Laval needs tramways, not more Metro stops, says PSC’s Robert Bordeleau
Sees a link between Metro trains in dark tunnels and ‘unhappy’ transit users
Published February 24, 2010
By Martin C. Barry • TLN

Parti au Service du Citoyen leader Robert Bordeleau says the City of Laval has at least three good reasons for thinking seriously about adopting ground-level tramways rather than the underground Metro as its preferred system of public transit: (1) Laval is vast and well-suited for a network of tramways; (2) electrically-powered trams are less costly per kilometre; and (3) people are “happier” travelling above the surface rather than in the darkness of underground Metro tunnels.

Temperamental Metro users
“If you look at the humour of the people underground, and that’s the same worldwide — Boston, New York, Paris — the temper of people is terrible, compared with the temper of the people who are using the tramway above ground,” he said in an interview with the Laval News. According to Bordeleau, the absence of light in Metro tunnels contributes to transit users literally becoming foul tempered. Thus he is endorsing a tramway plan that many environmentalists and transportation activists have brought forward.
The medians of autoroutes which criss-cross Laval would be used to lay down tracks for trams or even high-speed trains. They could travel extremely quickly between distant points in Laval, while also providing stops at more local stations. In the meantime, the Agence Métropolitaine de Transport continues to work on its plan for the Train de l’Est, a new commuter rail line that would use existing railroad tracks to create a new commuter line across the eastern half of Montreal, leading up to Mascouche on the North Shore, but which would not cross the territory of Laval.

Vaillancourt a Metro man
A convinced believer in the Metro, Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt is among those who endorse it as the best and most efficient public transit option for Laval. Vaillancourt maintains that the Metro has the capacity to move the largest volume of transit users within the shortest space of time. “That’s impossible,” says Bordeleau, who contends that more and more municipalities are clamouring for tramways, rather than subterranean transport. He envisions a system of tramway stations, serviced by shuttles, to take transport riders to more local stops.
“A tramway is about the same as a Metro,” Bordeleau says. “A tramway is a train, but a small train so you could have even more people in it than the Metro itself. The cost is more than seven times less than the Metro cost per kilometre. The other thing is that you don’t need years and years for underground construction. You install the rail and it’s done.” Apart from that, Bordeleau contends that there is a long history of patronage behind Metro construction.

Politics and the Metro
“The Metro gives work to friends of political parties, who supply money,” he says. He agrees, too, that a factor in Laval’s success in being able to obtain three Metro stations and a government commitment for further expansion is that provincial political ridings in Laval tend to “swing” back and forth every few elections between the Liberals and the Parti Québécois. While there are already three Metro stops in Laval, there’s still only one in Longueuil, nearly 33 years after the Longeuil station opened.
In 2003, just before the PQ was ousted by the Liberals from office, one of the PQ’s last acts was to approve the construction of the Laval Metro’s three stations and connecting tunnels. A possible side-effect of the PQ’s last-minute decision was that the project was finished with a huge cost overrun. All the same, the Liberals have been in power since then and now must decide whether to pursue commitments of their own for further Laval Metro expansion. Bordeleau contends that Vaillancourt himself is “playing politics” with the Metro. He cites the mayor’s adamant refusal to pay a Metro operating deficit surcharge Montreal is demanding as the most flagrant example.