MONTREAL — There are Montreal commuter rail lines threatened with closure. A report by Autorité Régionale de Transport Métropolitain suggests that closing three commuter rail lines could save up to C$21 million annually, CBC News reports. Commuters would be served by bus connection to adjacent rail lines instead.
They are the three least-traveled EXO commuter rail lines, serving Candiac in the south, Mascouche in the north, and Mont-Saint-Hilaire in the east. The report is dated Aug. 29.
“There are very few cities in the world that are closing train lines. On the contrary, they’re trying to multiply them,” says Mont-Saint-Hilaire Mayor Marc-André Guertin. “Right now, there aren’t reserved lanes everywhere so more buses in traffic is nonsense.”
The Candiac line runs adjacent to the Expo Rail museum.
ARTM attributes the cuts to reduced post-pandemic ridership and financial constraints stemming from the conversion of the Deux-Montagnes line to the Réseau Express Métropolitain light rail line.
Candiac and Mascouche are on Canadian Pacific routes and Mont-Saint-Hilaire is on a Canadian National route.
“Commuters would be served by bus connection to adjacent rail lines instead.” Sure. Great. Offer riders a two-seat ride and worries about making connections and that will keep them (and hopefully grow ridership). ARTM who do you think you are fooling?
“ARTM attributes the cuts to…financial constraints stemming from the conversion of the Deux-Montagnes Line to the Reseau Express Metropolitain light rail line”. But didn’t ARTM willingly do that and didn’t they say they would save lots of $$$ by abolishing the jobs of all those train crews and employees? And now they are pleading “financial constraints as the reason for more service cuts and line abandonments!?!? Oh yeah, and now NYStateDOT and Uncle Stevie and the Boyzz will have the perfect reason to yank the pathetic, once-a-day, what, 5-car train?, something they are clearly itching to do anyway.
So, Montreal acquires the former CN electrified line under Mount Royal and upgrades/extends it with AC traction and new equipment. Then comes the new service to Mascouche using dual-mode locomotives to access the Mount Royal tunnel. Then they scrap the upgrades to turn the original electrified line into some new thing exclusive of existing rolling stock leaving those dual-mode locomotives without half of their reason to exist. Montreal commuter railroading has been “désordre chaud” for decades.
Thanks for the clarification Carl, as I recall there was consideration, if CNR and Amtrak could not come to terms on elimination of Adirondack route slow orders (and resultant train cancellations during summer), of possibly switching the train to the CP route, as the routes intersect, if I recall correctly, at a junction just north of Rouses Point/La Colle Quebec. Loss of commuter service would likely downgrade the CP Line to freight only and ultimately not a viable Adirondack alternative!!
The Candiac route comes from what was the CPR Montreal commuter network It follows what was the CPR line to New Brunswick from the former Windsor Station.
The ADIRONDACK runs into Canada on the CN Rouses Point Subdivision, joining the CN Maritimes mainline near St. Hyacinthe. It does share the last few mainline miles into Central Station with the threatened Mont Ste. Hilaire service, but it does not run on any current or former CPKC route after crossing into Canada at Rouses Point, NY. However from Schectady to Rouses Point in New York state it uses CPKC (D&H) tracks.