Behind the Scenes with the REM Team - August 12, 2022

On August 12th, 2022, Rail Fans Canada had the opportunity to go behind the scenes and see the progress at some of the REM facilities and stations. As part of this visit, we got the chance to visit the future McGill Station, Gare Centrale rebuild, Mount-Royal Tunnel and Brossard's Maintenance and Control Facility.

Below you can explore the content we have produced (so far!) about our visit. 

Once again, huge thanks to everyone at CDPQ Infra, NouvLR and Groupe PMM for making such an experience possible and taking the time to show us around their respective worksites!

McGill Station and Mount-Royal Tunnel

First stop of the day: McGill Station. Located under McGill College Avenue, it will be a brand new station in Montreal's downtown core. It is built on the existing alignment of the Mount-Royal tunnel. This meant excavating in the busy downtown core, avoiding utilities, foundations, utilities and underground passages. This creates a great challenge to the REM team as they are building the station box, while needing to support and protect all those existing infrastructures.

As for the Mount-Royal Tunnel, a lot of work is needed to rehabilitate and modernize the centennial tunnel. Those worksites are particularly active and rely on innovative technologies to ensure their work is as precise as needed to ensure the tunnel is viable for at least another 100 years.

Gare Centrale

Built within the former platforms for the EXO lines that were going through the Mount-Royal Tunnel, the brand new REM station at Gare Centrale will be the terminus for the initial segment that will operate on the South Shore Branch. It offers connections to VIA Rail, EXO, RÉSO and Orange Line of the Montreal Metro.

To achieve the opening target of December 2022, crews are quite active throughout the site as testing and commissioning activities continue.

Brossard Light Maintenance and Storage Facility

Located south of the Highway 10 and Highway 30 interchange, the Brossard LMSF will serve to store half of the initial REM fleet of Alstom Metropolis. The facility will also be used to perform light maintenance on the vehicles to ensure their service availability remains as high as possible.

Brossard's Control Centre 

Serving as the main control centre for the entire REM network, the facility will oversee the deployment and operations of all vehicles on the network, as well as the 1000+ CCTVs. At the time of our visit, the layout of the control room was not completed yet as it is currently setup for testing purposes.