But Brossard riders will have to deal with some outages while the next two branches come online.
Once again, it will cost more and begin service a little later than expected, but builders of the city’s new light-rail project are confident trains will start rolling in about a year.
Speaking to reporters Thursday morning, CDPQ-Infra — the subsidiary of the province’s pension fund that owns the REM — announced the next two branches of the project are set to come online by the fall of 2025. When the trains begin rolling, they will serve the entirety of the Anse-à-l’Orme and Deux-Montagnes branches (which link to Deux-Montagnes and Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue).
And South Shore users of the REM’s first phase will have to cope with some outages for the bulk of the year 2025 while the system is brought on line.
The builders also announced Thursday morning they will ramp up tests in the coming weeks.
After the testing phase begins the integration phase, which will allow trains to run from one end of the network to the last stations on each branch.
That will require weekend closures between Brossard and Central Stations starting from February to April. The system will be shut down on weeknights after 9 p.m. from April to June, and there will be more daytime closures during off-peak hours over a four- to six-week period in the summer.
The REM’s new price tag is $8.34 billion, up 4.9 per cent from the last update, which CDPQ-Infra says is a respectable $125 million per kilometre and is well within industry standards.
This report will be updated.