Will a $136M Turcot rail corridor be built for nothing? New LRT wouldn't use it

Montreal's new light rail network will bypass a $136-milliontrain corridor under the Turcot Interchange that Quebec's Transport Ministry had designed for that purpose.

The corridor was written into the new Turcot's design with the expectation it would serve a planned rail shuttle between downtown Montreal and Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau International Airport.

The cost of including it in the Turcot development was estimated at $136 million by the ministry, according to documents obtained by Radio-Canada.

However, on April 22, the Caisse de dpt et placement du Qubec, which is fronting $3-billion of the new light rail network's $5.5 billion price tag, announced the airport train would notuse the Turcot corridor.

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The pension fund said it wants the rail network to be in service by 2020-2021, but work on the Turcot is only scheduled for completion in 2020.

As a result, LRT planners have three possible routes to the airport in mind, and the Turcot corridor isn't one of them.

"The LRT project announcement doesn't change the pertinence of maintaining a rail corridor for future use," said Transports Qubec spokeswoman Sarah Bensadoun.

The ministry said it's impossible to estimate the cost of the Turcot's rail corridor.

However, documents obtained by Radio-Canada clearly show that from the moment of its inclusion in the plans, the cost was pegged at $136 million.

The corridor was envisioned as part of series of measures aimed at encouraging public transit.