'The air wasn't there,' says woman trapped in jam-packed REM stalled during Montreal rush hour

Chambly, Que., resident Taissia Philipovich says she was headed home from Montreal Monday when she and her colleague found themselves trapped for an hour in a stalled wagon on the new light-rail train network.

The driverless train was packed to the gills, she said, and there was little information coming from Réseau express métropolitain (REM) authorities.

"We were so many people in the train, with winter jackets. It was stuffy," she said. "The air wasn't there."

Eventually, one woman passed out and another passenger called 911, said Philipovich. 

She was among dozens of REM passengers who say they were stuck on the train after service linking downtown Montreal to Brossard broke down at the height of rush hour Monday. Some say service was stalled for as long as two hours.

The REM announced the shutdown on X, formerly Twitter, around 3:45 p.m. Monday. 

CDPQ Infra, which operates the REM, told La Presse canadienne that technical problems with the computer system were causing problems and errors at the control centre, and a backup plan was initiated at around 5 p.m. 

Service had also been halted earlier in the day for the same problem and corrective measures had not resolved the situation, said Philippe Batani, vice-president of public affairs at CDPQ Infra.

"We're still in a breaking-in period, but this is a problem we encountered for the first time," Batani said, noting there were slowdowns throughout the day.

"At the end of the day, this problem became more significant and forced us to shut down the entire system so that we could take corrective action."

Guilbault says communication needs improvement

Operations gradually resumed around 6:30 p.m., but before that, passengers who disembarked at Gare Centrale in Montreal had no shuttle bus options, according to Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault.

Speaking to reporters in Quebec City on Tuesday, Guilbault said she had a meeting with transit and CDPQ Infra officials to say it is unacceptable to not update passengers faster — especially considering the price the province paid for the light-rail network's construction.

"It's normal that you have to adapt the system and adjust some things," she said. "But what is not normal is that people who are stuck in the REM do not have access to useful information."

Several riders took to social media to deplore the lack of information during the service disruption, saying CDPQ Infra had not published anything on their social networks or on the REM website since the initial announcement. 

One passenger told La Presse Canadienne it took about an hour and 15 minutes to get from Gare Centrale to Île-des-Sœurs station, adding all riders had to go on was a message every few minutes saying that service was stopped for a set period of time due to a technical problem.

Batani said the REM is working to improve communication during service disruptions.

Nightmare commute home 

Philipovich said she and her colleague were waiting to board at Gare Central when they noticed the station was particularly crowded.

She asked a worker for information and was told the service had been re-established after an outage. When the wagons finally started loading, passengers squeezed in like sardines, she said. 

All she could do was hold onto her umbrella for balance.

"Then the doors kept opening and closing. Opening and closing. But we weren't really going anywhere," she said. "Nobody said 'come out, the REM is shutting down,' or anything of that sort."

Once it started moving, it was at a snail's pace until Nun's Island where it stopped just short of the station. Passengers waited five minutes, but weren't told to disembark there. Then it was a slow ride to the South Shore.

Just before the Panama Station, the train stopped again, Philipovich said. That's when a message played, telling riders there was a service outage and shuttles would be provided.

Still, it wasn't until someone called 911 to report the fainted passenger that they were let off. The woman who fainted was loaded onto a stretcher and given immediate medial attention, Philipovich said.

From there, she said it was unclear where they were supposed to go. She said she ran with her colleague to three different spots, trying to find the shuttle to the Brossard station.

All told, it took three hours to get home, she said.

Planned service interruptions have been announced by CDPQ Infra starting Oct. 15 between the Panama and Gare Centrale stations. These interruptions, planned from Sunday to Thursday after 10 p.m., should extend over a period of six weeks.

Another breakdown occurred Friday afternoon, also during rush hour.