[Aylmer]

In a region as administratively fractured as Greater Montreal, it's best to have an arms-length organization coordinating transportation planning rather than handing the steering wheel to fleeting political interests and unaccountable private interests. Quebec has an unenviable history of politically- and privately-motivated transport plans which fizzle as soon as the next one flares. From the TRAMM to CP's monorail, there have been a lot of flash-bang proposals which have come to nothing because there's no good mechanism for actually following through, and there's always some new exciting thing on the horizon. Well, they finally got that mechanism - the ARTM - which managed to wrangle and herd the various political interests of the region into coherent and concrete plans, timelines, and funding.

I fear that if its authority to plan continues to be undermined, Montreal will return to its transit fantasy stupor where everything is possible and nothing gets done.