West Gatineau Tramway & Downtown Loop | Proposed

[rocketphish]

Gatineau tramway cost grows again to estimated $8B
Officials now considering altering transit project, including scaling it back

CBC News
Posted: Jun 19, 2026 10:42 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

A Quebec transportation agency says it should cost about $8 billion to build the planned 24-kilometre light rail line in Gatineau, Que.

That estimate is about four times the original 2018 price tag and has opened the door for officials to start talking about altering the project, including scaling it back.

Mobilité Infra Québec (MIQ), which took over the project's planning in February, said Thursday that it has done its own cost estimates and compared the tramway with other Canadian projects.

MIQ President and CEO Renée Amilcar said in French that the agency does not want to build the tramway in that original form. Instead, it could start smaller and be scaled up in two or three phases.

She said the first phase could connect Gatineau's Plateau district to Ottawa, and might have to involve private investors in addition to funding from three levels of government.

The head of Gatineau's transit service predicted an "optimized" project that wouldn't follow the original route. Société des transports de l’Outaouais (STO) Edmond Leclerc said in French that the tramway must connect the downtowns of Ottawa and Gatineau.

The MIQ said it would like to have a final recommendation by Nov. 30.

Talk about improving transit between downtown Ottawa-Gatineau and Gatineau's growing Aylmer and Plateau communities last decade solidified into a light rail plan announced in 2018.

That line was to have 30 stations along 26 kilometres of rail, with spurs to Ottawa and to Gatineau's Plateau neighbourhood. The 2018 price tag was $2.1 billion, and the aim was to open it in 2028.

Plans have been tweaked since then. A 2021 report that wasn't made public until 2023 updated the cost estimate to about $4 billion, with a launch target of 2034. It would have been more expensive to tunnel under downtown Ottawa and less expensive to go on the surface.

That report maintained that light rail was the best way to connect central Gatineau to its western suburbs because relying on buses and bus-only lanes would not be enough.

Gatineau Mayor Maude Marquis-Bissonnette, who has expressed fear for the future of the tramway following MIQ's takeover, said in French on Thursday that the update speaks to the work that had been done in the past months and validates all the efforts of past years.

Opposition party Gatineau ensemble said it's important to remember the need to improve public transit in the west is real and documented, but residents need to know how much taxpayer money is potentially being spent here.

As Quebec prepares for a provincial election by early October, Coalition Avenir Québec Hull MNA Suzanne Tremblay said her party wants to see the project done.

Speaking in French earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney named the Gatineau tramway as an example of a project that could benefit a major infrastructure funding agreement with Quebec.

With files from Radio-Canada's Charles Lalande, Frédéric Pepin, Anne-Marie Trickey and Alexandra Angers

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/gatineau-lrt-tramway-cost-schedule-timeline-plans-9.7241388

[Richard Eade]

I think that the Gatineau Tramway provides a stark reminder of what happens when major transit projects are delayed or deferred. In the Tramway’s case, the (preliminary) estimated cost, in 2018, was $2.1B for 26 kilometres of track, with 30 stations. By 2021, the (more refined) estimated cost had risen to $4B, and that had settled on a less expensive surface option in downtown Ottawa, as opposed to an expensive tunnel under Sparks Street.

The project continued to be delayed and ‘refined’ – on the Gatineau side, at least. The Ottawa side had stalled completely, leading the STO to give Groupe Porteur a $114M contract in January of 2025 to oversee the project – but only the first 22 km of the 24 km-long route; as the Ontario side was left to later. By this time, the number of stations had increased from the originally planned 30 along the entire line up to 37 along those first 22 km.

I do not know what happened to that contract, since Mobility Infra Quebec (MIQ) has taken over the project. However, MIQ may have taken it over as MIQ claims that progressive work on the project now estimates that the cost of the full 24 km of line would cost about $8B (in June, 2026). A number of cost-cutting scenarios are now being evaluated, for a report that is due at the end of November, 2026.

And, what does this example tell us?

That a preliminary estimate is not good enough to judge a project on. Too often the first cost estimate is, at best, a wild guess that is based on incomplete ideas and very little actual information. And they are notoriously low – likely on the belief that a low price will help a project get approved.

And also, that things take longer than desired, and cost much more than expected. This is critical, because during that delay period, more often than not, additional features get added into the project – so-called Project Creep. The Tramway project, for instance, gained an extra 7 stations, just on the Gatineau side. If these ‘stations’ are anything more than very simple ‘Sign-on-a-pole’ stops, this addition could add significant cost.

None of this is news, to most people. It is just another example to add to the many that the City of Ottawa should be aware of. Ottawa has had MANY projects waiting for implementation, but keeps deferring them. If the City had taken the opportunity to add box culverts under Bank Street when it was digging up the road to replace all of the underlying infrastructure, it could have had a shallow subway tunnel for probably less than five-hundred-million dollars. If Ottawa had decided to bore a shallow Bank Street Subway, before pouring money into over-spec’ing the Confederation Line and upgrading the Trillium Line, there could have been a train directly into the downtown core for, probably, a billion dollars. Now, I imagine that adding a subway under Bank Street would run the City about $3B.

Ottawa seems to have stubbornly held on to the belief that large infrastructure projects will become more economically feasible if they are delayed. I say that it is time that the City actually looked at the many examples around it to see that the opposite is more likely true.

[J.OT13]

MIQ were about to cancel the study contracts, but decided to keep them because breaking the contract comes with a steep penalty.

The initial plan was I believe to get the train open by 2028. The Feds dragged their feet before supporting the study phase financially, then France Belisle delayed the project as she was not supportive (despite what she said during the election campaign, not unlike Sutcliffe and Stage 3), and finally the Quebec Government delayed things.

Canada Line is an excellent example of a subway built for cheap; $2.1B for 19.2km and 17 stations. Something like that would have been perfect for Bank-Montreal. The same project would likely be closer to $20B today.

I do scratch my head at the addition of 7 stations. More stations doesn't just mean a higher cost, but a slower trip. It's hard to convince people to take transit if it's significantly slower than driving.