Aéroports de Montréal in talks with Ottawa for REM station financing

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Ottawa is in talks with the operator of Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport to find ways of financing a long-awaited light rail station.

Economic Development Minister Mélanie Joly said on Tuesday, she and Transport Minister Marc Garneau have discussed financing for the Réseau express métropolitain station at the airport with Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) president Philippe Rainville.

Joly said Tuesday at a news conference in Montreal, We know airports are in a difficult situation. This is why we’re having good discussions. We are in solutions mode. It goes without saying there will be an REM station at the Montreal airport. It’s important that we can have a network in place that allows passengers to reach downtown from the airport. This was part of the goals of the REM.

Spokesperson Anne-Sophie Hamel, Construction of the airport station is being privately funded by the ADM which has been hit hard by the pandemic. The ADM is forecasting a 71 per cent drop in passenger traffic in 2020. That drop in passengers is going to have a substantial impact on our finances. We estimate we’re going to lose $500 million in anticipated revenue for the year. The cost of building the airport station is approximately $600 million. She said the ADM is seeking a $600 million loan from the federal and provincial governments to finance the project. That’s the cost of building the station, but also connecting the station to the terminal building, because it’s going to be built 35 metres underneath the airport parking lot.

Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau said he is confident the airport station will be built, but time is of the essence.

A massive tunnel-boring machine is set to begin tunnelling a 3.5-kilometre underground passage from the Technoparc in St-Laurent to the airport. But REM spokesperson Jean-Vincent Lacroix said the ADM must come up with financing for the project to go forward.

Lacroix said, we expect that ADM will find the financial arrangements within the prescribed deadlines to honour its commitments to the REM project. The station construction under their responsibility is one of the essential components of the project. From the start, the REM was designed to meet the need for a transit connection between the airport and downtown. “Creating the REM without the airport station would be unacceptable.Montreal is an international city and its main gateway, which is the airport, must connect to downtown, as is the case for all major international cities.

Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal president Michel Leblanc said an airport link to downtown is vital to the city’s economic recovery. Rouleau is also hoping for a 700-metre extension of the REM line to the Dorval train station and intermodal hub. He pointed to a new government study that found an extension would increase REM usage by more than 10,000 passengers per day.

West Island of Montreal Chamber of Commerce president Joseph Huza also supports an extension. Huza said creating an “additional link to the Dorval Via Rail station makes sense as it will increase its reach beyond the Montreal area by opening up passenger traffic coming from Ontario, not to mention other regions in Quebec.