Montreal, April 16, 2026 – Another day, another humiliating breakdown on Quebec’s shiny new Réseau express métropolitain (REM). This time, dozens of passengers found themselves trapped in a powerless train in the Mount Royal tunnel past midnight on April 11, forced to hike nearly a kilometre on the tracks, only to emerge at Édouard-Montpetit station with zero backup transport. The metro was closed. Promised shuttles never showed. Many ended up shelling out $25 to $50 for Ubers just to get home. Welcome to Quebec transit in 2026: a multi-billion-dollar automated “future of mobility” that can’t even handle a late-night power failure without abandoning riders in the middle of the night.01c5bb Pulsar, the operator running the REM for CDPQ Infra, openly admitted there was a “blind spot” — an “angle mort” — in its emergency contingency plan for after-hours incidents. When the last train of the night dies, the plan simply… ends. No shuttles, no taxis, no real solution. Just good luck and your credit card. This isn’t a one-off glitch. Since the Deux-Montagnes branch fully opened in November 2025, the REM has suffered frequent service interruptions — roughly one major delay or breakdown every few days on average. Defective electronic components on Alstom trains have been blamed for many of the headaches, but the deeper problem is systemic incompetence in planning and execution. And who pays for this mess? Quebec taxpayers, already crushed under Canada’s highest overall tax burden. Quebecers face the steepest combined federal-provincial income tax rates in the country, with marginal rates climbing to over 53% at the top end. The province proudly funds expansive social programs, subsidized daycare, and public services that other provinces don’t — all while residents fork over more in taxes and a near-10% sales tax. Alberta, by contrast, enjoys no provincial sales tax and far lower income tax rates. Yet somehow, with all that revenue, Quebec can’t manage basic reliability on a flagship transit project. Worse still, this fiasco is partly bankrolled by Canadian federal money — dollars extracted from taxpayers across the entire country, including those in lower-tax provinces. The federal government poured roughly $1.28 billion into the REM as part of its infrastructure commitments. Provincial contributions and CDPQ equity brought the total project cost to around $6–8 billion (with overruns inflating the bill further). The promise? A modern, reliable, 24/7 automated light-rail network. Instead, riders get power failures, tunnel walks, and midnight Uber bills. Federal cash from coast to coast is effectively subsidizing Quebec’s inability to deliver on one of its most hyped infrastructure projects. Quebecers pay the highest taxes to support a bloated public sector and grand projects, while the rest of Canada chips in — and everyone ends up with subpar service and zero accountability. The REM was sold as a game-changer: fast, frequent, driverless transit linking the suburbs to downtown and the airport. What we got is a system plagued by technical failures, poor contingency planning, and an operator that treats late-night breakdowns as someone else’s problem. Passengers like William Bruneau, who paid nearly $50 to reach Deux-Montagnes, are left asking why basic emergency protocols don’t exist after midnight. Quebec’s political class loves big-ticket projects and high spending. The province ranks at or near the top for tax burden in Canada year after year, yet core services — including reliable public transit — repeatedly fall short. When the REM breaks (which it does with embarrassing regularity), the response is excuses about “growing pains” and vague promises to “review procedures.” This latest incident exposes the rot: massive taxpayer investment (provincial + federal), sky-high taxes funding an inefficient model, and ordinary citizens paying the price — literally, out of pocket at 2 a.m. Quebec needs to stop pretending that throwing billions at prestige projects while maintaining one of the heaviest tax loads in the country equals good governance. Until the REM can keep the lights on and actually get stranded passengers home without forcing them into expensive rideshares, it stands as a costly symbol of mismanagement — Quebec-style. Taxpayers in Quebec and across Canada deserve better than broken trains, dark tunnels, and empty promises.