A serious breakdown on the Montreal subway’s Orange Line during rush hour sparked fear among many users on Tuesday, who in some cases were forced to walk through the tunnels to be evacuated.
“It doesn’t make you want to go to work in person,” says Montrealer Sophie St-Pierre.
Like thousands of users, his return home was disrupted by a “blackout” that originated from the Montreal subway systems, not Hydro-Québec, and disrupted traffic between Berri-UQAM and Côte stations. -Vertu, said Isabelle A. Tremblay, spokesperson for the Société de transport de Montréal (STM).
The disruption lasted almost two hours, while a phased resumption of operations was announced at 6:10 p.m.
Ms. St-Pierre, who works two days a week in downtown Montreal, claims she has never been as affected by subway breakdowns in 35 years as she is now. “I don’t know what’s going on with the STM,” she laments. I’m even thinking about retiring earlier than planned.”
Tunnel walk
At the time of the breakdown, several passengers became stuck on the trains in the tunnels and had to be evacuated on foot through the tunnels.
This is the case of Myriam Cardinal, who was on board a train that stopped between Vendôme and Place-Saint-Henri stations.
“The subway stopped. The lights went out. “The driver said it was a breakdown and there was no danger because there were people who were starting to get a bit nervous,” she says.
The evacuation of the train that Ms. Cardinal was on while users prepared to descend into the tunnel. PHOTO PROVIDED BY MYRIAM CARDINAL
STM workers then arrived to open two of the train doors and install ladders to carry the dozens of users into the tunnel.
The experience probably impressed more than one, as some pulled out their cell phones to film the subway’s innards, which they can usually see from inside the train.
The tunnel through which Ms. Cardinal went to evacuate the subway. PHOTO PROVIDED BY MYRIAM CARDINAL
“It was special. It was an adventure. I said, ‘Oh wow!’ I’ve never seen that before and it’s fun to see.”
Other users, however, found it less funny, such as Alexander Guglielmelli. He had to wait for the service to resume as he had to travel from Côte-Vertu station to Pie-IX station on the green line.
The bus routes serve this route poorly, he explains. “The Uber ride would have cost me $162,” says the industrial engineering professor, who had to cancel a meeting with one of his students planned for the evening.
“The STM is increasing [périodiquement] its prices, but we don’t see any improvement [quant au service]“, he complains.
Upcoming internal investigation
According to STM’s Isabelle A. Tremblay, the disruption was caused by an “issue” discovered during repowering after the initial outage.
“We currently have no further information about the nature of the breakdown, there will be an internal investigation,” she added.