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Whether they live in the centre of Montreal, Anjou, Lachine, Laval or Longueuil, voters were promised very expensive extensions to the métro network in the most recent municipal election.

However, with limited funds available, politicians may have little say on which transit election promises are ever delivered. Instead, that is the job of a new regional transit body governing planning for the Montreal region.

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In June, the province created the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain, with a mission to govern transit planning in the region. The new body will hold public input sessions in the first half of 2018, with a goal to outline a 10-year strategic plan by the end of next year.

The ARTM was born out of lobbying efforts by outgoing mayor Denis Coderre, who wished to take politics out of planning and funding of major public transit projects. It has been argued that politicians funded major transit projects in the past in part to buy votes from one region or another. That’s why there was a métro extension to Laval and a commuter train built to Mascouche, while transit projects in the centre of Montreal that could have served a greater number of people (like the Blue Line extension) were delayed for decades.