Residents of communities northeast of Montreal are meeting tonight to organize a lobby group that would pressure the provincial government to deliver a long awaited suburban train project.

      The meeting, organized by the Association Transport 2000 Quebec and a citizens group from Assomption, Repentigny and neighbouring towns, is to be held at 7:30 in the Assomption community centre at 79 Dorval St.

      Jean Léveillé, president of Transport 2000, a non-profit public transport advocacy group said yesterday his organization agreed to help the communities set up the structure of the lobbying group.

      "People realized that in many other places the projects succeeded because citizens ahd come together to form a pressure group,"  Léveillé said.

       Léveillé said he hopes the new group will be able to replicate the success of community pressure groups on the North and South Shores which successfully lobbied the provincial government for the extension of suburban train service to their communities

      The government plans two public transport projects for communities northeast of Montreal: a bus service called Viabus, to link the communities to the southeast areas of Montreal and a suburban train service to the Montreal downtown.

       Léveillé said the creation of the Viabus corridor could take as long as five years.  However the train service could be extended within the next two years because the railway system already exists, he said. It's expected to cost about $35 million.

      The 40-kilometre trip from Assomption to downtown Central Station is expected to take only 50 minutes,  Léveillé said.  As many as 7,000 people are expected to use the train every day.