WATCH: Billy Shields reports from the AMT commuter train hearings
POINTE-CLAIRE — Of the six commuter rail lines that operate in the Greater Montreal area, the one with the lowest rate of punctuality is the one that serves the most West Island commuters.
According to the Agence Metropolitaine de Transport, the Vaudreuil-Hudson line had the lowest on-time rate in the entire system last year.
AMT officials said the culprit lies in the agency’s relationship with the Canadian Pacific Railway, which owns the tracks.
“There’s some difficulty with the punctuality of the train — and the responsibility is the CP,” said Nicolas Girard, the agency’s CEO.
“We have to work on that because there were some clients who were not satisfied.”
AMT plans on renegotiating its arrangement with the freight railway in the near future, but for the time being, it’s boxed-in.
It wants to build an additional set of tracks along Vaudreuil-Hudson, but it can’t right now because of construction on the Dorval overpass.
“There are some things that they have to work out at the Dorval Circle at the overpass, so it didn’t sound like there’s anything coming up eminently,” said Beny Masella, the mayor of Montreal West.
He attended a private briefing during the series of six consultations the AMT is holding around Montreal.
Overall, the AMT system has a generally strong punctuality record at 96.6 per cent last year. But the lack of capacity, caused by the AMT’s relationship with CP, is another issue that has officials like Baie-d’Urfe Mayor, Maria Tutino, furious.
“We have citizens in our industrial area that are paying for their own shuttle services to bring their employees in,” she said.
“That’s ridiculous.”
CP caused 111 late Vaudrueil-Hudson trains in 2014, compared to 54 the previous year.
The long-awaited Train de l’Ouest surfaced repeatedly at the consultations, but there were few concrete plans or answers.
AMT said the train’s future will clear up sometime in June, when the National Assembly could vote to approve $5-billion in financing through the Caisse de Depot for a light rail line that would go over the new Champlain Bridge. It could also include another rail line of some kind.
That second line is a topic of much debate, as it could include a rail link from downtown Montreal to Trudeau Airport, or could head westward.
The situation still appears in flux, according to the AMT, who said the much-anticipated project is completely in the hands of the Caisse de Depot.
But that’s not stopping some supporters from being cautiously optimistic.
“It’s our project,” said Clifford Lincoln, who attended the briefing.
“We’re going to make sure the government is accountable for this project.”
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