The Mayor of Quebec broke his reluctance at the third connection yesterday in Sweden and said he was confident the Quebec government would follow the global trend with a tunnel project after a presentation on an underwater subway project in the city of Malmo must be reserved for public transport.
Bruno Marchand was often skeptical about the Québec-Lévis tunnel project. He repeated several times recently that it could be interesting for the tunnel to accommodate a heavy transport vehicle and that the public transport space there should be improved.
However, yesterday, to my great surprise, the mayor was much more categorical after attending a presentation by the city of Malmo in Sweden. Of course, the CAQ government has yet to state its costs. But the mayor had never been that far in terms of possible support.
“Right now that’s the global trend,” explained Mr. Marchand, so it’s not clear that Quebec wants to stand out. Quebec faces the same problems, and if we are to find solutions to these problems, we need public transportation, he argued.
The idea of adding lanes for cars and doing freeway projects, such as the CAQ originally envisioned with the Third Link project, is indeed a development that was done in the 1960s and 1970s, and I have it often denounced.
It is clear that we now have to plan for the next 40 and 50 years, and that does indeed affect public transport. It remains to be seen, as the mayor said, what the cost would be.
Remove car tracks
In Malmo, Sweden’s third-biggest city, years after building a bridge tunnel linking the country with Denmark, where 75,000 people travel daily, authorities are working on a tunnel that will run under water and house a metro.
The two cities are also considering removing lanes for cars on the existing bridge tunnel because it costs less and less not to build for cars, according to Stefana Hoti, city planning officer elected since October 2022.
This shows how obsolete the concept of a third connection, which avoids cars and provides lanes for public transport at peak times, is completely obsolete.
Hoti emphasizes that the possibility that the future tunnel planned for 2029 could contain car tracks was not even mentioned there.
As for the argument that the bridge tunnel will lead to an economic explosion, Mayor Marchand rightly recalls that “we already have our two bridges that make that possible”.
“The government will do what it wants with its tunnel, but we are convinced that public transport is the best solution if we want to move people quickly and a lot,” he emphasizes.
appeal to the government
With his colleagues, UMQ President Daniel Côté, Laval Mayor Stéphane Boyer and Granby Mayor Julie Bourdon, Bruno Marchand visited sustainable neighborhoods where innovative homes are being built.
Everyone now wants a synergy of cities to invite the government to open their horizons. Cities can do a lot for the environment and quality of life by developing structuring transport projects and sustainable neighborhoods, but the government needs to listen and give them resources, they demanded in the same way.
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