Mark Carney attends launch of new branch of Montreal-area light rail network

MONTREAL — The northwest branch of a light rail project in the Montreal area was officially inaugurated on Friday, with Prime Minister Mark Carney and other dignitaries along for the first ride.

Quebec Premier François Legault and newly elected Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada also joined alongside the transit leaders that oversaw the expansion.

The new branch of the Réseau express métropolitain network, or REM, includes 14 stations and connects Montreal to Deux-Montagnes. Three of the stations are embedded within Montreal’s metro system.

“I feel great, especially for our citizens who will get to use the service. It’s been a long time coming,” Deux-Montagnes Mayor Denis Martin told The Canadian Press as he rode the train back toward Montreal.

He said it’s a service he plans to use himself moving forward, saying he sometimes has multiple meetings per day in Montreal.

“It’s really going to help me get around, especially with how often it runs,” he said.

Speaking to the crowd gathered for the inauguration, Carney described the REM as a sustainable and innovative project, one that serves as an example of what’s needed across Canada.

He also thanked the thousand of workers who made the new branch a reality.

“You faced a pandemic, complex excavations, even an unexpected detonation of century-old explosives, and you persevered,” Carney said, referring to when old explosives detonated in a tunnel under downtown Montreal during excavation work in the summer of 2020.

“It is through your efforts that today’s opening has been made possible,” the prime minister said.

Charles Emond, the president and CEO of Quebec’s pension fund manager, described the driverless, electric train system as “the largest automated light rail line in the world.”

“(It’s) an infrastructure that is called to become a signature for the metropolis and that shows, and this is important, that we are still great builders, able to move forward together to realize projects that can arouse envy and pride,” he said.

Once completed, the 67-kilometre REM network will have 26 stations and is scheduled to cost $9.4 billion.

The light-rail project has faced delays, as well as rising construction costs. The Deux-Montagnes line, as well as another line to Montreal’s West island, were scheduled to enter service in 2024. The West Island line has now been delayed until spring 2026.

But Emond stressed on Friday the speed and cost-efficiency of the build.

He described the construction conditions over the last seven years as “unprecedented,” comprising a pandemic that required workers to be two metres apart, the highest inflation in decades, and the rehabilitation of the 100-year-old tunnel under Mount Royal.

“Despite all this, the REM is (being completed) at a cost that is about half less than the best comparable projects,” he said.

Members of the public also got the chance to ride the new Deux-Montagnes line, which will be free all weekend to encourage people to discover it.

For Sasha Dyke, it was his first time riding the light rail.

“I saw that there was a contest, and I clicked, and I told my wife, ‘I’m feeling really lucky,’ and it turns out I am,” he said speaking alongside her.

He began his itinerary at the station located in the Town of Mont-Royal, not too far from where he lives in Parc-Extension. He also got to witness another ribbon cutting there with local dignitaries like Alan DeSousa, the borough mayor of St-Laurent.

He said he plans to use the REM to get out for camping and cycling trips with his children.

“This is obviously not a perfect project, but it’s an exciting time for public transit in Montreal, with the blue line coming in the next few years, and now the REM as well,” Dyke said.

The REM’s offer to keep its entire network open this weekend coincides with a transit strike this Saturday and Sunday in Montreal, expected to lead to a total shut down of bus and metro service, unless a last-minute deal can be reached.

The Deux-Montagnes segment is an extension of the Brossard line, which includes the first five stations of the network that opened in July 2023. The REM now includes 50 kilometres of rail, and 19 stations.

The final leg of the system, linking to Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, is scheduled to open in 2027.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2025.