leNouvelliste, Trois-Rivières
February 13, 2018 Updated February 12, 2018 at 9:45 pm
The light at the end of the tunnel
Will we one day what could actually happen to that in a few weeks, sharing the Mount Royal tunnel becomes possible between REM and the future high-frequency train passing by the north shore? At the same time as the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec announced changes to the EMN project and a revision of the projected costs, it was eliminated in one fell swoop what appeared to be the main obstacle to VIA Rail's TGF project. Will it be enough to move forward?
There was a sigh of relief last week for those who wanted the North Shore High Frequency Train project to materialize. In Quebec City and Trois-Rivières, particularly. With reason.
Because in recent months, it was feared that the TGF project would be buried even before dying, because of the impossibility of coexistence, in the famous Mount Royal tunnel, trains of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) and those of the high frequency service of the north shore. It had been decided that the railway tracks of the tunnel should be for the exclusive use of the future REM, which meant that the high-frequency train should have made its stop at a station located in the outskirts of Montreal, probably in the area of the train. junction of highways 40 and 15. Impossible to have direct access to Central Station.
But suddenly, this obstacle seems lifted. By choosing a technology that allows the trains to share the tracks in the narrow 100-year-old tunnel, the TGF will be able to access the Central Station even if the EMN runs in the same corridor several times an hour.
Why had not we considered this before? Why had we condemned cohabitation prematurely? Is the famous technology needed for channel sharing already available? Is it only realistic?
The seemingly good news hides perhaps an extension of the deadlines for the completion of the TGF project. Already, it is estimated that VIA Rail will take between two and four years to make it happen once the company has all the required approvals.
Last Friday, Robert Aubin, Member of Parliament for Trois-Rivières, signed a letter in these pages in which he urged the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau to move forward with the necessary funding for the project. In recent years, the hon. Member has not stopped insisting on the passenger train record, and that is to his credit. On the issue of funding, we are very much looking forward to Bill Morneau's next budget. The key that will unlock the north shore railways to passenger trains is probably in this exercise.
The Accès Transportables viable organization, present in the Quebec City region to promote sustainable modes of travel and defend the rights of public transit users, launched an interesting idea last week. To avoid long delays, the agency believes that the federal government must make tunnel interoperability a strict condition for EMF funding. It's far from stupid.
And it could ensure a minimum of simultaneity in the realization of both projects, which would ensure that for once, there would not be that for Montreal. The North Shore has been waiting for the return of passenger trains for longer than the Quartier Dix-30 is waiting for a metro train service.
