AMT - Agence Metropolitaine de Transport
(Edited by Jean-Francois Turcotte, and William H. Baird)
AUGUST
AMT NEWS
MONTREAL REM LIGHT RAIL TRAIN PROPOSAL
The Caisse de Depot et de Placements du Quebec (CPDQ)'s light rail project was officially unveiled to the public on April 22, 2016. The ReseauElectriqueMontrEalais (REM) would stretch from Brossard's DIX30 Power Center on the South Shore to Deux-Montagnes on the North Shore , with branches running to the Dorval Trudeau airport and along A40 in the West Island to Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.
As expected, CPDQ would build and operate an automated light rail metro line on the new Champlain Bridge (set to open by the end of 2018) to replace an existing and overcrowded busway operating on the current Champlain Bridge. The line would then operate on a mostly underground alignment to reach Central Station.This choice is obviously inspired by Vancouver's Canada line, in which CPDQ has a stake.
The End of the AMT Deux-Montagnes line?
A far more controversial aspect of the plan would see CPDQ absorbing AMT's popular Deux-Montagnes electric commuter rail line and fully convert it to a light rail automated metro line. This also includes AMT's brand-new Mascouche line, which would be forced out of its downtown terminal, with riders forced to transfer to the REM at a new station to be built near Jct de l'Est.
PHOTO STM DEUX MONTANGES LINE AUG 2016
The conversion of the Deux-Montagnes line to a light rail metro would involve major alterations to infrastructures:
- Rebuilding of all stations with 80-meters long high-level platforms. The line currently uses 260 meters-long low-level platforms.
- Complete replacement of rails and ties for light rail operations.
- Replacement of the CTC with a communication-based signaling system.
- Double-tracking of all single-track sections, including bridges over Riviere des Prairies and Riviere des Milles Iles.
- Closure of all fifteen grade crossings on the line.
- Replacement of the existing 25 kV AC60Hz electrification by a new 1.5kV DC system.
The Deux-Montagnes line would operate on a 6-minutes headway. The Airport and West Island branches would operate on a 12-minutes headway, with a combined 3-minutes headway on the common section through Ville St-Laurent and the Mount Royal tunnel.
CPDQ's official video presenting its project:
The following pdfdocument (in French) contains further technical information:
All this comes with a 5.5 billion price tag, with CPDQ kicking in 3 billions and the rest expected to come from various levels of government funding.
A Terrible Day for Rail Transportation in Montreal
PHOTO STM LRT PROPOSAL AUG 2016
While CPDQ's proposal won praise from elected officials, transit enthusiasts and economic stakeholders, evidences are emerging that CPDQ's radical proposal to seize the Mount Royal tunnel rail line was pushed forward without consulting any existing agency currently operating rail service in the Montreal area (notably AMT and VIA Rail). As currently proposed, the REM will have a far-reaching impact that can severely harm the future of rail transportation in the Greater Montreal area. Not only will the REM lead to expensive asset write-downs that will amount to major waste of taxpayer-funded investments, its lack of interoperability with the conventional rail network will greatly restrict any future development.
Adieu, Mascouche?
PHOTO AMT LINE PROPOSAL AUG 2016
The first major casualty of the REM would be AMT's Mascouche line, which was built at a cost of 671M$ and opened less than two years ago. Without its direct connation with downtown, Mascouche line riders will be forced to either connect with the Orange mEtro line at SauvE (itself already overcrowded) or with the REM near Jct de l'Est. Since an 8-car Multilevel trainset can seat more 1121 people, one has to wonder how these will fit in a 4-cars light rail metro that can transport only 600 people (most of them standing), and that will likely be crowded with Deux-Montagnes, Airport or West Island riders.
A likely outcome is that ridership will severely drop on the Mascouche line when the REM cuts if short out of Central Station, potentially threatening its viability. The Mascouche trains will also be unable to reach the future Pointe St-Charles maintenance center. Speaking of which an (almost) empty Maintenance Center.
PHOTO AMT ST-CHARLES MAINTENCE CENTER AUG 2016
MT is currently building a major commuter train maintenance center in Pointe St-Charles, at a cost of 320M$. This center would have hosted Deux-Montagnes, Mascouche and St-Hilaire trains is (was?) expected to open in 2018, with construction work well under way.
By closing the Deux-Montagnes line and cutting the Mascouche line short, AMT's brand-new maintenance center will end up hosting only the St-Hilaire trains.CPDQ has stated it could try using the center for its own needs, but it's hard to foresee how a maintenance center, already under construction, and designed for heavy-rail vehicles, could ever be modified to host a mix of heavy rail and electric light rail automated vehicles, both operating on separate networks with completely different technologies.
No More Train de l'Ouest.
For years, AMT has been advocating major capacity enhancement to the Vaudreuil-Hudson line, notably building dedicated, electrified tracks. CPDQ has no intention of converting the Vaudreuil-Hudson line to REM, instead choosing to build the light rail through an industrial area along A40. This will likely cannibalize the Vaudreuil-Hudson line's ridership, which could lead to service reduction.
Overcrowded From the Start:
Evidence ismounting that the CPDQ's choice of automated light rail technology may not be adequate for the projected ridership of the REM.
The short length of the trains (80 meters) and the small capacity of the light rail vehicles (compared to a MR-90 or Multilevel train sets) will make it, despite the projected 3-minutes headway (which itself will make the REM's operations very sensitive to any disturbance).
In the following link, blogger and transit enthusiast Anton Dubrau discusses the many shortcomings of CPDQ's questionable choice of technology for the REM to handle the projected ridership.
.
CPDQ has so far refused to publish their ridership projection for the REM.
Summary of AMT Assets to Write-off:
Capacity aside, there are many more reasons to question the CPDQ's choice of rail technology for the REM. Its radical incompatibility with the existing rail network is a strong disavow of every investment made by AMT in the past two decades. It will force expensive write-downs of equipment and infrastructure, some of which not even yet in service.
Among these: 58 MR-90 electric multiple units, now 22-years old (at about 50% of their expected service life).Twenty ALP-45DP dual mode locomotives, purchased in 2009 at a cost of almost 15M$ a piece for specific use in the Mount Royal tunnel. This is more than twice as expensive as a conventional diesel locomotive. AMT will have no use for expensive dual-mode locomotives when deprived from its only electric line. 160 Bombardier Multilevel cars, purchased at a premium in 2009 for specific use in the Mount Royal tunnel. Conventional Bilevel cars would have been less expensive to buy and operate, and would have offered more capacity.
AMT had purchased CN's Deux-Montagnes subdivision in 2014 at a cost of 92M $.AMT's Mascouche line (671M$) - threatened as a whole by the lost of its downtown connection.
AMT's Vaudreuil-Hudson line - whose ridership may be cannibalized by the West Island branch of the REM. The Deux-Montagnes line itself was fully rebuilt in 1993-1995 with new stations, rails, ties, ballast, electrification and CTC, all of which at less than half their life expectancy. The whole infrastructure will have to be torn down for the conversion to REM, as the light rail metro technology cannot re-use any of the existing infrastructure.
The afore-mentioned 320M commuter rail maintenance center under construction in Pointe St-Charles
So in the end, 5 billion $ will be spent on converting a heavy rail line to a light rail line, with insufficient capacity, and which will render useless billions of recent commuter rail investments. Plucked Quebec taxpayers will certainly appreciate CPDQ's alacrity in "improving" their transit network.
Lost Opportunities - St-Jerome and Quebec
For years, AMT has planned to reroute the St-JErome line from Lucien l'Allier to Central Station, running through the Mount Royal tunnel, with a underground connexion built from the Rockland viaduc to the tunnel near the site of the proposed Edouard-Montpetit station.
This would save at least 15 minutes per trip and would have greatly enhanced service on the line, which could then be partly or fully electrified.
The same tunnel could also be used by VIA Rail to reach Quebec-Gatineau's Trois-Rivieres subdivision. For years, VIA has been planning to reroute the Quebec trains on a faster route on the North Shore, avoiding interference with CN's freight trains on its South shore line through Drummondville. Using the Mount Royal tunnel would fit right with VIA's High-Frequency Rail plan, which involves building its own electrified tracks isolated from CN and CP's network.
With the REM, both opportunities will forever lost. St-JErome line riders will have to endure the current circuitous route through Cote St-Luc, with potential interference with CP freight trains on its Adirondack subdivision. And VIA Rail will never, ever, be able to improve service on its Montreal-Quebec route, which may eventually become irrelevant and disappear.
More missed opportunities.
One would think that converting the Mount Royal tunnel to light rail would be the perfect moment to finallybuild the projected Edouard-Montpetit and McGill intermodal stations (link in French). These would directly link the future REM with the Blue and Green metro line respectively and would greatly enhance the connectivity of the transit network.
The idea of building such stations has been floated around many times, but the high price tag has chilled any hope of ever starting the project.
CPDQ lists both stations as "projected" under its plan. As they have been for the past 20 years or so.
CN's Doney Spur:
PHOTO CN DONEY SPUR AUG 2016
Five days a week, CN runs local train L56421 to serve customers on the Doney and St-Francois spurs. This train must use the Deux-Montagnes line between Jct de l'Est and Val Royal to reach the spur. The very short REM headway and its incompatible light rail technology means that a full temporal separation will be required for CN to continue using the line. The short window during which CN will be able to run on the Deux-Montagnes line will be less than four hours a night. However, train L564 21 currently requires a full eight-hour shift to complete its run from Taschereau to the Doney Spur, and back. The most likely outcome is that CN will apply to abandon the spur, and the customers will be forced to relocate or switch to truck service.
This is a rather minor casualty of the REM, but rail freight nevertheless should never be negatively impacted by a passenger rail or transit project, as rail freight's economic and ecological benefits generally exceeds passenger rail's.
A better Alternative?
It is hard to understand how CPDQ, or anyone, could ever come up with a project that could be so harmful for rail transportation in the Greater Montreal. Alternatives to the questionable light rail metro technology proposed by the CPDQ exist though. High capacity electric commuter trains running on a slightly longer headway (e.g. 6 minutes) would provide a similar service quality, while offering a higher theoretical long-term capacity and, even more important, preserving the interoperability of the tunnel. VIA or AMT could insert a train between CPDQ's trains if a longer headway is used. Examples of such mixed networks exists: the London Overground network for instance, or Metrolynx's future Regional Express Rail in Toronto.
An example of high-capacity and high-frequency metro-like rail service can also be found in many Australian cities such as Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne (see photo). PHOTO AMT METRO RAIL AUSTRALIA AUG 2016
Montreal’s next Electrified Light Rail Train Sets Begin Tendering
On June 28th, 2016 CDPQ Infra, Canada, published two requests for qualification for its $C5.5 billion ($US4.26 billion) Metropolitan Electric Network (REM) project in Montreal to qualify candidates to bid for two contracts to build and equip the automated rail network. The two contracts comprise the $C4 billion engineering, procurement and construction contract and a $C1.5 billion contract covering the rolling stock, systems, operation and maintenance. CDPQ Infra will qualify up to three respondents to bid for each contract. The deadline for submissions is August 26. CDPQ Infra, which is a subsidiary of institutional fund manager Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, will be responsible for financing the project and will be the owner of the 67km network serving 24 stations. The Quebec provincial government is considering whether to contribute to the completion of the project and the involvement of the Canadian government is also being sought. The existing AMT Montreal - Deux-Montagnes commuter line will become part of the new network and will be upgraded and extended to Brossard, Trudeau Airport and Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. New tunnels totalling 5.4km and 16km of elevated railway are required. The project also involves the provision of nine bus terminals and 13 park-and-ride facilities. The network will be fully automatic with driverless operation and electrified at 1.5kV dc overhead. Station platforms will be 80m long and equipped with platform screen doors. WiFi will be provided throughout the network. A fleet of 200 cars will be required operating as two-car trains off-peak and four-car sets during peak periods. Trains will operate at 3-minute headways on the core section of the network. The 3m-wide trains will have a maximum speed of 100km/h and a design speed of 110km/h. They must be able to operate in temperatures ranging from -40oC to 50oC. The network will be equipped with communication-based train control (CBTC) to enable trains to operate in driverless mode at automation grade GOA4, with SIL4 train movement safety.(From Railway Age June 28th, 2016).
PHOTO STM LRT CONCEPT
AMT PHOTOS
Two for the price of one! Michael Berry caught two F59PH’s AMT 1343 AMT 1349 are at Lucien L'Allier station with AMT train #19. AMT 1343 was just recently rebuilt and is being paired with AMT 1349 while it is broken in. PHOTO COMING