With the new branch of Montreal's light-rail system opening to the public on Monday, the REM —Réseau express métropolitain — is being touted as the second-longest aerial train network in Canada after Vancouver's SkyTrain.
Four new stations over 14 kilometres of elevated track to the western region of Montreal Island will be free to ride between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. over the weekend before their official opening.
The new stations — Des Sources; Fairview—Pointe-Claire; Kirkland; and Anse-à-l’Orme — connect the towns of Pointe-Claire, Kirkland and Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.
Carl Corbel is director of operations with the infrastructure division of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province's public pension fund manager and owner of the REM.
He says passengers in the West Island — a region known for inadequate public transit — will be able to travel from the Anse-à-l’Orme station to downtown Montreal in 35 minutes.
The segment was initially scheduled to go into service at the end of 2024. The deadline was pushed back twice, first to fall 2025 then spring 2026.
An REM inspector walks along the platform of the Anse-a- l'Orme REM station during its inaugural run on the West Island line in Montreal, on Friday, May 15, 2026.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
The final section of the REM linking to Montréal Trudeau International Airport is expected to open by the end of 2027.
In the meantime, the Aéroports de Montréal says it will fund a shuttle service linking the Des Sources station to the airport, which it expects to launch mid-June.
An agreement between the airport and the agency that plans, finances and organizes integrated transit in Greater Montreal — Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain — is being finalized.
In October 2025, CDPQ Infra promised to open the airport station in 2027. Julien Hurel, vice-president of the REM project at CDPQ Infra, says there are "no major challenges" to meet that deadline.
The REM’s timelines have been delayed several times, and it has faced criticism over outages on the Brossard branch linking to Montreal's South Shore since it was launched.
Hurel said many of these issues have been addressed since the REM was first inaugurated in 2023.
"We have basically divided by two the number of breakdowns while we tripled the overall network," he says.
When completed, the network will comprise 26 stations over 67 km of track across the greater Montreal area.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2026.
By Erika Morris | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.