After months of delays, cost overruns and testing, Montreal’s much-anticipated Réseau express métropolitain light rail public transit route linking downtown to the South Shore finally opened its doors this past week, only to break down several times on its first days — forcing passengers to transfer onto traditional buses.

The brief setbacks on the REM serve as an index of the complexities involved in creating new public transit, as commuter rail is increasingly linked to real estate property development. Even with the challenges, Canadian cities have been pushing forward with the creation of public transit routes not only as a method of getting commuters to work but as a component for much-needed high density housing development, part of a trend also seen in the United States.

Canadian government authorities at all levels have embraced transit-oriented developments, a term coined 30 years ago by Peter Calthorpe in his book The Next American Metropolis. The concept urges the creation of dense development near subways and other transit hubs. In the case of the REM, one station alone will lead to the creation of 7,000 housing units.

Across Canada, the transit-oriented developments have become important to acquiring municipal permits and funding to build high-density residential projects. Municipalities have committed to permitting higher density projects near subways, metros and light rail train lines, while sometimes rejecting projects on the grounds that they are not close to public transit facilities.

The developments can also benefit from preferred funding by such programs as the popular Canada Mortgage and Housing's MLI Select program.

The concept isn't isolated to Canada. In the United States, more elected officials, particularly in California, are looking at encouraging more development near mass transit to lessen demand for cars on already clogged roads.

Even so, many Canadian cities all across the country are pushing forward in the process of developing their public transit networks, which should lead to more property development opportunities in areas near those chosen spots.

Toronto has begun construction on a 10-year project to build a 15.6-kilometre subway line connecting 15 stations to the downtown core. The line is expected to transport almost 400,000 people daily. Authorities are on board with the TOD concept that the province maintains a dedicated website listing plans for all upcoming transit-oriented developments in the Toronto area.

Vancouver boasts the fifth-highest public ridership of any North American city despite having the 24th largest population. Greater Vancouver created a master plan earlier this year to encourage TODs in areas near facilities and maintains a page devoted to Transit-Oriented Communities.

Calgary is working on its biggest-ever light rail project with the Green Line light rail train, creating 13 stations over 18 kilometres. The municipality has published an action plan on its website but does not list specific projects connected to the stations.

Edmonton encourages the developments near its 18-station, 24-kilometre light rail transit system and offers guidelines on its website.

Ottawa plans to build 12.5 kilometres and 13 new stations on its light rail transit line to the downtown core. It has conducted a series of studies about transit-oriented developments around the various stations over the last decade, according to a page on its website.

Quebec City recently awarded a $1.34 billion contract to Alstom to create 34 tramways to roll on 19.3 kilometres, creating 29 stations to open in 2028, creating much discussion about the developments along the line.

Winnipeg authorities have pondered a 20-kilometre light rail transit route but so far have rejected the plans as the cost of up to $5 billion has been deemed excessive.

Montreal's reaction to the newly opened Montreal REM line has ranged from adulation, as seen in the massive overcrowding on a free visitors day, to scathing criticism, most recently from residents complaining of the noise emitted by the passing trains. The new 16.6 kilometre line includes a stop in downtown Montreal, another in nearby Griffintown, Nuns Island, and three South Shore stations: Panama, du Quartier and Brossard. Almost all of the other REM stations are expected to open by the end of 2024, creating a 26-station project at the cost of about $6.5 billion.

Montreal will also see much new construction around the five upcoming blue line metro stations expected to open in 2029. Other Montreal public transit proposals that have yet to advance, include a new REM line to the east, a tramway line in Lachine and a REM station in the Bridge-Bonaventure area.

In spite of the seemingly universal approval, some Montreal-area municipalities have pushed back against transit-oriented developments, including Pointe Claire. It rejected a project to build housing at the Fairview Mall shopping centre near an upcoming REM station and the Town of Mount Royal, which blocked a residential project at the upcoming Royalmount Mall near a metro station.

Property developers able to obtain land near future public transit hubs might learn from Devimco, the Montreal company that is in the middle of building 7,000 residential units along with retail, restaurants, office and school facilities near the newly-built Du Quartier station.

Devimco started acquiring its properties in the area prior to the announcement of the transit train line in April 2016 and it has been busy building ever since.

"Once it was officially announced that the REM was going to get built, it was a major factor. Once people saw that it was a concrete plan we started building. People saw that it was real and that gave us a lot of traction," Devimco representative Marco Fontaine told CoStar News in a phone interview earlier this spring.

The Du Quartier REM station has seen more development than the other new REM stations with an added attraction of sitting near the giant Dix30 shopping centre. Devimco is planning more transit-oriented developments at the Panama station nearby as well, although it has not yet starting building.

Calthorpe remains active as an advocate of the urban planning strategy. “We've got to come to systemic solutions. It’s not that we’re saying no to more subdivisions, it’s just that we have to add to the mix, a choice that lets people to live in a more urban lifestyle, walkable, local destinations, that choice needs to be available and then the market can proportion things as is appropriate,” said Calthorpe in an online video interview from last year.