Quebec Can’t Build Mass Transit

  • “In France, trams can be built at low cost because they are mostly standardized from city to city. The same agencies that can build a tram in Paris, can (and do) go build a tram in Lyon, or Toulouse (or overseas) — the engineers and planners are employed by the state with a good wage and know how to create a project, and layers upon layers of consultants are not needed.” ⤴️
  • “There should be a pipeline into the future, so builders who jump into the market know that there is more money to be made in the future, and the planners and engineers of the province know that learning how transit is built is a smart career move for the future” ⤴️
  • “The most intellectually insulting transit meeting I think I have ever been in was one talking about how the replacement for the Eastern REM would cost $30+ billion dollars because it was unacceptable for it to not be buried everywhere, including next to industrial sites and oil refineries” ⤴️
  • “Improvements to the suburban trains around Toronto mean many residents can simply show up to a station any time of day and soon enough be on a train headed across the region at high speeds. Right now, three new tram lines are moving forward, as well as entirely new subway lines, three extensions, new trains for the network, new streetcar lines, and a transformation of the GO rail system into something like the Paris RER. The scope of these projects is enormous, and while the government of Ontario is putting up a lot of the money (10s of billions), so is the federal government.” ⤴️
  • “In Paris, the 200-kilometre new suburban metro network being mostly built underground costs around a quarter as much as the blue line.” ⤴️
  • “unfortunate blindness to what is going wrong locally extends to a lack of awareness about what the neighbours are doing.” ⤴️
  • “an organization that is lean but staffed up with engineers and planners who can take great ideas from around the world (and the rest of the country) and implement them” ⤴️
  • “The 5 new stations of the Blue line will cost almost as much as the entire REM, a project that had to build tens of kilometres of viaduct, new underground stations on the airport branch, and one of the deepest metro stations in North America” ⤴️
  • “The collectivist society that exists in the province and makes it such a great place is impossible to maintain without mass collective transport.” ⤴️
  • “instead of talking about what more public transit would enable, the discourse all surrounds how bad it is that the public transit that Montreal is getting isn’t some imagined better project” ⤴️
  • “Everything I love about Montreal depends on the existence of efficient public transit, and when that system does not grow, the city itself that I love so much can’t grow around it.” ⤴️
  • “The REM is a public-private partnership, although a variant that pushes the limits of “private”, since private profits in this case will fund the retirements of many Quebecers working in the public sector, whose pension fund CDPQ is funding and coordinating much of the project.” ⤴️
  • “the idea that part of the route might be built elevated was treated as an unthinkable atrocity — while central parts of Paris, Berlin and London seems to manage with trains that glide above the streets, this was unacceptable in Montreal.” ⤴️
  • “the effective state apparatus that lets Paris build metro for a fraction of the price of Montreal also lets France put a tram in small provincial cities at less than the cost of the Pie-IX BRT.” ⤴️
  • “in Montreal, most discourse around rail transit is focused around solutions which are likely to only move a tiny portion of the population.” ⤴️
  • “the government doesn’t seem to be doing much — mulling projects over, putting them into holding patterns, but not seriously questioning why nothing can be built.” ⤴️
  • “if the various politicians and “anti-REM pro-tram” academics actually want public transit, how can they also be okay with unfundable projects that won’t be done in time for their children’s children to ride? What’s the real atrocity, transit that people on the street can see above them (like in Vancouver, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Tokyo and more) or just… no transit?” ⤴️
  • “transit is great not in and of itself for aesthetic purposes, but because it enables mobility, social bonds, and connections.” ⤴️
  • “while Quebec sits around talking about transit, Ontario is building the biggest transit expansion in the western world.” ⤴️
  • “Quebec is building one single large infrastructure project, the attitudes of both politicians and academics make it clear that this will be a one-time thing that’s not allowed to be repeated. When that one time thing is a cost-effective and timely project, you know things are headed in a disastrous direction.” ⤴️
  • “In France, trams can be built at low cost because they are mostly standardized from city to city. The same agencies that can build a tram in Paris, can (and do) go build a tram in Lyon, or Toulouse (or overseas) — the engineers and planners are employed by the state with a good wage and know how to create a project, and layers upon layers of consultants are not needed.” ⤴️
  • “There should be a pipeline into the future, so builders who jump into the market know that there is more money to be made in the future, and the planners and engineers of the province know that learning how transit is built is a smart career move for the future” ⤴️
  • “The most intellectually insulting transit meeting I think I have ever been in was one talking about how the replacement for the Eastern REM would cost $30+ billion dollars because it was unacceptable for it to not be buried everywhere, including next to industrial sites and oil refineries” ⤴️
  • “Improvements to the suburban trains around Toronto mean many residents can simply show up to a station any time of day and soon enough be on a train headed across the region at high speeds. Right now, three new tram lines are moving forward, as well as entirely new subway lines, three extensions, new trains for the network, new streetcar lines, and a transformation of the GO rail system into something like the Paris RER. The scope of these projects is enormous, and while the government of Ontario is putting up a lot of the money (10s of billions), so is the federal government.” ⤴️
  • “In Paris, the 200-kilometre new suburban metro network being mostly built underground costs around a quarter as much as the blue line.” ⤴️
  • “unfortunate blindness to what is going wrong locally extends to a lack of awareness about what the neighbours are doing.” ⤴️
  • “an organization that is lean but staffed up with engineers and planners who can take great ideas from around the world (and the rest of the country) and implement them” ⤴️
  • “The 5 new stations of the Blue line will cost almost as much as the entire REM, a project that had to build tens of kilometres of viaduct, new underground stations on the airport branch, and one of the deepest metro stations in North America” ⤴️
  • “The collectivist society that exists in the province and makes it such a great place is impossible to maintain without mass collective transport.” ⤴️
  • “instead of talking about what more public transit would enable, the discourse all surrounds how bad it is that the public transit that Montreal is getting isn’t some imagined better project” ⤴️
  • “Everything I love about Montreal depends on the existence of efficient public transit, and when that system does not grow, the city itself that I love so much can’t grow around it.” ⤴️
  • “The REM is a public-private partnership, although a variant that pushes the limits of “private”, since private profits in this case will fund the retirements of many Quebecers working in the public sector, whose pension fund CDPQ is funding and coordinating much of the project.” ⤴️
  • “the idea that part of the route might be built elevated was treated as an unthinkable atrocity — while central parts of Paris, Berlin and London seems to manage with trains that glide above the streets, this was unacceptable in Montreal.” ⤴️
  • “the effective state apparatus that lets Paris build metro for a fraction of the price of Montreal also lets France put a tram in small provincial cities at less than the cost of the Pie-IX BRT.” ⤴️
  • “in Montreal, most discourse around rail transit is focused around solutions which are likely to only move a tiny portion of the population.” ⤴️
  • “the government doesn’t seem to be doing much — mulling projects over, putting them into holding patterns, but not seriously questioning why nothing can be built.” ⤴️
  • “if the various politicians and “anti-REM pro-tram” academics actually want public transit, how can they also be okay with unfundable projects that won’t be done in time for their children’s children to ride? What’s the real atrocity, transit that people on the street can see above them (like in Vancouver, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Tokyo and more) or just… no transit?” ⤴️
  • “transit is great not in and of itself for aesthetic purposes, but because it enables mobility, social bonds, and connections.” ⤴️
  • “while Quebec sits around talking about transit, Ontario is building the biggest transit expansion in the western world.” ⤴️
  • “Quebec is building one single large infrastructure project, the attitudes of both politicians and academics make it clear that this will be a one-time thing that’s not allowed to be repeated. When that one time thing is a cost-effective and timely project, you know things are headed in a disastrous direction.” ⤴️