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You may want to look up Avenue Atwater and Rue du Fort on Google StreetView, as both will be in the way when attempting to dive underground anywhere near where your map indicates the tunnel portal. Similarly, vertical access at Gare Centrale would be a massive problem, as the existing tracks are in the way (i.e. between station concourse and your underground station). And speaking of the underground, have a look at a map of the "Underground City" and the Autoroute Ville-Marie to see all the stuff which has already been dug into the ground:
I'm afraid you will need to show at least some inclination to consider all three dimensions, if you want me to take your lines on a map serious...
Would like to know how much research went into the Pink Line route... As the Southern part of my route would essentially mimick that alignment. (including the portal) The Pink Line was expected to surface around the area of my portal and travel at grade in the corridor until Montreal Ouest ...and there would be space for a station under everything else. Pink lines route is not too close to the Ville-Marie, and it passes under the REM.
There is neither the space, nor the money nor the stomach in Montreal to digest the construction of two underground rail corridors across the city. And I couldn't blame my fellow Montrealers if they chose a Metro line over an intercity tunnel which would only benefit passengers travelling between Montreal and Quebec...
Probably about as much as went into Ford's Front Street monorail.
Yes I agree that there wouldn't be the stomach for two new rail tunnels. But to be fair, the intercity tunnel wouldn't just be for the benefit of people travelling from Québec. It would also serve all of the northern and eastern suburbs via the St Jérôme line, and Mascouche Line, respectively, as well as the VIA long-distance services from Jonquière and Senneterre (and more importantly, Shawinigan and Joliette). And as drawn, it would also serve the western lines (Vaudreuil-Dorion and Candiac), providing them with a new connection to the various services using Gare Centrale (REM, VIA, Amtrak and other Exo Lines).
Well I don't think this dotted line on a map was intended to be a design submitted for construction. It's clearly just a theoretical concept.
My point was that only a much smaller proportion of Montrealers (i.e. those people who would have to suffer most of the disruption caused by the construction) would benefit from the operation of a heavy rail tunnel than of an additional subway line...
[rant]Which is exactly what I did (even with a link to an older post of mine in this very thread, where I already discussed most of these concerns in great detail), but this commenter chose to hand-wave away all the concerns I mentioned (e.g. Avenue Atwater and the Rue du Fort tunnel are too close to each other and too steep to dive underground inbetween, an underground station underneath the existing tracks would be inaccessible from the existing station concourse and in the way of the various arms of the Autoroute Ville-Marie tunnel and the underground city prevents you from being anywhere close to the street surface), rather than considering the possibility that someone who has actually lived in this city for 9 years, worked for VIA for 6 years, lived within walking distance of Avenue Atwater and the Rue du Fort tunnel for 2 years, been involved in the negotiations with the CDPQi and read more HSR/Higher-Speed Rail studies than most of you have heard of might have a more profound understanding of the engineering challenges of ploughing a railway tunnel through this city than a Crayonista who arbitrarily draws lines over a map...[/rant]
