Montreal pushes province for new Metro cars as aging fleet exceeds 50 years

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is urging the Quebec government to prioritize replacing the city's oldest Metro cars, which have already outlived their life expectancy by 10 years.

Accompanied by officials with the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) during a news conference on Wednesday, the mayor called on Quebec to add a train-replacement project to the province's infrastructure plan (PQI), warning that the trains must be replaced by 2036.

By then, the MR-73 Metro cars will be about 60 years old.

A spokesperson for Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault told Radio-Canada that a comprehensive analysis of transportation infrastructure needs is currently underway and that selected projects will be included in the next PQI.

Guilbault has met with the STM, the spokesperson said, and decisions will be announced in the upcoming provincial budget.

Plante said the replacement process needs to start now if there's any hope of completing it by 2036. She emphasized that these Metro cars, in service for over 50 years, are among the oldest in the world. STM board chair Éric Alan Caldwell said their life has already been extended during the last Metro train upgrade in 2014.

"At the time, the decision was made to extend the life of the trains, which typically last 40 years, to 60 years. But there is a limit," Caldwell stated.

Caldwell said it took 12 years the last time, from the establishment of a project office to the delivery of the AZUR trains.

Plante is calling for a partnership with the Quebec-based Alstom, which has historically manufactured Montreal's Metro cars.

Plante said announcing the Metro car replacement project would guarantee jobs for workers in La Pocatière, Que., in the coming years.

"What we want is for these Metro cars to be built not in India, not in the United States, but right here in La Pocatière," Plante said.

"This is not a luxury. As the trains near the end of their lifespan, there is a greater risk of breakdowns or failures."

Bolstering local economy

This comes as Premier François Legault is looking to create more jobs in the province by accelerating infrastructure projects like health, education and transportation to respond to the U.S. tariff threat.

The STM is asking the province to invest $40 million of the needed $46 million now so it can start the process. The whole project should cost nearly $11 billion, officials say.

The new Metro cars will have improved capacity, better security and more comfort, Plante said.

"We will be able to improve the capacity of our network by 37 per cent," she said. "So it's really a good project that must go forward as soon as possible."

A public transit advocacy group is on board with the project, saying the older cars cause a lot of problems.

"It's mostly [on] the Green line that there are so many shutdowns," said Philippe Jacques of Trajectoire Québec.

It will be worse in the coming years, he said, and this will discourage people from riding the Metro. Instead, they will rely on their cars, he said, so the replacement is needed.