Governments Undermine Megaprojects

How pork barrel policy lurch on the campaign trail threatened to destabilize the REM
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[1] www.pontsamuel...
[2] • Le REM sur le futur Po...
[3] cmm.qc.ca/wp-c...
[4] www.electionsq...
[5] www12.statcan....
[6]
[7] ici.radio-cana...
[8] www.cbc.ca/new...
[9] www.ctvnews.ca...
[10] www.bbc.com/ne...
[11] montrealgazett...
[12] montrealgazett...
[13] www.thestar.co...
[14] www.thestar.co...
[15] www.cdpq.com/e...
[16] montrealgazett...
[17] web.archive.or...
[18] www.globalairr...
[19] docs.google.co...
[20] www.ledevoir.c...

[@TimFitzGeraldca]

Great video. Looking forward to your take on the REM de l’Est.

[@MichalisFamelis]

You should at some time talk about the stupidity of not connecting REM to VIA at Dorval.

[@SonsOfSevenless]

Really? I suppose you have no idea about the Train de L'ouest, which would have been a rapid transit line on the vaudreuil-hudson commuter rail. There would have been a branch from dorval, directly to the airport. A station shell was already constructed at a cost of 300 million, which has been turned into parking now. Are you even aware of the engineering, financial and environmental disaster the REM tunnel under the airport has been? They have created sinkholes in environmentally sensitive wetlands, delaying construction, because they didn't even bother to consult with the various agencies and experts in Montreal that wouldve told them such an alignment is insane. In any event, you will probably get a shuttle service from YUL to dorval, which, as it stands, is not a heavily used station at all despite connects to VIA and EXO.

[@MichalisFamelis]

@@SonsOfSevenless and it will remain an underused station because it will not be connected

[@trainglen22]

Agreed! It's only a few hundred metres... But it seems that the government is not interested.

[@PeeGeeThirteen]

The CN is a major problem when it comes to rail transportation

[@jonb3286]

Is this an intro for a video on the fight between the REM supporting citizens and the Caisse vs. the NIMBY and anti-build anything front? You've done a great job creating a series of videos on the history of transit projects in Montreal and the politics behind it, tying the problems on management problems and political problems (such as the FPTP system). I can't wait for the next video in this series

[@PaigeMTL]

I think a lot of 64 year old homeowners who only developed strong opinions about transit in December 2020 will not like what happens next

[@LoneGunman90]

The editing in this video is top notch, almost professional quality work. ;)

[@thierrylaberge5746]

Almost?

[@Soykaf_]

Almost??

[@cornoc]

ALMOST???

[@keithtonkin6959]

ALMOST??????????

[@ThalassTKynn]

Even in Australia this kind of pet project problem is pretty big. Last time I lived there it was in Ellenbrook, in Western Australia. A suburb developed with public transit corridors in mind! But three damn election cycles went by with promises of a train station and nothing happened. Hell, even the party who won abandoned the idea. It became a joke.

[@xMercurex]

The extension to Chambly was a bit ridiculous, but there is a city of almost 100 000 citizens next to it. Saint-Jean-Richelieu is starting to become that weird spot of outside green belt with more and more commuter.

[@barvdw]

@user-vo9wd6tx6c it should teach us that communication is important. Why even talk about a line to Newton, you're going to Wichita! Newton is just an interesting addition to connect it to the rest of the network. Make it 2 train lines who use the same rolling stock by chance. Or go all the way to Kansas City if you need a bigger city as an attraction...

[@Tyurannical]

1. love how positive this video is, scared for the other shoe to drop 2. laughed at the thought of you shooting stock footage of writing "30,000" and "?" on a sheet of paper

[@PaigeMTL]

I’ve done everything up to 100k, putting them up on a stock site is my fallback plan.

[@KhanPiesseONE]

this was an insanely well done video and I learned so much about that REM I didn’t know. Australia is very different, almost every project is a 3P project, but despite our massive retirement funds (we call them super funds) the 3P projects are usually funded by foreign private investment companies not accountable to the general aussie public.

[@AntonWongVideo]

OMG the references to both Letterkenny and The Castle? was not expecting that!

[@byronmayne4876]

As someone who would live a 5 minute walk to a potential REM est station, I very selfishly want it however it seems to be in quite a bit of turmoil. Looking forward to your two cents.

[@windhoek_stallion8455]

The editing skills are on another level here. Amazing work!

[@Alex_Plante]

If the southern branch of the REM is ever extended, it would most likely be extended to St-Jean, with over 100 thousand people, than Chambly. In that case, maybe there could be a station near the intersection of Highways 10 and 35, with a small bus terminal and parking for people from Chambly

[@mattbear4802]

Tried to comment earlier but I put a link in it so it must have been sent to spam, whoops! Very well crafted video, reminds me of the light rail saga here in Auckland, NZ - what’s currently proposed is a half-tunnelled tram line costing $15 billion (…how?) and takes a significant dogleg to only serve existing dense zoned areas instead of opening up low density suburbs to uplift. Interestingly the CDPQ had teamed up with the NZ Superfund for a REM-style light metro proposal in 2018, but it was unpopular because a) under the PPP high interest would need to be paid back to CDPQ for 50-100 years, and b) the government briefly adopted this option but with basically zero transparency, allowing opposition politicians and media to make a lot of negative coverage. If only PM Muldoon hadn’t cancelled the 1974 Superfund , which would have been worth $240 billion NZD today…

[@mr51406]

You get a ⭐️ for information, another ⭐️ for analysis, a 3rd ⭐️ for graphics, and a 4th ⭐️ for humour! Thanks for highlighting the fact that Montréal-Nord is always neglected with transit. I’m no fanboy of the REM-Est but give credit to the CDPQ planners for finally bringing métro-type service there. Whatever one thinks of the P-A-T elevated, the Lacordaire tunnel is essential! 4:28 Wow! The wet dream of replacing Metropolitan Blvd with a metro! 🙄 6:04 Was that article you snuck in the one R. Bergeron had in La Presse the other day? (An otherwise good analysis of the REM is marred by him veering again into tramway futurism.) It’s unfortunate “(my) technology will save us” stuff from daydreaming engineers. It also gives us gadgetbahns.

[@PaigeMTL]

Professor Frank is back. Oh yeah there is a serious issue with the tyranny of minor differences in transit. Transit is very hard to get built, the last thing we need is squabbling over what is often a personal preference or vision.

[@liamtahaney713]

What a great video. Montreal is one of my favorite cities in north America but the transit really is not up to the needs of the city. Screw nimbys. Can't wait for the sequel

[@jfmezei]

re Bombardier and Caise de Dépôt. Bombardier was nearly bankrupt after 9-11 (contiunuyed producing CRJ 200s claiming there would be no cancellations and massive cancellations came). The C-Series project was already underway (not formally launched), hoping for Northwest Airlines placing massive order to replace its DC09s. Northwest went Chapter 11, got bought by Delta who quickly ditched the DC-9s. The Beaudouin family bailed it out by buying the recreational products (the original business) and "BRP" can't even use the "Bombardier name" despite the Beaudoins being direct descentants of Armand Bombardier. Fast forward, and Bombardier not only launched the C-Series with a new launch customer (Air Baltic), but also launched the Global 7500 and Lear 85 business jets. 3 huge project from a company nearly bankrupts a few years before. The second one project got late, Bombardier suffered a cash shortfall and it drew cash from Bombardier Transportation, cash that would have otherwise gone to imrpoving Transportation production facilities. As a result Bombardier Transportation started to deliver very late and with defects. New York City eveb told it to not bother bidding on contracts anymore. Things got worse and Bombardier's financials were dire and it needed help because C-Series was "so close" but not enough cash. Here how it was done: Bombardier Inc spun off the C-Series into a different Company CSALP, 60% owned by Bombardier Inc and 40% owned by Québec Govt after QC invested a few billions. Bombardier Inc spun off Bombardier Transportation into separate company with Bombardier Inc owning 65% of Transportation and Caisse de Dépôt owning 35%. One Caveat: unlimne the C-Series deal, the CDPQ required garanteed dividends of high level from a bankrupt company that hadn't given dividends and needed billions on subsidies. So the CDPQ setup Bombardier to fail, so it is no surprise that neither the rEM nor VIA Rail bought from Bombardeir because they knew it would fail. CDPQ then arranges for Alatom to buy Bombardier and converts its 35% ownership of bankrupt Transportation into 18% ownership of Alstom. (Us BBD shareholders sxaw NOTHING from this). So dont think for a minute that CDPQ is such a benevolent company. Furthermore, you complain about the route. You need to look at who owns the land/buildings next to the route chosen by REM. They are all CDPQ or its subsidiaries, especially on the west island. You complain about serving the 3 cows in Chambly? looks at the West Island stations: thety serve nobody, especially the terjinus station next to McDonald College (a farm). BUT: CDPQ owns the land all aloong Chemin Ste Marie and hopes to develop it into condos (it is industrial land next to highway 40) and make tons of money from that. I dont care aboiut the west island REM, it will take me longe rto get to the Pointe Claiure station (not even at Fairview)( that it currently takes me to get t Lionel Groulx. But what I cxare about is that the CDPQ got a deal with QC govt (ARTM) to grant it exclusivity which means we lose our express buses to downtown and our existing commuter train is allower to be maintained but nevr improved. Oh, and that 2 billion they asked for initially? Guess what, one all said and papproved and work started beyond point of no return, they went and asked for more once theyr pretty 3d graphcs proved to not work (initially, the west island line was at a height which caused it to go THRHOUGH the St-Charles overpass over highway 40 instead of over it). The 2 Montagnes line was to remain at froiund level and everythingf else would magically be raised (including the very streets leading to the station which means nobody could get to station or park there). The CDPQ also monopolized tracks 9-10 in the middle of at Central station, forever condemning tracks 4-8 from re-opening (they are under former Stap;es store, covered up in the 1980s after the big cutbacks). This means VIA rail (or whoever replaces it after Alghabra sells the Corrdiro to a lobbyists (announced this past week) cannot expand service and will be slimit to a few platforms. CDPQ has also killed the brand spanking new Train de L'est that was just stating to build ridership after much investent to build stations. (not allowed to go to Central station anymore).

[@PaigeMTL]

What’s wrong with financing transport projects with property development? That’s literally the way the Mont Royal tunnel was built in the first place. Let’s assume your theory is right. You want me to be annoyed that the Caisse might have plans to build transit oriented housing during a housing crisis? I don’t think you understand this channel. Super happy to see more housing built.

[@jfmezei]

@@PaigeMTL Mont Royal tunnel was built by Canadian Northern Railway because it couldn't compete against CP which had 2 stations downtown (Viger and Windsor). This was about intercity transportation first. However, to pay for tunnel, they also needed more local passengers, but WW-II did not result in new developments happning north of Mont Royal, so the company went bankrupt and Canadian Government then created Canadian National which included Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk. Canadian Northern'ts station was at end of tunnel proper (north of current Place Ville marie). With merger of Grand Trunk and Canadian Northern, they unified their station and eventually built Central Station in its current location. The problem with CDPQ is that they are hoping to turn the laste greenspaces in Westialdn into condo towers instead of serving the existing poouy;lation. The placement of their stations will icrease traffic at the already congested intertchanges at St-Jean-40 and Sources-40. Had they put the line along Gouin instead of the 40, traffic to transit would have been against traffic going to the 40 and thus redeuced traffic. And hacving transit in the north would have sercved the people on the northern end , while existing trasit in the south could have continued. In the initial rendering/plans, the first statiion on the west island line was not at intersection of Sources but east of it, and it was in fact in the backyard between 2 wharehourses (one facing 40 service road, one facing Hymus). This is how well planned out it was (since they didn't want to purchased land to place a station at Sources. Once project started , they got additional money and bought land and the station moved to Sources, but only on one side, so people wanting to take bus north wull have to cross Sourxes.

[@PaigeMTL]

This is like having a conversation with google home... owner.

[@jfmezei]

@@PaigeMTL Sorry for having been pointed to your video and responding. Won't happen again.

[@WhiskyCanuck]

Oh, is that the siren call (or is that a whine?) of the dreaded NIMBY I hear?

[@mikemiller4776]

Mr Saunders Great Content 👌

[@zaired]

You should make a video on the privatization of VIA HFR in their latest proposal

[@PaigeMTL]

I bet the Caisse will bid on it, I have a dream that they come back with a proposal to just build a high speed rail line.

[@zaired]

@@PaigeMTL They could build a station in the middle of nowhere between big cities and just build a new city to fund it with all the housing shortage

[@PaigeMTL]

They could, that would be awesome. People would be like “They’re just doing that to make money! They bought all the land!” and it’s like, yeah guys, when you cleverly solve problems that large numbers of people have, you get to have money. It’s called “How the world works”

[@trainglen22]

Very good video. I am looking forward to riding the REM between Central station and Fairview.

[@TomMcBoston]

Same thing in the US. Politicians and NIMBY's ruin everything.

[@kevinlavigne7308]

Another great video!

[@888ettio]

Are you applying for a job at the Caisse lol? But for real, great video as always!

[@PaigeMTL]

Yeah it is super odd devoting weeks of my life to videos that talk about a giant pension fund, but I just think it's really interesting and could change the world. When I realized that REM l'EST might get canceled I felt an obligation to do something about it. I mean the NIMBYS and establishment don't sit at home feeling sorry for themselves. They usually win because regular people just shrug their shoulders and move on.

[@MG-mo7ib]

@@PaigeMTL self-proclaimed CDPQ shill, getting paid in embarrassed NIMBYS 💅 I honestly don't think the project will be cancelled. It's more popular than the Quebec Tramway, and both the city and the provincial government want it. There was a lot of noise during the first line and yet we'll be glimpsing at the final days of car dependent Brossard this fall.

[@MG-mo7ib]

Paige, since you've already wrote down your thoughts on the project, you should submit a piece to the op-ed sections of La Presse, Le Devoir, The Gazette, etc.?

[@PaigeMTL]

I’ve thought about it, but it’s actually better if more voices are heard at this point. I’d encourage you or anyone reading this to take a couple of hours and mail an opinion piece in.

[@Daniel-jv1ku]

I love the music 😂

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

Montreal residents need to stop playing because while that is a huge project they need about 4 times that to have an adequate (not great) metro rail system

[@simoneh4732]

I wish Metrolinx was independent.

[@Kishanth.J]

Why are their political parties in a municipal election? I am from Ottawa and I notice that here and many other cities in Canada mayors aren’t usually associated with provincial or federal political parties.

[@marcscattolin1554]

mayors in QC aren't associated with provincial or federal parties, to my knowledge. Where do you get that idea?

[@PaigeMTL]

They are called "Mayoral Parties" and are an interesting feature of Montreal and Vancouver. The parties in this video though are provincial parties, you should checkout the previous videos if you want to know why the province is involved.

[@polishtheday]

Oh yes they are. They’ve had municipal political parties in Vancouver and surrounding municipalities for as far back as the 1970s maybe earlier. The Greens are the only party there that run for office in all three levels of government.

[@Kishanth.J]

@@marcscattolin1554 I assumed they were since the partys’ names and rhetoric are similar to those in the provincial parties. Also I assumed the system was similar to those in the US, as that was the closest example to a party based municipal election I can think of.

[@maxrockatansky2003]

@@Kishanth.J I can see how rhetoric can be similar between parties at the different levels; federal, provincial and municipal, since people on the political spectrum at one level will have overlap with politicians at other levels, but the municipal parties in Montreal are not linked to provincial parties. They are their own ententies with their own ideas and objectives. The names are also very different. Maybe you saw Coalition Montreal which shares the word coalition with the CAQ, but there is no link and it`s a fringe municipal party. I think they have only 1 elected councillor. Most municipal parties in Montreal are not very stable, they seem to come and go every election time.

[@stalegum]

Ooh. Ed Glaeser's Survival of the City!

[@proposmontreal]

Don't forget, I owe you a french voice over if you need it.

[@PaigeMTL]

Just watching me punish myself? I actually have a whole French language video fairly soon.

[@proposmontreal]

@@PaigeMTL I am just offering. But I'm not worried you'll nail that french video you damn overachiever.

[@realadrieno]

“A transit starved neighborhood with a higher population” Exo: am i a joke to you?

[@FullOfMalarky]

3:38 Bombardier is a victim of the cronyism that keeps it going

[@APJTA]

A cross-Laval automated light rail honestly wouldn't be a terrible idea, given all the development going on in Laval right now. I'm not sure I'd put it as far north as the 440, though. Notre-Dame/de la Concorde or du Souvenir. Of course, if you can't destroy the Urban Beauty of René-Lévesque, there's no way people would accept concrete pillars on the Boulevard du Souvenir, that shining beacon of North American urbanism.

[@jonathanlanglois2742]

You say that there won't be ribbons to cut from year 5 to 9 of a project... But the reality is that politicians really like ribbon cutting and will find any excuse at all to draw attention. How many times have they announced the blue line? It seems like it happens every other year. I wouldn't put it past them to have a ribbon cutting ceremony for each and every phase of the REM which opens.

[@poscalrioux]

As a Montrealer who grew up in Chambly, I have to point out that the city is not as car centric as you make it sound. From personal experience, I can tell you that a great deal of people living there do rely on Chambly's buses to go to Montreal. Before the pandemic, there were cramped buses leaving every 10 minutes during rush hour every day. Even people who are living in neighbouring towns like Carignan, Richelieu, and Marieville have to use Chambly's bus system on a daily basis because they don't have any other option. To be fair, all those towns still don't add up to that many people compared to places like Montreal Nord and I understand that it is probably not a viable option at the moment. All that to say that the people of Chambly would really benefit from having a direct access to the REM and the fact that they voted for a CAQ candidate doesn't make them undeserving of a better public transport system. I do think it would be a good idea to extend to REM to Chambly in the future because it would actually be used. Although it is for sure not realistic project unless we figure out a way to make it cheaper.

[@poscalrioux]

Love your videos btw :)

[@PaigeMTL]

I actually would support the REM to Chambly for kind of complex reasons that I can't go into in this series. I'd like to see a big vision "transit first" development project to slam in tons of medium/high density housing on the route.

[@SonsOfSevenless]

The AMT had planned to create a commuter rail line to Chambly, branching off of existing train tracks on the south shore, following the alignment of an old train line which is now a trail. Naturally, this will never be built due to the REM absorbing all capital investment in transit in the Montreal region for the foreseeable future.

[@PaigeMTL]

@Arkroyale that's not the case. There is no transit investment for the region that the REM is using, the only portion from Quebec is a (literal) investment for small fraction of the project. It's pretty frustrating to make these videos, and then see someone using their imagination to assert some worldview. There is nothing stopping the ARTM from coming up with a plan and asking for funding, but they will just have a harder time because the CDPQ simply has a more effective model in our political and economic system (See the 40 minutes of content currently produced explaining this very fact).

[@SonsOfSevenless]

It's no surprise that in a neoliberal, capitalist regime, a transit project which is pitched to make money is instantly adopted, and shovels are in the ground right away, where as transit projects whose goals are to increase ridership and connectivity in the region for existing and new transit riders are left to languish for decades.

[@catherinemain-oster8513]

It certainly delivered time wise….perhaps a little too fast I believe more studying planning should have happened up front. Still believe in the long run a metro extension would have been better.

[@MG-mo7ib]

Planning time is similar to other project (2 to 5 years), the difference is that transit agencies have historically been at the mercy of changing political context; with many projects being cancelled despite favorable studies, or perpetually in limbo like the blue line extension. As for current metro extension being better on the long run, that's absolutely wrong. Legacy lines would be prohibitively expensive to extend. There's also diminishing returns in extending egregiously a metro line, making less attractive to users as an option. Legacy lines have a few reasonable extensions left, but we need additional layers of transit, like "new" gen metro lines like CDPQ's REM or the STM's pink line, and improved regional rail. The yellow line is the only legacy line that we would benefit from a major extension.

[@sirdook2761]

@@MG-mo7ib A line going through Longueuil, Saint-Lambert/Greenfield Park and Saint-Hubert would be awesome.

[@cyborgsheep6077]

Thats flexity outlooks to you sir 😆

[@rbejva]

Arguably, the PLQ not requiring Quebec made trains for the REM was one of the reasons they lost the last election.

[@surintanguay9630]

Bon sujet mais on comprend que le narateur n'aime pas les Quebecois.