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I agree with many points in that article, particularly the ones about political and institutional backing, must haves in complex transportation projects. If the top political and civic leaders on top of the general public all want it, chances are it will get done. I do want to point out that the article spelt out what made the REM easier and cheaper to construct, namely it uses existing right-of-ways. Not every city and region can afford that. In my home city of Boston for example, land is so scarce and buildings are so close to each other that there's not a lot of space to tunnel or build. Of course major public projects will cost a lot.
I agree with many points in that article, particularly the ones about political and institutional backing, must haves in complex transportation projects. If the top political and civic leaders on top of the general public all want it, chances are it will get done. I do want to point out that the article spelt out what made the REM easier and cheaper to construct, namely it uses existing right-of-ways. Not every city and region can afford that. In my home city of Boston for example, land is so scarce and buildings are so close to each other that there's not a lot of space to tunnel or build. Of course major public projects will cost a lot.
You should listen to the podcast The Big Dig about building the highway with the same name in Boston. Great story about how politics and highway building intertwine. The project manager essentially admitted the initial $7.7B budget was a made up number. In the end the price was double that.
I have only visited Montreal a couple of times, and the last time was a couple of decades ago. The OP's linked article from Bloomberg was well written and informative - thanks for sharing.
It's great that Montreal has a new metro area transit option. Building any sort of rail transit system is expensive, but this new system used some existing rights of way and even an old railroad tunnel, and went with above ground construction in the majority of the new route. Credit goes to those who were the planners and decision makers in this project for getting such a large system built in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost compared to other transit systems in North America.
You should listen to the podcast The Big Dig about building the highway with the same name in Boston. Great story about how politics and highway building intertwine. The project manager essentially admitted the initial $7.7B budget was a made up number. In the end the price was double that.
This is the sign of the times. We got screwed with the big "Owe", and are still getting stiffed as time goes on in costly overhauls for an unloved project. We have been lucky in certain infrastructure builds over the years though, I’m thinking of the Ville-Marie expressway tunnel system that was built underneath downtown in the seventies. The cost was in the hundreds of millions for the central portions and were completed in due time. The problem is the more complex infrastructure we build, the more expensive the upgrades are over time, that now average in the billions.
A poor man's answer ...errr experiment to a metro extension !
How many times has the REM broken down in it's first year of operation ? ...LoL
Not many times at all, especially considering it's a brand new system built from the ground up. It's actually quite an impressive project. You must just be fishing for things to complain about. Seriously...
A poor man's answer ...errr experiment to a metro extension !
How many times has the REM broken down in it's first year of operation ? ...LoL
It's done pretty well its first year, I haven't heard of any real major issues with it.
How excatly is the "REM" a poor man answers or experiment to a metro extension?
The amount of Montrealers against the REM is really weird. They basicaly sabotaged what could have been an excellent rapid transit service with the REM east. Something the could have made MTL the best city for transit in north america. It's so bizarre.
A poor man's answer ...errr experiment to a metro extension !
How many times has the REM broken down in it's first year of operation ? ...LoL
Reliability of 99% and the breakdowns have been minor majority of the time. It's new technology, so hiccups are expected, but compared to other systems rolled out in North America, it's super efficient.
MTLers are the most whiny people I've ever met, then we wonder why the city (and province, really) are stagnant most of the time. The city gets nice things, people whine, the city misses out on nice things cause people whine, and people whine about that.
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