After a 10-hour day, Jessie Walker, 20, was looking forward to going home to get some rest — she did have to be back at school at 7:30 a.m. the next day.
The Vanier College student jumped on the Réseau de transport métropolitain (RTM) 9:21 p.m. Vaudreuil-Hudson train line at Vendôme Metro, but her ride lasted a mere 10 minutes before stopping between Montreal West and Lachine.
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“At 9:30 p.m., they made an announcement. They apologized that they’re having issues and that there would be a delay of 15 minutes,” she told Global News.
“It seems to happen quite a bit that there are delays, so it didn’t seem like a big deal.”
Twenty minutes later, Walker said another announcement was made to confirm a maintenance team had been called — but it would take them another 20 minutes to arrive.
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“At this point, we had already been waiting for an hour and everyone was wondering what was going on,” she said, adding that there was no more communication from RTM officials.
Then, they decided to evacuate.
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“I was confused because it’s going to take so much longer for me to get home. Those people stood up, and everyone was just waiting around so they just sat down again. It was really confusing.”
Elaine Arsenault, a spokesperson with the RTM, explained the stall was due to a mechanical problem.
“Our teams made sure to create a safe way to get people out of the train and bring them safely to the crossroad where buses were waiting for them,” she said in an e-mail statement.
Walker said she finally got off the stalled train around midnight — about two-and-a-half hours after it originally departed from Vendôme Metro.
“You had to jump [off the train] and the security workers would catch you,” she said.
“We had to walk down across the tracks, there are hills and branches everywhere, and of course, with the weather we’ve been having, it was really slippery.”
Walker got home at 1:20 a.m.; it would have normally been an hour train ride.
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“I was really disappointed about it because I’m a student and I pay $116 a month for this Opus card,” she said.
“I understand these things happen, you can’t be mad at that, but it was disappointing that things weren’t communicated clearly and I think they should have acted a little faster with the buses.”
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After the grueling experience, Walker said the last thing she wanted to do was get back on the train — but she did, at 5:52 a.m. to finalize a group project.
“I started taking the train because I thought it would be more reliable than the buses, but I guess not,” she said, adding she wished she lived downtown.
“It was really stressful.”
The RTM admits it would have liked its response time to be faster.
“An improved plan and corrective measures have been put in place if a similar situation had to happen again,” Arsenault said.
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