With $6 billion in new federal funding for Quebec’s public transit announced in June, experts and lobbyists say there is a long list of priorities for coming projects.
However, everyone appears to agree maintaining aging and crumbling infrastructure should be the first priority for any new spending.
Workers walk past the massive tunnel boring machine on Feb. 23, 2026, at the new Vertières métro station in Montreal. The priority of any transit spending must be to invest massively in aging métro tunnels and stations, says Ahmed El-Geneidy, the head of the Transportation Research at McGill group. Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette
Speaking to The Gazette on Friday, Prof. Ahmed El-Geneidy, the head of the Transportation Research at McGill group (TRAM), explained the money must be contingent on a big investment by the province as well.
“The federal government only ever pays one-third the amount, so Quebec has to put money in,” said El-Geneidy, who served on the board of the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain for several years.
He said if the province matches the money to the extent that usually occurs, there will be $18 billion.
In Montreal, the priority of any transit spending must be to invest massively in aging métro tunnels and stations, as well as replacing the métro’s MR-73 trains, which were built in the 1970s, El-Geneidy said.
When the federal money was announced in June, Société de transport de Montréal chairperson Aref Salem said the agency’s two priorities are to bring its infrastructure back up to good condition and to replace the MR-73 trains, which are 11 times more prone to breakdowns than the newer Azur trains. However, Salem said the STM’s maintenance deficit stands at $7 billion, while a recent estimate by the transit agency determined it would cost about $10 billion to retire the old trains, which includes replacing control systems. That doesn’t leave much for new projects.
El-Geneidy said if he could choose a third item on which to spend the new money, it would be to improve access to the east end of Montreal. However, he said adding elevators and platform screen doors to stations should also be top priorities.
Florence Junca-Adenot, a UQÀM urban studies professor, agreed the urgent need is to reinvest in infrastructure just to keep the lights on. She said failing to do so means suffering with service cuts, broken-down trains, and stations being shut because their degradation is too severe.
“It’s like having a house,” she said. “If you don’t invest in the foundation of the house, then you can’t live inside that house.”
However, she cautioned this new money can’t be seen as a cure-all after years of cuts to transit budgets.
Editor’s Picks
“It needs to be the first step,” Junca-Adenot said. “We need to have a fund that is dedicated to the maintenance and operations of public transit in the province.”
Brian Nash, a spokesperson for the lobby group Trajectoire Québec, also said the métro’s infrastructure is the greatest priority. However, his group says there is also an urgent need for new public transit projects in the province. The biggest ones are the tramways in Quebec City and Gatineau, but in Montreal, they say, what’s needed is a heavy transit mode to link the east end to the downtown core.
Nash, however, cautioned against promising too many new projects without taking into account how to pay for them in the long run.
“We can’t make an error to forget about the future,” Nash said. “We have elected officials who love to cut ribbons on new projects, but we forget that these projects cost money in operations and maintenance in the long term.
“But we don’t have a choice: We have to do both. We have maintenance needs that are urgent, but we also have needs for new transit that are urgent. We have a population increase that is impressive throughout the province, and we have lots of areas of the province where there isn’t an adequate transit system.”
Nash said Trajectoire Québec expects to make a formal wish list public in the coming weeks, in the hope that the province’s political parties make their transit intentions clear for the coming election.
“We hope that transit will be a big election issue,” he said. “We will work hard to make sure that (parties make their promises known). The province has to finance investments that will result in an increase in transit service of five per cent per year, which the (Coalition Avenir Québec government) promised to do in 2018.”
You’ll often see Jason Magder donning a hard hat and fluorescent vest at a local construction site. As The Gazette’s transportation reporter for more than a decade, he has seen the new Champlain Bridge built, the old one demolished and followed the ups and downs of the city’s transit system. He has been covering news in Montreal for 25 years.
jmagder@postmedia.com