Commuter trains to the rescue for Châteauguay residents

MONTREAL РAs of Monday, Ch̢teauguay buses can finally bring downtown Montreal-bound passengers to a South Shore commuter-train station, instead of being forced to cross the traffic-clogged Mercier Bridge to the Angrignon m̩tro station in Montreal.

Authorities also appear close to opening a new commuter-train station in Kahnawake to shuttle people from the Mohawk community and other Mercier-trapped areas to and from Montreal.

But many barriers remain to a long-term public-transit solution for the region southwest of the half-closed Mercier – a region that’s home to more than 110,000 people.

It does not look like a long-discussed commuter-train service between downtown Montreal and Beauharnois will be restored soon.

And the Châteauguay bus shuttles to the train are a temporary measure while two of Mercier’s four lanes are closed; once they reopen, the shuttles may disappear.

Here’s what is and isn’t being done for cities southwest of Montreal Island:

Six rush-hour buses daily – three morning, three afternoon – run between Châteauguay’s bus terminal and the Ste. Catherine train station. From there, commuters can ride the Agence métropolitaine de transport’s Candiac line to Montreal. The shuttle is free; the train is not.

Until now, buses would take passengers only to the Angrignon métro, across the Mercier. That’s because if Châteauguay buses served AMT stations, the city of Châteauguay would have to pay a portion of the Candiac line’s operating costs, something the city is trying to avoid.

Under AMT rules, if a city’s residents make up more than seven per cent of a line’s ridership, that city must pay a share of its operating costs. The AMT, a provincial agency, pays 60 per cent of the train’s operating costs. The remaining 40 per cent comes from municipalities served.

For example, if half a line’s population comes from one city, that city must pay half of the 40 per cent that comes from municipalities.

During the Mercier emergency, Châteauguay will not pay those operating costs, said AMT president Joël Gauthier. But “if after the Mercier reopens they want to keep the shuttle to the train station, we’ll apply the rules we apply to everyone else.”

But Châteauguay can’t afford to spend any more on transit, said Mayor Nathalie Simon. The city now contributes almost $3 million to the Conseil intermunicipal de transport Sud-Ouest (CITSO), a regional transit agency, to maintain bus service.

“The amount of money that we need to resolve the transportation crisis is so big that we won’t be able to meet it without cutting services to the population, which is not an option either,” she said.

But something must be done.

“Even without the Mercier Bridge closed, it’s a nightmare,” Simon said of the traffic that makes commuting difficult at the best of times.

“Even if they solve the Mercier problem, they’re going to still have Turcot and Champlain and whatever else in Montreal so we have to improve public transit and we have to find better ways to finance it and to share it.”

She wants regional transit – now operated by several CITs, each with its own priorities – to be better co-ordinated.

“It’s nonsensical: In Châteauguay, we have a hospital that serves people from St. Constant and Ste. Catherine but we don’t have public transit between the communities.”

In addition, “right now, we’re only thinking about bringing people to Montreal but there’s also the east-west corridor on the South Shore, which we also have to improve.”

She hopes the Mercier crisis compels authorities to work together to fix transit.

Kahnawake station: “It’s in the works,” Kahnawake Grand Chief Michael Delisle said of a new AMT station at the foot of the Mercier Bridge.

A final decision has not been made but the spot has been chosen: the site of a former station known as Adirondack Junction.

It would take a matter of weeks to set up platforms and parking, Gauthier said. After the 2006 de la Concorde overpass collapse, the AMT set up a station in Laval within two weeks to relieve traffic, he said. The station is still open.

Restoring commuter trains between Beauharnois and Montreal is among the ideas being pushed by Beauharnois Mayor Claude Haineault.

There is a railway right of way that neatly links hypothetical stations in Kahnawake, Châteauguay, Léry and Beauharnois with downtown Montreal’s Lucien L’Allier station, via the Canadian Pacific train bridge next to the Mercier.

The line was used for commuter service until the late 1950s.

In the late 1980s, the Quebec government announced it had set aside $35 million to re-establish the train but never followed up.

Though the line is one of several possible new lines being studied by the AMT, it faces several challenges.

Several kilometres of railroad tracks through Kahnawake were pulled up years ago and the right of way is now used as a road by some residents.

Tracks between Châteauguay and Beauharnois need work and a train bridge over the Châteauguay River may have to be raised.

What are the chances of a new Montreal-Beauharnois train? “I would say about the same as a snowball in a hot place,” Delisle said.

Until 1999, CSX Corp., the railway that owns the line, considered opening a yard in Kahnawake, Delisle said. When that idea fell through, Kahnawake filed a still-unsettled claim on the land.

The AMT is still studying the idea of a Beauharnois train but no timetable is in place, Gauthier said.

Avrom Shtern of the Green Coalition environmental group said reviving the train should be a priority.

“We seem to have a defeatist attitude where saying no to long-term solutions is the prevailing answer even in an emergency situation,” Shtern said.

“The innate superiority of rail in terms of quality of ride, smaller ecological footprint, less energy usage and emissions should be the reasons why this rail line requires reactivation.”