MONTREAL — The second portion of Montreal’s Réseau express métropolitain light rail network has opened, with regular service on the Deux-Montagnes line beginning at 5:30 a.m. ET today (Nov. 17, 2025). That follows a Friday ceremony that included Prime Minister Mark Carney and a weekend of free “open house” operations on the new 33-kilometer (20.5-mile), 14-station branch.
“As Québec’s largest public transit project in half a century,” Carney said, “the REM is testament to our ambition to build big, build bold, and build Québec strong so we can build Canada strong.”
Along with the original six-station segment between downtown’s Central Station and the South Shore community of Broussard, the system now covers some 50 kilometers (31 miles). Loïc Cordelle, general director of Pulsar, the system’s contract operator, told the Montreal Gazette, “For someone from the South Shore getting to Université de Montréal, it used to take one hour and 15 minutes, by taking numerous transfers, but starting Monday, they can do it directly, in 23 minutes.”
The launch of REM service gives the route’s passengers a replacement for the Exo commuter train service that used to run between Deux-Montagnes and Central Station. That line was shut down at the end of 2020 to allow construction of the privately financed REM route [see “News Photos: Last runs …,” Trains.com, Dec. 31, 2020]. Construction, particularly through the historic 3.2-mile Mount Royal tunnel, proved to be problematic and is a major reason the line’s opening gradually slid back from the original target date of summer 2022. [See “Montreal’s REM faces new delays,” Trains.com, April 24, 2024.]
Along with the ceremony and open house, the weekend saw members of a union representing REM maintenance workers stage a protest at the Deux-Montagnes station over their working conditions and contract negotiations. The workers unionized about six months ago and are seeking their first contract.
Nicolas Leduc-Lafantaisie, regional present of the union Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec, told the Canadian Press that labor relations are “very partisan, very difficult, very opaque, and there is no collaboration.” The union represents about 40 employees who maintain the system’s buildings.
Still to come is the opening of the Anse-à-l’Orme branch, set for next spring, which will add another four stations. That branch and the Deux-Montagnes branch were originally to open at the same time, but CDPQ Infra, the REM’s builder, elected to avoid opening both as winter arrived, given winter reliability issues the initial segment has experienced since its launch in July 2023.
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