New tile for the Réseau express métropolitain (REM). The light train suffered a long service interruption of almost four hours on Thursday due to a failure of its control system.
This was indicated by CDPQ Infra, the subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec which manages the light train, on the social network X. On social networks, the irritation of several users was palpable.
The organization had initially announced a slowdown in service due to an emergency brake being applied on board a train, shortly before noon, before confirming a total interruption of service in both directions, for an indefinite period, linked to a breakdown in the control system.
Passengers on board the trains were then evacuated and bus shuttles were set up to connect Montreal Central Station and Panama Station. Train service remained available between Panama and Brossard stations.
Shortly before 3 p.m., while the service was still at a standstill, the Caisse had specified that “exceptionally, the relief bus service is maintained between the Gare Centrale and Brossard stations.” “Despite the rush hour, the bus service is not redirected to the Longueuil terminus,” it was added.
Train traffic finally resumed around 3:15 p.m., gradually. Normal resumption was planned around 3:35 p.m. In short, if we take into account the slowdown preceding the total interruption, the outage will have lasted almost four hours.
Several technical glitches have once again accumulated in the space of a single day for the REM. As soon as it opened, on Thursday around 5:30 a.m., a technical problem that had not yet been identified had already caused a slowdown in service towards Brossard. However, the problem was resolved fairly quickly and service was able to be restarted shortly after 6 a.m.
All this comes as the South Shore section of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) will soon celebrate its first anniversary, next July. With 11 months of experience, the train is now completing its running-in phase, CDPQ Infra admitted earlier this week in an interview with The Press.
The operator believes it has made significant progress in management and communication since the inauguration. For example, if just a few months ago, restarting light rail after a breakdown lasted an hour on average, today they generally take around 20 minutes.
Furthermore, the system “updates” that the REM has had to perform almost every weekend for the past few months, forcing the train to close at the start of the day, should fade away by the end of the summer. In the short term, however, these updates are still planned for the next three weekends.
Typically, the process takes six hours. And since the REM is in service 20 hours a day, two hours of service must therefore be withdrawn each time.