The Réseau express metropolitain (REM) will be a new integrated network linking downtown Montreal, South Shore, West Island, North Shore, and the airport. Once completed, the REM will be the fourth largest automated transportation system in the world after Singapore (82 kilometres), Dubai (80 km) and Vancouver (68 km). For the metropolitan area, the REM also represents the largest public transportation infrastructure since the Montreal metro, inaugurated in 1966.
Combined with existing transportation networks (metro, trains and buses), the REM opens a new era of public transit development in the Greater Montreal area:
• 26 stations—67 kilometers—20 hours a day—7 days a week
• This constitutes Québec’s first “public-public”
partnership project
Despite construction delays due to COVID-19, progress has been made along the entire length of the project. This includes the construction of a new North Shore bridge using the counterweight launching methodology.
In 2002, the project reached two important milestones in terms of construction for the project: Full completion of the construction of the 16-km-aerial structure for the REM by the two launching gantries and the digging with the tunnel-boring machine (TBM) of the tunnel to the airport (2.5-kms); in July, a REM car crossed the Champlain bridge for the first time; a couple weeks before this major milestone, full electrification of the segment between the South Shore and Central Station was completed.
