Tramway: what role for the RTC in TramCité?

The agreements between the government of Quebec, the City of Quebec and CDPQ Infra allow us to know more about the role that each of them will take in the new Quebec tram project, entitled TramCité. Negotiations made it possible to determine that the Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC) will own the assets and will be responsible for their operation.

We are delighted to see the tramway project move into the planning phase and, above all, that the agreement reached officially designates the RTC as operator. This decision highlights the expertise of the RTC and positions our organization as a key collaborator for the future.indicates by email, the advisor and president of the RTCMaude Mercier Larouche.

Monday, at a press conference, two agreements were announced for this phase 1 of the City Plan, now estimated at $7.6 billion, for the preparation and implementation. The City of Quebec has also published three decision-making summaries on the subject.

The roles and responsibilities of the City have been defined in such a way as to contribute proactively and to take advantage of the expertise of municipal services and the RTCwe write in one of the summaries.

Other agreements to come

One of them mentions in particular another agreement which must be signed by March 15, 2025 concerning the interface managementtherefore affecting the management of relationships and interactions between actors and the distribution of their responsibilities. This must help minimize project risks.

In the next 24 months, an implementation agreement must be ratified to divide the responsibilities of the three parties during the implementation phase, scheduled for 2027. It is then that the government and the RTC will be able to work on another agreement concerning the operation and maintenance of the tramway.

Ultimately, CDPQ Infra must, however, take care of part of the infrastructure maintenance. Its CEO, Jean-Marc Arbaud, compares it to a public-private partnership, allowing you to have a certain return on your investment. We provide maintenance work so that there is an alignment of interests, to say that what we achieve must work and be maintained. These are additional guarantees that we providehe mentions.

The employees’ union of RTC is worried. Subcontracting maintenance to CDPQ Infra and operations upstream of the project to a still undetermined company is a lack of confidence in the RTC which would nevertheless be best placed to do this work in an integrated network supports Caroline Senneville, the president of the CSNwhich represents employees of the transportation network.

A place on committees

In its agreement with the Government of Quebec, the City undertakes, among other things, to take care of integrating the operational needs of the RTC in the project.

The general director and the executive director of major projects of the RTC will also have a seat on the City’s steering committee on the agreement which governs its management, execution and monitoring.

They will also be members, this time non-voting, of the Interface Management Committee which forms the link between the City Steering Committee and that of CDPQ Infra.

Provided for in the RTC budget

In its 2025 budget, the RTC re-invoiced additional services in the amount of $1.8 million related to the establishment of the transition network that will be in place during the completion of the tramway project. This is one of the explanations for the increase in income expected in 2025.

The operating budget of the RTC for 2025 is forecast at $310.7 million, an increase of $24.1 million compared to 2024.

The 80 million work necessary to rebuild the RTC center in Lebourgneuf does not include the amount of 8.4 million dollars which will have to be invested for the control room of the possible Quebec tramway.