Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa will have to spend more than half a billion dollars to replace the control system on the Montreal Metro’s blue line as part of its extension to Anjou.
• Also read: Funeral for STM’s “10 Minute Max Network”.
“We cannot put an old control system in a new metro,” Société de Transport de Montréal CEO Éric Alan Caldwell said Monday during the announcement by Transport and Sustainable Mobility Minister Geneviève Guilbault and the Mayor of Montreal, Valerie Plante.
Mr Alan Caldwell clarified that the current system is outdated and therefore cannot be installed in the five new blue line stations due to start operating in 2029.
“It’s still good, but let’s say it’s been around 50 years since it was installed,” Minister Guilbault said.
For the blue line alone, replacing them will cost just over $565 million. Quebec will contribute $296.6 million and the STM will contribute $65.6 million. To complete the financing package, a funding application is submitted to the federal government.
More modern
“The blue line will be extended,” the minister assured.
On December 5, the STM launched the tender for the construction of the tunnel and the preparation of the land for some of the five new stations east of Saint-Michel station.
At the same time, Quebec wants to seize the opportunity to install a “more modern” control system “similar to what is being done elsewhere in the world,” Minister Guilbault argued.
The STM will therefore advance with a new technology of the type CBTC (Communications-based Train Control), which at the same time should increase the reliability and frequency of the trains.
The new system will be installed in 2028 on the existing blue line and in 2029 on the extended part towards Anjou.
STM will use this experience to roll out the new technology to other metro lines, which could involve “significant” additional costs, Eric Alan Caldwell said.
An $80 million hole
The STM is currently running a deficit of almost USD 80 million, forcing it to cut back its services (see opposite page).
“A new control system is nice, it’s good, but it doesn’t solve the problem we currently have: the service we offer to customers,” responded Pino Tagliaferri, President of the Association of Bus Drivers, Metro Operators and Associates service staff.
“We experience aggression, customer dissatisfaction. If the customer is not satisfied with the service, the driver suffers because he is at the top,” he argued.
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