A new multimodal transit station will be built in suburban Montreal to integrate Via Rail, Exo \u2013 the city\u2019s suburban commuter train system \u2013 the STM bus system and Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.<\/p>\n
The project, in co-development and without a price tag yet, is likely to begin construction next year and wrap up in 2029.<\/p>\n
It will be consolidated on the current Exo station site within a few hundred feet west of Via\u2019s existing train station.<\/p>\n
The two are divided by the so-called Dorval Circle, an interchange among local highways that connects to the airport. It\u2019s a thoroughfare increasingly plagued by traffic congestion, so bad passengers at times have gotten out of cars and made better time by walking the remaining distance with their suitcases to the airport terminal.<\/p>\n
In fact, the Exo station is kind of an integrated station already, with buses using it, on a footprint larger than the Via station, which has been in place originally serving the Grand Trunk Railway since 1888. No future plans for the site have been announced.<\/p>\n
The four development partners \u2013 Via Rail Canada, Autorit\u00e9 r\u00e9gionale de transport m\u00e9tropolitain, Exo and A\u00e9roports de Montr\u00e9al \u2013 announced the long awaited project in August and chose Omaha-based Kiewit, through its Laval, Que. arm Construction Kiewit Cie, which has extensive experience in Montreal projects as well as U.S. transit infrastructure like the East Side Access tunnel to New York\u2019s Grand Central Station.<\/p>\n
The co-development means the parties will now get to work on the detailed design, identify technical challenges and provide accurate cost estimates. However, Via indicated it is paying the lion\u2019s share of the project.<\/p>\n
After the official announcement Aug. 12, the key players didn\u2019t respond to requests for follow-up media interviews.<\/p>\n
But local officials are optimistic some long-term local, regional, even inter-provincial, transportation problems will be alleviated by the so-called \u201chub.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dorval Mayor Marc Donet called it a \u201cbig step\u201d in integrating two disparate terminals. At present \u201cit\u2019s very complex to get people to interconnect together and get to the airport or get downtown in a fluid manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donet added this isn\u2019t just about his municipality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a long-term commitment by Via Rail for anybody who\u2019s within that circle that resonates around Ottawa, Kingston and downtown Montreal. So, people in Kingston will now have an easy choice to come to Montreal on a Via train and get off at the airport .\u201d<\/p>\n
And while there is a current shuttle bus from Dorval\u2019s Via station this will be streamlined. Some 250,000 passengers \u201cpass through\u201d Dorval yearly, according to the Via release.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor travellers, this will mean easier transfers, less travel between facilities, shorter transfer times and, ultimately, a more seamless and predictable travel experience,\u201d the railway stated.<\/p>\n
Donet said his municipality had long been lobbying for \u201cbetter connectivity to the airport.\u201d He said the new light rail REM will connect to the airport next year but that will serve people north of the airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re south in Montreal it\u2019s very difficult, so we\u2019ve always been lobbying for a fluid easy-to-use connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donet said traffic to the airport is \u201cgridlocked every day\u201d and \u201cit can take 45 minutes just to get on to the airport property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, \u201cwe\u2019ve always been pushing for better connections to downtown Montreal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor says he believes the present Via station will be demolished.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happens after that is unclear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As for the current shuttle bus, that also gets caught up in traffic, \u201cso it\u2019s not easy to navigate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clifford Lincoln, a former politician and provincial cabinet minister who has long campaigned for better train service to the city\u2019s so-called West Island, which includes Dorval, called the terminal \u201ccertainly a good idea,\u201d saying airport congestion today is \u201cjust awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
He thinks the hub will bolster train services \u2013 Exo, on the south side of the West Island, while the new REM serves the north side.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo long as this stays then it makes a heck of a lot of sense to co-ordinate<\/p>\n
in Dorval,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rachelle Cournoyer with Citizens for a Better Dorval, said co-ordinating Via Rail and Exo means Exo passengers will be able to avail the shuttle bus just like Via\u2019s now are.<\/p>\n
She also hopes there will be public consultations.<\/p>\n
One question she has is whether travellers will lose parking spaces now at the Via station, where they park and hop on a train, say, for a two-hour commute to Ottawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Via Rail line is used by a lot of civil servants,\u201d she said. \u201cIf they consolidate the Via station with the (new) transit hub across the road does that mean that you lose those spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new multimodal transit station will be built in suburban Montreal to integrate Via Rail, Exo \u2013 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-201775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}