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It will be the biggest transit project since the Montreal métro, but this one will be built and mostly funded by a pension fund.

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province’s pension fund manager, unveiled on Friday a light-rail network it intends to build, with the first stations coming online in 2020.

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“Every time you take this train, you’ll be paying into your retirement,” said Michael Sabia, the CEO of the Caisse.

Answering decades of demands for an airport link from downtown, the $5.5-billion Réseau électrique métropolitain will be a vast network linking the South Shore, the West Island and Deux-Montagnes to both the airport and the downtown core.

“What we’re announcing today is the most important public transit project in Montreal in the last 50 years,” said Macky Tall, the president of CDPQ Infra, the Caisse’s infrastructure arm.

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Leaving from Central Station, the 67-kilometre network will use the track running through the Mount Royal tunnel, taking over the Deux-Montagnes line — which already runs electric trains — from the Agence métropolitaine de transport. New tracks will be built over the new Champlain Bridge, and link to the South Shore, ending near the intersection of Highways 30 and 10 in Brossard. Two other dedicated tracks will be built, branching off from the Deux-Montagnes line, where Highway 13 meets Highway 40. One track will head to Trudeau airport, with a stop in the Technoparc in St-Laurent. Another will follow Highway 40 toward Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. The existing Vaudreuil-Dorion train line won’t be affected by the project.