‘The train is doing whatever it wants’: REM strands passengers in garage

It’s been a rocky inauguration for Montreal’s new light-rail train line – with disruptions, capacity limits and noise complaints across the first few days.

That didn’t stop Michel-André Grégoire and his wife from taking the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) home after a movie night in Brossard Monday.

But the couple didn’t make it home right away – because the train they were on went the wrong way, and they ended up in the REM’s garage.

“Basically, the first gentleman said, ‘listen, we don’t know what’s going on since about an hour. The train is doing whatever it wants on its own, like if there was no control,’” Grégoire told CityNews.

“And then the inspector came in and they said, ‘you know, it’s quite new. There’s still tests that we’re doing. It’s the first time that we do have people on board.’”

It all started when Grégoire and his wife got on the train at the Du Quartier station around midnight. They estimated they waited there 45 minutes before an announcement came on, telling them the next station was the “Panama” station.

“So we said, ‘OK, we’re on the good side,’” recounted Grégoire. “So the door shuts and instead of going forward, we went backward and we ended up in the garage.”

View from inside the REM garage. (Submitted by: Michel-André Grégoire)

Once in the garage, Grégoire was not overly bothered.

“So I said, ‘look at the worst scenario, we’ll sleep in the train. And next morning around 5:20 a.m., when the first one goes out, we’ll get back,’” he told CityNews. “The tourist that was with us, he was kind of freaking out because he didn’t understand what was going on and he only speaks Spanish.”

Grégoire’s wife pressed an intercom button and communicated with security personnel, who had no idea anyone was on the train. Security arrived and apologized to them, and eventually took them back to the Du Quartier station.

FIRST WEEK OF THE REM:

• ‘Game-changer’: Montrealers share excitement after riding REM for 1st time
• Montrealers complaining about noise from new light-rail train network
• REM shuts down for a third time on Wednesday morning
• Some Montrealers turned away as REM reaches capacity limit during opening weekend

A REM spokesperson tells CityNews the situation was “exceptional and will not happen again.”

“Around midnight on August 1, a train was mistakenly directed into the garage at Station Du Quartier,” they said in an emailed statement. “As soon as our operators spotted the passengers, they were immediately taken care of and returned to their destination.

“Passengers were always safe inside the train.”

A professor at Montreal’s Polytechnique believes this is simply growing pains that come with a new system.

“I guess it’s managing expectations,” said Owen Waygood, from the Poly’s department of civil, geological and mining engineering. “So it is to some extent saying, OK, we have the opening, they’ve done the trial runs, but without having so many passengers on it. And when you’re running at full capacity, they’re going to then start discovering those small problems.

“We have to see over the next two weeks whether these problems are a reoccurrence or if it is just this first week.”

‘No harm done’

It took the couple two hours to get home instead of 10 minutes.

“It was the first day, we understand,” said Grégoire. “But on my part, it’s faster to take my car from here to there this time than to train.

“So for now, I’ll let it go and we’ll see. Maybe another time I’ll do it. But at this time, you know, I prefer to take my car.”

Overall Grégoire and his wife were not upset, and said they had a good laugh about the entire situation – calling it a “nice experience.”

“I’m not blaming anyone. It was just weird,” he said.

“No harm done.”