The Réseau express métropolitain (REM) experienced setbacks early Monday after the first snowfall of the season. In addition to a slowdown which would be due to an early stopping of trains at the station, several technical problems affected the light train service, to the great dismay of users.
According to CDPQ Infra, adjustments had to be made at the start of the day, shortly after 7 a.m., “since the trains stopped a little too quickly, just before the station,” the organization said.
Result: the doors did not open in the right place, before or after the spaces provided for disembarking passengers. The teams therefore had to manually open the doors a few times, which caused delays and slowdowns in service.
A few dozen minutes later, a “technical problem” that occurred near Brossard station forced the implementation of the backup plan. Buses from the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) were therefore dispatched to the site to provide a link with downtown Montreal.
The Caisse de dépôt subsidiary, which says it is still “in training”, was still unaware at this time of the cause of the technical glitch that caused this service outage.
On social networks, the irritation of users was palpable. “Okay, let’s just summarize: Winter 1, REM 0,” even quipped one Internet user, followed by several others. “So many millions of dollars invested and testing for a year, and then it’s derailed by a mini snowstorm. Ridiculous,” lamented another.
Around 9 a.m., the situation seemed to stabilize in most of the five REM stations. A more complete assessment of operations should be made at the end of the day, after the return rush hour.