Although completion of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM)'s blue line extension has been postponed, "major work" on the project is finally set to begin soon, providing transit users with a shred of hope regarding the future of eastward travel in the city.
On Monday, the STM announced that "construction will officially begin for the new stations in the Pie-IX, Viau and Langelier sectors" this fall.
Plans for the extension include building five new accessible metro stations, two new bus terminals, six kilometres of tunnel, pedestrian walkways, and more — all east of Saint-Michel station, servicing nearly 69,000 people per day.
The Société de transport de Montréal's (STM) blue line extension plan.STM
However, if you want to take the blue line all the way to Anjou, you'll need more than an OPUS card to get there — you'll also need a whole lot of patience.
Following multiple delays, the project's finishing date was recently pushed back to 2031.
"The updates have been made and the analyses are completed. The budget and schedule that we are presenting to you [...] are final," assured Maha Clour, director of the blue line extension project, at an August press scrum.
While this can be seen as relatively good news, it also means construction zones in these areas will hamper traffic along rue Jean-Talon Est for the next two years or so, according to the STM website.
In August, the STM revealed that additional costs were needed for blue line extension with the bill expected to rise from $6.4 billion to $7.6 billion — a billion-dollar increase.
The project to build to Anjou was initially authorized in 1979 by René Lévesque's government before being proposed again in 1988, and then abandoned in the early 1990s due to the recession.
You can find more details about the project and upcoming construction work on the STM website.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
This story was adapted from the article "Les travaux pour le prolongement de la ligne bleue commencent ENFIN à Montréal," which was originally published on Narcity Québec by Josianne Desjardins.
