Two more train cars for Deux-Montagnes line

After a tumultuous launch date for its new train departures schedule that left many users -- particularly those who hop on a train from the Deux-Montagnes line in the West Island—rather unsatisfied last week, the AMT announced it would be taking steps to rectify some of the problems. "Two new train cars have been added as of this morning," said AMT spokesperson Martine Rouette Monday. "We have also been in contact with a group of Roxboro-Pierrefonds train users who started a petition," she added.

The two train cars to be added to Deux-Montagnes are among a total of 14 additional train cars that will be distributed on different lines operated by the AMT, said Rouette. "That will be done over the next days and months," she said.

On Jan. 12, the AMT started a new schedule for train departures. The Deux-Montagnes and Dorion-Rigaud lines, each of which have stops in the West Island on the way to downtown Montreal and vice-versa, received five more departures in total between the two of them.

Problems arose on the Deux-Montagnes line for those used to hopping on a freshly departing train at 8:03 a.m. from Roxboro-Pierrefonds., as that train was pushed back further west on the line, beginning at Deux-Montagnes instead. "People were very unhappy, and I don't blame them," said Pierrefonds/Roxboro borough mayor Monique Worth, whose office was flooded with e-mails and telephone calls from irate residents about the new train schedule.

The borough sent out a press release asking the AMT to reinstate the 8:03 departure at the stop in her borough last Thursday.

On Friday afternoon, she told The Chronicle she was able to reach AMT president Joël Gauthier. "He had the same kind of letters, same kind of e-mails," she said.

According to Worth, solutions discussed during the meeting included both reinstating the 8:03 a.m. departure as well as adding new train cars to the Deux-Montagnes line in order to create more seating and standing space for passengers. "I can't really tell you whether we'll be able to restart a train at 8 a.m.," Rouette said, although she said the AMT would be meeting with authors of the petition, as well as elected officials and other train users.

Rouette said the two additional train cars at Roxboro/Pierrefonds have already made a difference. "This morning things were already better," she said on Monday.

Passengers waiting for a train downtown a little after rush hour had a mixed reaction to the train problems in the last few days. "This past week has been crazy," said UQAM journalism student Benoît Philie, who commutes to Montreal from the West Island about three times a week for his classes. "(The trains) have been off by 10 minutes," he said, waiting inside one of the booths by the dock in order to avoid the cold. "That's really annoying," said his friend Ilan Dahan, an accounting student at the same university.

However, Andrew Smith, a Pierrefonds resident who commutes downtown for work, said he had not been affected by the new schedules or inconveniences last week. "I take the train pretty much everyday," he said, although he admit the change to the 8:03 train did not have an effect on him as he does not need to take that one.

Worth said the AMT told her radical changes could not be implemented to the Deux-Montagnes line without consulting Canadian National, which owns the rail line in question. "It's pretty hard for them to change anything without consulting (CN)," she said.

Canadian National did not return phone calls for comment as of press time yesterday.