If Projet Montreal's leader Valerie Plante has her way, there'll be a crosstown metro line running from Lachine to Montreal North by 2028.
Plante first floated the idea for a 'pink line' last November during the Projet Montreal leadership campaign. Initially, the line was to run from Bonaventure station up to Montreal North.
On Tuesday, she finalized her vision — a 29-station, $5.9 billion line which would begin in Lachine, run above ground to NDG, cut through downtown, and then through Rosemont before going up to Montreal North. The trip from one end of the line to the other would take 39 minutes.
The idea, Plante says, is to serve neighborhoods that are undeserved by the metro, and ease the chronic overcrowding on the orange line during rush hours.
"It is an ambitious, audacious and necessary plan to improve the mobility of Montrealers and thus improve productivity and reduce inequalities," Plante said in a statement before she met the media on Tuesday. "We must offer Montrealers who are currently poorly served by public transit a reliable, quick and efficient alternative for getting around. This is what we are proposing with the Pink Line."
Plante says the planning period would begin right away, and last for four years. The actual construction would begin in stages — the Montreal North portion would be built by 2025, and the Lachine portion would be built by 2028.