The first interruption in the metro took place around 5:30 a.m. due to water infiltration, between the Angrignon and Berri-UQAM stations. Then, service was completely interrupted on the entire Green Line due to an “equipment problem on the track”.
The service resumed at 7 a.m., but users were not at the end of their troubles.
A train breakdown once again threw sand into the gear around 9:30 a.m., between Angrignon and Lionel-Groulx. The outage only lasted a few minutes, but another interruption took place between Angrignon and Berri-UQAM around 10:20 a.m., again due to water infiltration. At 11:30 a.m., it was unclear when operations would resume.
In an email sent to Noovo Info, Amélie Régis, corporate advisor for the STM, explains that a water main break at the Lionel-Groulx station is responsible for the water infiltration.
At this time, the STM does not know if it is this same breakdown that caused the three interruptions. Corrugated panels were installed to plug the leak, but they did not hold, it is said.
“Between Lionel-Groulx and Berri-UQAM stations, customers are invited to take the orange line. Otherwise, a shuttle bus service runs between the Angrignon and Lionel-Groulx stations.”
Amélie Régis, corporate advisor for the STM
At the end of the day, the STM believed that the leak had been stopped by the city of Westmount. However, an investigation must be carried out since this does not appear to be the case. At the time of writing, water continued to accumulate in the network.
On the REM side, weather conditions forced an interruption of service between the Panama and Gare Centrale stations, in both directions, shortly after noon.
A gradual resumption of service was announced around 12:20 p.m. Then the service was interrupted again for an hour.
Operations finally resumed around 1:20 p.m.
Contacted by Noovo Info, a spokesperson for CDPQ Infra, operator of the REM, explained that when there are sustained winds of 70 km/h, a protection system is activated so that trains do not go to the Samuel de Champlain Bridge. This measure is taken to ensure the safety of users.
Manifestation
These problems arrived on the same day that Québec solidaire (QS) organized a demonstration at Jarry Park to denounce the actions of François Legault’s government in terms of public transportation.
“The CAQ government stands out for its almost complete inaction on the public transportation issue,” wrote the party of co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois in an invitation published on Facebook. “In addition to being unable to deliver the extension of the blue line or the Quebec tramway project, they offered Quebec a big step backwards by massively cutting public transport this year. This means less frequent crossings, a less reliable transport network, more expensive and where you will be even more cramped.
Confrontations have taken place in the past between the City of Montreal and the Legault government over public transportation. As recently as the beginning of October, Mayor Plante complained about the erosion of funding dedicated to the maintenance of public transportation assets following the unexpected closure of three stations on the Blue Line. Montreal metro.
In April, in a revolt against Geneviève Guilbault, Ms. Plante invited the Minister of Transport to take the metro. She was thus reacting to Ms. Guilbault’s statement who said that public transportation was not a mission of the State. “Yes, transport is a mission of the State,” replied the mayor.
This was another tough exchange between the government of François Legault and the municipalities related to the financing of public transportation, which is vastly in deficit. Ms. Guilbault refused to increase financial assistance to municipalities, because she believes that her ministry is not responsible for the management of transport companies and that taxpayers should not have to pay for the way in which their income and expenses.
With the collaboration of Olivier Demers for Noovo Info.
