Commuters on the West Island and North shore banded together at a town hall meeting in Deux Montagnes Wednesday evening, calling for construction on the REM light rail system to be suspended.
In January of next year, the Mount Royal tunnel will close and with it Exo's Deux-Montagne train line, all to make way for the REM.
When that happens, a network of provincial shuttle buses will add an hour each way to many commuters' trips to work.
Transit advocate Anton Dupas said it's unacceptable, but the Caisse de Depot, which is building the REM, has no incentive to accomodate commuters.
"They mostly care about making money. They care about real estate, they care about the passenger kilometer fee So, they're like trying to squeeze money out of this project. They don't care about people being inconvenienced", said Dupas.
At a packed town hall, dozens of commuters told the province it's their last chance to heed calls for a moratorium on construction, but with REM stations already slowly taking shape miles away on the south shore, that seems unlikely.