Photos & Video Of REM Construction Show The Incredible Progress Of The New Light-Rail Line
Montreal's largest construction project is very impressive so far.
- The Réseau express métropolitain has been making a ton of progress over the last little while regarding the 26 new stations that are said to be up and running by 2023.
- This article looks at pictures of how the progress is going on the South Shore, the West Island, and the North Shore of Montreal.
- Visit MTLBlog for more headlines.
The Réseau express métropolitain, better known as the REM, has slowly been taking shape across Montreal. Once finished, the city's largest-ever infrastructure project in 50 years will have 26 stations on 67 kilometres of track and will be running fully automated trains 20 hours a day.
Driving around, you might've already noticed the various construction sites around the West Island and Édouard-Montpetit metro station, among others. The railway will offer direct access to downtown Montreal for West Island, North Shore, and South Shore residents.
The first trains will begin running from the South Shore to Bonaventure station in 2021, and the entire network is set to be completed by 2023.
On Friday, our own Alex Melki reported on exclusive drone footage sent to MTL Blog which shows the REM's incredible scale and progress so far. It's certainly amazing to see the REM taking shape from the sky but the vast scale of the project can also be appreciated from ground-level.
Work began in March of 2018 and in just one short year, the REM has seen some breathtaking progress. The construction is causing headaches downtown and across the city but trust me, people, it'll all be worth it.
Below you'll find some incredible photos that show the progress of the REM so far!
The footage shows the depth of the future Édouard-Montpetit REM station (the second deepest public transit station in Canada) and the scale of the project in downtown Montreal from an eye in the sky.
The REM is going to be almost as large as Montreal's metro system. At 67-kilometres, it'll connect the city's suburbs to the downtown core like never before.
Simply looking at numbers and hearing promises make it hard to appreciate just how huge the REM is going to be, though. So, we're going to go site-by-site and show you the progress so far!
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Downtown Montreal
We're all aware of the chaos near McGill, I'm sure. The REM should be helping with this, as it's going to connect to the green and orange metro lines at McGill station and Bonaventure.
De Maisonneuve West (between Robert-Bourassa and McGill College Avenue), and McGill College Avenue (between De Maisonneuve Boul West and Sainte-Catherine West) are being excavated to accommodate a REM station and a new pedestrian tunnel that will connect the REM to the metro and to the underground city.
Downtown commuters will only need to wait one more full calendar year before REM construction is complete for them. The first trains will depart from Bonaventure station to the South Shore starting in 2021.
You can begin to see how massive the tracks will be as you walk around the Lachine Canal. Workers have already erected a section of track that'll eventually span to the Lachine Canal and eventually include a future station in the Peel Basin.
South Shore
Residents on the South Shore are also seeing massive construction. The main section of track will run down the middle of Highway 10 and will cross the new Champlain Bridge.
The Rive-Sud terminal will feature the REM station, a bus terminal with 22 stations, a 3,000-spot parking lot, and a huge maintenance and operations centre.
There will be three stations in Brossard, servicing a huge community that has needed a reliable public transit network for a long time.
The South Shore will be done by 2021, in conjunction with the downtown REM lines.
West Island
The West Island REM will feature five new stations, starting from the airport and ending in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. Once finished, it'll only take commuters 20 minutes to get downtown from the West Island!
The elevated tracks will run alongside Highway 40. By 2023, the Roxboro-Pierrefonds and Sunnybrooke REM stations will replace the current stations on the Deux-Montagnes commuter train line.
The West Island REM is set to be finished by 2023.
North Shore
There's already been a ton of preparatory work this year for the REM line in the North Shore.
As it'll be replacing the Deux-Montagnes train line, there's still a lot of work to be done.
With 12 new stations to be built and with extensive renovations to be done to existing infrastructure, the North Shore will only see the REM in 2023.
Are you as excited about the REM as we are?
The first trains will begin running from the South Shore to downtown Montreal in 2021! To find out more about the REM, make your way to their official website.