Through an open letter, the mayors of two Montreal boroughs and two municipalities on the North Shore demand that the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) Infra take advantage of the delays in the commissioning of the REM to integrate a project of cycle route.

For them, the project would connect the City of Deux-Montagnes to the borough of Saint-Laurent, via Laval and the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro. A project that has been on the table since 2016.

“Our citizens need mobility alternatives in the face of congestion problems. Promoting active transportation by integrating a safe cycling network appears to us to be an interesting option for accessing the various employment centers and opening up several sectors”, is it written in the open letter.

It is co-signed by the mayors of the cities of Saint-Eustache and Deux-Montagnes, as well as by the mayors of the boroughs of Pierrefonds-Roxboro and Saint-Laurent.

They recognize certain challenges to this implementation, but they believe that “realistic and safe” solutions could be found, in collaboration with the CDPQ Infra, responsible for the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) project.

The segment connecting downtown Montreal to the North Crown in the west should be commissioned in 2024, after a third postponement in the space of 18 months.

“Mobility is a priority for our administration and we share the desire to see a cycle route along the western REM. We are already working with the ARTM, the boroughs and the related cities in order to propose solutions to CDPQ-Infra allowing it to concretize this project”, reacted the office of the mayor of Montreal, in a written statement.

At the CDPQ Infra, we indicate that we are “favorable” to cycling development projects in the axis of the REM.

“More specifically, concerning the cycle route project, we have submitted the results of a study to the City of Montreal, which highlights certain development opportunities to be seized by the latter in order to deploy such a cycle path in the long term” , explained by email Emmanuelle Rouillard-Moreau, media relations advisor.

She also specified that the CDPQ Infra would support the authorities for the creation of such links, in compliance with the constraints related to security.