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:
• 27 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 2021, with the closing of the Deux-Montagnes line, the project now has construction sites fully deployed on the 67 kilometres of the network. There are more than 30 active construction sites around the Greater Montreal area.
The first tests of the REM in automated mode were also conducted on the South Shore, on a 3.5-km section of the REM route between Brossard station and Milan Boulevard. This specific zone is called the “representative segment.” All system components (telecommunications, electrical system, etc.) were tested there, under various weather conditions.
