Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
The REM is developing into a Second System that is incompatible with the first... like a smaller version of New York with the IRT and BMT/IND, or London with its shallow and deep tube lines.
Sometimes that's okay, as with Paris and the RER... if the second network serves a different purpose, like express travel across the region, and if it is compatible with mainline rail to save costs. But in Montreal the REM Est appears to be serving the exact same purpose as Metro. Rome is another city that has taken this mixed approach - Line C is not compatible with Lines A/B, and uses a cheaper technology - but everyone agrees that it's part of the same network, it has full transfers to the other lines, and it doesn't force awkward transfers to continue along the same corridor. REM East will require a transfer at Honore-Beaugrand to continue along the Sherbrooke corridor.
Also should be noted that the REM East may not even be compatible with the first phase of REM. And the documents indicate that it will not be a tram but a light metro, which means all those sections labeled as "above ground" will need to be on an elevated structure.
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Like the original REM. I'm pretty sure they want another system as the 1st system will have a capacity problem in the long term if all the lines pass through the Mount-Royal tunnel. There will be a REM 3 in Laval, if they use the 1st system to go north towards the A-440, the Mount-Royal tunnel will be maxed out. The Pink Line couldl be based from the 2nd system.