REM Anse-à-l’Orme branch opens to the public this weekend

After more than a decade, the Anse-à-l’Orme branch has finally begun shuttling its first passengers.

On Friday, reporters and dignitaries got the first rides on the branch, which spans over four stations between Pointe-Claire and Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. The entire branch covers 14 kilometres, and will get West Islanders to downtown’s McGill station in 33 minutes from the Anse-à-l’Orme station and 22 minutes from Des Sources.

“It’s going to be a real game-changer for the people of the West Island,” said Carl Corbel, director of REM operations for CDPQ Infra. “We will offer 20 hours per day of operations with more than 80 trains passing from 5:30 in the morning to 1:30 at night, so going to the Bell Centre in 35 minutes is really going to be amazing for people around here.”

Unlike the Deux-Montagnes and South Shore branches, this segment of the REM is serving a transit-starved area where residents have had few mass-transit options to get downtown effectively. For that reason, CDPQ Infra directors believe growth on this branch will be slow but steady.

The REM has already recorded an average of 78,000 daily riders on the Deux-Montagnes and Brossard branches. Planners believe adding the West Island and airport branches will allow it to achieve its goal of 150,000 daily riders. The airport branch, with a stop in St-Laurent’s Technoparc, is expected to begin running by the end of next year.

To celebrate the opening of the branch, the REM will be free to ride from the four new REM stations: Anse-à-l’Orme, Kirkland, Fairview-Pointe-Claire and Des Sources. Those stations will have free entry on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., while the rest of the network will remain open to paying clientele. The Anse-à-l’Orme branch will remain open between 6 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., but anyone boarding at those times will have to pay a fare. On the island of Montreal, riding the REM costs the same as paying for a regular fare on the STM.

The branch’s opening is the realization of a lobbying effort that began with a group called le Train de l’Ouest, which lobbied for a modern, frequent rail service in the West Island.

“It’s a big day for the West Island,” said Clifford Lincoln, who headed the lobbying effort for several years. “I think some people in the south will still need the Exo Vaudreuil-Hudson Line, so I hope it keeps going. With the parking issues, I don’t see them using the REM as much. But I think the REM will be very well supported by (residents of the area).”

Among the biggest concerns of politicians and would-be transit users of the new branch is the lack of parking and difficult accessibility of some of the stations, which are located along congested highways with few parking spots available.

On Friday, CDPQ Infra said it has heard the concerns, so it made a deal with Cadillac Fairview to provide 300 parking spots at the Fairview Pointe-Claire mall across from the station. Initial plans for the station didn’t include any public parking.

“We just signed the deal yesterday,” Julien Hurel, vice-president of REM for CDPQ Infra said on the train as it was passing by the shopping centre.

The new branch will now have more than 1,000 parking spots near the four stations, if you include the 200 spaces reserved exclusively for Kirkland residents at the Kirkland station. The largest parking lot is around the Des Sources station, with more than 400 spaces.

Hurel said it is possible to add more parking spaces around the stations if the demand merits it.

The addition of the branch now makes the REM the world’s largest automated light-rail network, spanning 62 kilometres across 23 stations.

Initially announced in 2016, the REM began construction in 2019 with a goal of opening in 2021. The Brossard to Central Station branch opened in the summer of 2023, while the Deux-Montagnes branch began last November. CDPQ Infra estimates the cost for building the entire network will reach more than $9 billion.

Jason Magder

You'll often see Jason Magder donning a hard hat and florescent vest at a local construction site. As The Gazette's transportation reporter for more than a decade, he has seen the new Champlain Bridge built, the old one demolished and followed the ups and downs of the city's transit system. He has been covering news in Montreal for 25 years.

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