CDPQ Infra tempers expectations: while there will certainly be “no third postponement” of the first section of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) on the South Shore, users will however have to plan for a “running-in period” for the new systems. until September, in order to make sure to “correct the imperfections”.
“There are drastic changes in habits for customers to which we will inevitably have to adjust, to be sure that we are responding to demand and correcting imperfections. It will be to ensure that the system is debugged, in other words, “explained Friday the vice-president of exploitation and operation of the REM, Denis Andlauer, during a visit to the REM facilities in Brossard.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The vice-president of exploitation and operation of the REM, Denis Andlauer
His group is giving itself until the “next start of the school year”, in September, in order to complete this running-in phase. “There are small breakdowns that we won’t see until the customers are on board. The doors, for example, will not have been banged until there are not enough users,” notes Mr. Andlauer.
Next Monday, a “complete evacuation of a train” exercise is also planned to prepare the teams. Reliability tests must also take place in the coming weeks, including what CDPQ Infra calls the “white run”, which consists of running the REM system as if it were in service, from Monday to Sunday and from morning to evening, with the only exception that there are no passengers.
Finally, staff training “in degraded mode system” will then take place, to anticipate for example a fire, a breakdown or a technical problem.
It is only once all these tests have been completed “that the REM will be put into service”, explains Andlauer. “We will open as soon as it is fully reliable, but we will take the time necessary. […] We are closer than ever, we will open in a few weeks, ”he illustrates.
The person in charge is however unequivocal: “there will be no third postponement” of the section of the South Shore, always planned “this spring”, that is before June 21 next. Last Sunday, on the set of Tout le monde en parle, the president and chief executive officer of the Caisse de dépôt, Charles Emond, revealed that the date for the commissioning of the REM would be a “Friday”, without however move forward on a date.
“Mass” trains
About 28 of the 54 two-car trains, which is also equivalent to 14 four-car trains, will be exclusively dedicated to the commissioning of the first section. With these numbers, “there is no issue” in the short term, considers Denis Andlauer. “We have trains en masse” for this first stage, he believes.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
If all goes well, the 16 km trip between Brossard and Central Station in downtown Montreal should take “less than 18 minutes” with the REM, which will have five stations. “It’s impossible to do that by car, I’ll tell you right away,” continues the VP.
In several sectors, including between the Du Quartier and Panama stations and on the Samuel-De Champlain bridge, trains are expected to travel at a top speed of 100 km/h. On average, a train will spend 3 min 30 s during peak hours, and 7 min 30 s during off-peak periods. Once all the sections have been delivered, however, the objective is to go to 2 min 30 s on the central leg.
Fully automated and operating 20 hours a day, the REM system will be able to rely on several facilities to “wake up the trains” in the morning and “give them an order”, for example to make 50 round trips between Brossard and downtown. The Press was able to visit the train storage workshop on Friday, where employees will be able to virtually give missions to each train, from a control center.
There are also “about 250 employees” who will work on the delivery of the first section, both in maintenance during the night and in customer service during the day, or even in technology. In a few years, once the REM has been fully delivered, there will be more than 400 workers. Two light maintenance workshops were built to repair “minor breakage” on trains, in Brossard and Deux-Montagnes. For major repairs, the trains will have to go to Saint-Eustache.
No tests during the ice storm
Many Montrealers wondered: no, CDPQ Infra did not perform REM reliability tests during the most recent episode of ice storms in the city, which plunged hundreds of thousands of people into darkness. The reason: “finalization work” by the NouvLR consortium was in progress, which prevented the trains from running. “Having said that, I can tell you the whole infrastructure, so our catenaries, the rails, the doors, everything worked well”, nevertheless qualifies Mr. Andlauer on this subject.