Expect more Azur metro trains on the orange line in the coming years, thanks to a new underground parking garage now under construction in Saint-Laurent.
Construction of an underground parking garage near Cote-Vertu metro has been underway for a year and will be home to 10 Azur trains, boosting the total fleet to be deployed from Cote-Vertu up to 20.
“It's to increase the number of trains during rush hour. So we'll increase the trains by 25 per cent during rush hour,” explained project director Shanthi Nelliah.
Wait times during rush hour on the orange line will be shorter – at two minutes – cutting down 30 seconds between trains.
It’s going to take quite a bit of work before that happens, though, as machines dig about 5.5 metres every day. In all, 1.5 kilometres of tunnel will have to be dug.
The excavation of the parking garage is expected to be completed in the next few months, but more work will follow, said Nelliah.
“The excavation of the main tunnel to get to Cote-Vertu will finish in July. After that, we have to do the concrete to build the tunnel,” she said.
“There's one tunnel that links the garage to the Cote-Vertu metro station, and then there are three more tunnels on this site. One is for maintenance and the two others are for parking the trains during the night,” said Nelliah.
It’s not all positive for commuters, though – to deploy those extra trains at a faster rate, work will need to take place on the Cote-Vertu tracks, meaning a complete closure of the station during the summer of 2020.
The STM said they will provide shuttle service and some buses could be rerouted during that phase.
Construction on the parking garage began in May 2017 and it will continue for the next few years with a completion date set for the beginning of 2021.
The same digging technique used to build these tunnels will likely be used again to for the extension of the blue line, set to begin in 2020.
