The Réseau express métropolitain (REM) “does not fail” in the difficult conditions of Montreal winters, its management defended yesterday, which however promised improvements in its communications with users.
• Read also: A new bus line connects Sherbrooke to the REM
• Read also: Ottawa open to a REM in eastern Montreal
This was emphasized by Jean-Marc Arbaud, President and CEO of CDPQ Infra, during a presentation to the media of a winter operation plan aimed at reassuring users.
They experienced hiccups for several hours Monday morning, during the first snowfall of the winter.
Photo Olivier Faucher / Journal de Montréal
Another miss on Friday
Ironically, on Friday, just before the press briefing, the network also suffered an interruption of approximately 45 minutes due to an intervention by teams from the Samuel-De-Champlain bridge to clear snow from the pylons. This disruption planned for 9 a.m. was only communicated to users at 7:30 a.m. via the says Mr. Arbaud. According to him, this case illustrates that there is still work to be done for the REM to coordinate with other actors.
While he acknowledges having to “regain the trust of users”, Mr. Arbaud wanted to reassure those who are worried about the reliability of the service in winter.
“Our system availability objective is 99%, and today we are at 98%,” said Mr. Arbaud, according to whom the “system does not fail” in winter.
Representatives of Alstom and AktinsRéalis, designers of the REM, highlighted the tests carried out particularly in winter conditions in recent years.
We are gaining maturity and experience,” assured Marc Boucher, senior vice-president, major projects and engineering services for AktinsRéalis.
Improved communications
It is rather at the communications level that the REM must be better, according to Mr. Arbaud.
The REM has announced several measures in this direction, such as the implementation over the coming weeks of an SMS alert system on the status of the service.
Since its launch, many users have criticized the lack of information available during service disruptions.
“[Le système de SMS]this is the kind of means of communication that should have been planned in advance,” believes François Pépin, administrator at Trajectoires Québec, an organization defending public transport users.