Québec Solidaire's $47B transit plan for Montreal may not be realistic, experts say

If elected, Québec Solidaire wants to overhaul public transit in Montreal, with a $47-billion plan that would include building a new Purple Line for the Metro and extending the Green and Orange lines.

That would mean adding more than 30 kilometres of new tracks to the existing Metro network. 

It's part of what the party has dubbed its "transportation revolution." If completed, it would be the biggest project of its kind in Quebec since the city's subway system first opened more than 55 years ago — just in time for Expo 67. 

The Purple Line would go from downtown Montreal to eastern Laval, passing through Rivière-des-Prairies, Montréal-Nord, Rosemont and Plateau-Mont-Royal.

The Orange Line would extend to western Laval. The Green Line would be extended to the eastern part of the Mercier neighbourhood.

But there are questions about the plan's feasibility and whether its current $47-billion price tag is reasonable, given that such a project could take decades to complete and the cost could balloon in the meantime.

Here's what else is in the QS plan:

QS Co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois has said he wants the entire project to be completed in about 20 years.

By comparison, the Metro's Blue Line extension, which is only about six kilometres long, has been on the table for more than three decades and is still nowhere near close to being completed.

"It needs to go faster because we are in a climate emergency," Nadeau-Dubois told CBC News when asked about his party's transit plans for Montreal. "We need to start now. We need a bold vision to see where we want to go in 2030, 2035, 2045, 2050."

Sustained demand for transit is key for a large-scale undertaking like building a Metro station, according to Lancelot Rodrigue, a graduate research assistant at McGill University's school of urban planning.

Assuming the Purple Line would be underground, Rodrigue says it would be the most expensive part of the QS transit plan and extending a Metro line all the way to eastern Laval doesn't sound like a worthwhile investment.

"Going to areas such as the east of Laval, you don't have the density of the population there at the moment and likely for the long term as well because of all the agricultural land around it," he said.

Every five years, the province conducts the Origin-Destination survey — a study that looks at how people get around on foot, by bicycle, bus, Metro, train and car in and around Montreal. The last survey was conducted in 2018.