The Réseau express métropolitain (REM) service was paralyzed for several hours between Brossard and Central Station in Montreal, forcing service users to make long detours by metro before taking crowded buses. Others were stuck for more than an hour in the REM before being able to get out.
At 3:45 p.m., a service stop on the A1 line of the REM, which connects Brossard to downtown Montreal, was announced on the social network X by the light metro operator. This would have been linked to “technical problems with the computer system” which caused “errors in the control center” of the REM, indicated a public relations officer from the firm CDPQ Infra, responsible for the light metro, in response to questions of Duty. “No security issues were raised,” we added by email. Service finally resumed shortly after 7 p.m.
REM – Normal service at Gare Centrale station.
— Réseau Express Métropolitain (@REM_infoservice) October 30, 2023
REM users thus found themselves in immobilized trains, particularly near the Île-des-Soeurs and Panama stations, for more than an hour before being evacuated from them and directed to buses deployed at from 5 p.m. in the context of this prolonged outage.
Discouraged users
“It’s really a hassle,” says Pedro Gabriel Huber, who lives in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. The man, who works in Montreal, first went to the Central Station after his shift, at 4:45 p.m., before being informed there that he would have to take the metro to Longueuil in order to board a crowded bus which then took him to Brossard. “I think it’s better to take my car,” says the person who is considering stopping taking the REM to get to work.
Another user describes having waited around twenty minutes in a REM train stopped in the air before employees of the public transport service came to evacuate them and take them on foot to the Panama station near which the service stop had occurred.
The REM also stopped for more than an hour near the Île-des-Soeurs station before finally resuming service. “I have a lady in front of me who sat on the floor. She was no longer able to stay standing,” says Patrick Curti. The passengers around him were anxious, having no idea when REM service would resume or why it had broken down.
Several breakdowns have occurred since the REM entered service on July 31, but what its users especially criticize is the poor communication that was offered to them to help them understand the circumstances of these breakdowns and the measures alternatives made available to them to help them get home.
“There was nothing, there wasn’t even a poster. We had to listen to what the other passengers were saying to try to find our way,” says Valérie Surpris, who arrived at her home in Brossard about 1 hour 45 minutes after arriving at the Central Station, from where she also had to get out. go to the Longueuil metro to take a bus that took her near her home.
“When there is no communication, people are anxious, they are afraid. It would be easier if they reassured people,” says Patrick Curti.