Montreal — Viability of Project Questioned

September 2013

A report in 24h Montreal reports that the Mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre, believes that plans to have a modern tramway system running by 2017 are dreams which are not realistic. City Councillor and mayoral candidate Richard Bergeron, of the Projet Montreal political party, counters that meeting the target date is feasible, pointing out that Montreal's Metro was built in four years.

Other candidates have proposed rapid bus service be developed instead of a tramway.

Recently the City of Montreal released a feasibility study that advocated an initial tram line which would loop through the center city then follow Cote-des-Neiges. The length of the line would be 8.2 miles and it would carry an estimated 70,000 passengers daily. It would cost nearly $1 billion, and would compete for funding with a large number of other transportation projects envisioned for the city.