Price tag for Montreal's REM balloons to $1.65 billion

The bill for the REM has now reached $8 billion, an increase of 26 per cent compared with the last estimate of $6.3 billion presented in 2018 when the file had passed the bidder selection stage.

Managers from CDPQ Infra, the project's owner, gave an update on the costs and progress of the infrastructure work on Wednesday.

CDPQ Infra CEO and president Jean-Marc Arbaud, however, vigorously defended himself against downplaying the cost overrun, which reached 45 per cent compared to the $5.5 billion projected when the project was initially announced in 2016, arguing that it was no longer the same project since stations and around 40 trains had been added. These improvements raised the estimate from $5.5 billion to $5.9 billion, only to inflate it to $6.3 billion when confronted with the bidders' reality.

As for the north and west routes, which will run to Deux-Montagnes and Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, CDPQ Infra plans to begin testing next spring, but Jean-Marc Arbaud refused to give a date for commissioning, saying only that the end of 2024 was possible.

So far, the managers say they are very satisfied with the first six weeks of operation of the southern branch, between Brossard and Central Station, inaugurated in July.

Although breakdowns and glitches have made the headlines, the reliability rate stands at 99 per cent, with 8 hours of breakdowns out of 880 hours of operation. More than a million passengers have been served to date.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 13, 2023.