MONTREAL — The last two remaining Bombardier MR-90 commuter railcars have been delivered to Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec, on Saturday, Oct. 28, following donation by commuter railroad Exo. They are shown heading south on the CPKC Adirondack Subdivision in LaSalle, Que. These MU cars served on the Deux-Montagnes line from 1995 to 2020. They will join a gallery coach donated by Exo in 2021 in the museum’s extensive collection [see “News photo: Exo donates gallery coach …,” Trains News Wire, April 26, 2021].
What a sad sight to see modern cars going to a museum.
Was there now way to use them anywhere else in North America?
Exo tried but failed to find a buyer for these.
They were pretty-much custom-built for the Deux-Montagnes commuter line in 1993-1995, with both low and high-level platforms, 25KV AC 60Hz electrical equipment and low ceilings to meet the tight clearances of the Mount Royal tunnel.
It’s the last chapter in this superb waste of taxpayers money known as the Réseau Express Métropolitain (REM): the retirement and scrapping of modern high-capacity electric rolling stock that easily had 10-15 years left in them.
Mr. Sprenger, my thoughts exactly.
Let’s remember that Exporail is established in 1961 by its owner and operator, the Canadian Railroad Historical Association, it maintains the largest collection of railway equipment in Canada with over 140 pieces of rolling stock. There are also over 250,000 objects and documents from Canada’s railway history in the collection which is maintained in the archives on the property.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Exporail’s magnificent collection is now even richer.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün