else today. I will come back,” Chantal Rouleau, the Transport Minister responsible for Montreal said at a press conference on Friday.
Bois-Franc is scheduled to open by the end of 2024 and some local officials would like the station to be bimodal by that time.
“Hopefully, it’s going to come fast,” Montreal city councillor Aref Salem told Global News.
STM officials say the tunnel could probably be built in two years but only if the green light were given now.
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