Montreal's light-rail network link to South Shore won't open this fall as planned, sources say

It appears Montreal's new light-rail network link to the city's South Shore won't be up and running this fall as planned.

Sources have told Radio-Canda the project has been delayed to the spring. The head of the REM project, CDPQ Infra, is expected to officially announce the delay Friday morning.

The announcement comes at a time when commuters heading to and from the South Shore are anticipating substantial delays when the province's Transport Ministry shuts down three lanes in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel for at least three years. 

This is not the first time the opening of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) has been delayed as the link between Brossard and Montreal's Bonaventure-Central Station via Nuns' Island was originally scheduled for inauguration at the end of 2021. 

It was delayed to the spring or summer of 2022, and then to this fall. 

From the station near Quartier DIX30 on Montreal's South Shore, the electric train is slated to have two stops as it heads north, crosses the Champlain Bridge and stops at Nuns' Island before going downtown.

It will offer commuters a public transit alternative to driving through heavy rush-hour congestion or riding the bus.

Eventually the light-rail network is going to be running across the city, but the project has hit its fair share of setbacks over the years.

Just last month, construction was brought to a screeching halt when Quebec's workplace health and safety board (CNESST) ordered work to stop on the overhead catenary system along 67 kilometres of the track while investigators look into an incident that left no one injured, but caused considerable damage.

That was because a rail maintenance vehicle experienced a technical failure of its connection system. It rolled down the Champlain Bridge's slope and crashed into the station at Nuns' Island.

As for the rest of the network, 18 of the 26 total stations were supposed to gradually open in three phrases between the fall of 2023 and the fall of 2024.

CDPQ Infra later pushed that plan back so they are all to open simultaneously at the end of 2024.

On the REM's informational website, it still says the first trains are expected to start running in 2022 from the South Shore to Bonaventure-Central Station.