exo / Réseau de transport métropolitain (formerly AMT)

[Chris_the_traveller]

I rode the Mascouche train a few days ago leaving Central station. It's incredible how much time it takes just to get from the platforms to the Peel Basin. It took us about 15 minutes. We stopped at the first switch right at the entrance above St-Antoine. We stopped again on the viaduct to let a VIA train past. And we stopped again at the curve near New City Gas to let a deadheading St-Hilaire train pull into Central Station.

I couldn't see any MR-90s left in the Pointe-St-Charles yard.

I didn't see any CRRC bilevels from my point of view onboard the train. I've only seen two thus far in the yard. Is the delivery still going according to schedule? These cars are supposed to enter service in the Spring.

[webfil]

20 hours ago, Chris_the_traveller said:

I couldn't see any MR-90s left in the Pointe-St-Charles yard.

I've seen many, no later than two weeks ago. Could they have been moved elsewhere?

[Frozen Yogurt]

There was a picture on the web, a few weeks ago, of several MR90s at AIM in Montréal-Est, in front of the shredder. I presume they have been all shredded by now.

What an incredibly sad ending for these. I'll miss the Deux-Montagnes line forever.

On 12/18/2022 at 6:41 PM, Chris_the_traveller said:

I rode the Mascouche train a few days ago leaving Central station. It's incredible how much time it takes just to get from the platforms to the Peel Basin. It took us about 15 minutes. We stopped at the first switch right at the entrance above St-Antoine. We stopped again on the viaduct to let a VIA train past. And we stopped again at the curve near New City Gas to let a deadheading St-Hilaire train pull into Central Station.

It's painfully slow going through the entire classification yard as well. I tried it once in summer and it was long ride, but the train was practically empty.

As an aside, Ahuntsic station is pretty much dead. The card readers didn't even want to accept my ticket (zone A basically).

[Mark Walton]

21 hours ago, Frozen Yogurt said:

There was a picture on the web, a few weeks ago, of several MR90s at AIM in Montréal-Est, in front of the shredder. I presume they have been all shredded by now.

What an incredibly sad ending for these. I'll miss the Deux-Montagnes line forever.

One MR-90 pair, I don't know which pair, is earmarked for Exporail.

[Chris_the_traveller]

Here are some old AMT paper handouts from my archives.

[rgilmtl]

What was a 5000 series car? There's nothing on the wiki or in any other obvious place?

[webfil]

They were Comet Ib cars on lease from NJ Transit substituting for the ever late Bombardier bilevels.

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/451512/

[rgilmtl]

I figured it'd be NJT. I looked up their fleet number and it matched, but I assumed all their equipment could handle low platforms.

With trains in mind, I have noticed that they are now using EXO as their reporting mark. I was listening on my scanner and one even had to correct the RTC who had called out AMT.

Some of the Allo exo stickers have had the Allo painted over.

[D. Ban.]

 

On 12/20/2022 at 6:12 PM, Mark Walton said:

One MR-90 pair, I don't know which pair, is earmarked for Exporail.

The pair destined for Exporail is 400-485

 

My friend went to the scrapyard the other day. This is what he saw 

[2044]

I think it’s been about a year since the first CRRC bilevels were delivered. I can’t find any new information about the cars. Have they even started testing them on the tracks? Have more been delivered?

[Chris_the_traveller]

3 hours ago, 2044 said:

I think it’s been about a year since the first CRRC bilevels were delivered. I can’t find any new information about the cars. Have they even started testing them on the tracks? Have more been delivered?

I counted 4 of them at Pointe St Charles last week from aboard a westbound VIA train leaving Central station. There could have been more, hidden.

There are also a ton of 700s at Pointe St Charles, not sure if it is the entire fleet but it could have been.

[D. Ban.]

Exo currently has 4 CRRC cars, with 8 more on the way and an expected arrival of spring 2023 according to them. 
 

A conductor told me that they started testing them, but they found a bunch of problems, he didn’t specify though. 

[2044]

In hindsight, they really should have just gotten CEM Bilevels from Bombardier. I get they liked the lower cost and the promised faster delivery time, but it’s obvious that advantage in delivery time has completely disappeared.

[Articulated]

3 hours ago, 2044 said:

In hindsight, they really should have just gotten CEM Bilevels from Bombardier. I get they liked the lower cost and the promised faster delivery time, but it’s obvious that advantage in delivery time has completely disappeared.

I certainly agree - it seemed like a highly unusual decision to go with relatively-unproven CRRC cars rather than the well-established BiLevel cars that were already in the fleet. Exo certainly gambled on these cars; they already lost in terms of on-time delivery, and it sounds like they will lose on reliability as well if the early reports are any indication.

That being said, you do need to keep the bidders honest. There's no reason to have a competitive bidding process if you've decided who to award it to in advance; likewise, if Bombardier expects to win, there's no incentive for them to bid a cheaper/competitive price, and it sounds like that's what happened with this contract.

[FelixINX]

Let's also keep in mind that in Quebec, public organization have no choice than to take the lowest compliant bidder. Did CRRC really respect the requirements of the call for tenders? Probably not, but at the time of the choice, no one could know it. This is a problem for many organizations, and several entities are asking for a change to go with other criteria (like quality and experience).

Going forward, they should (at least try to) ban CRRC from future bidding. It's not an easy process, I worked for the City of Montreal and one of the exclusive suppliers had problems across all the boroughs. Despite that, it's still not on the blacklist...

 

[rgilmtl]

The CRRC cars are now at exo's Lachine yard. Visible from the VH train.

If it's not clear in the pictures, the consist is EXO 1349-2100-2101-2050.

[MTL66]

On 4/10/2023 at 6:45 PM, rgilmtl said:

The CRRC cars are now at exo's Lachine yard. Visible from the VH train.

If it's not clear in the pictures, the consist is EXO 1349-2100-2101-2050.

The consist has been testing on the VH line for the past 2 weeks, we have been fueling it in both Vaudreuil and Lachine recently.

[webfil]

"Dynamic testing" (whatever that means) has begun for the CRRC cars. It will be "months" before they are put in service.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/reseaudetransportmetropolitain_alloexo-activity-7069125326156492800-Hfxe?

[D. Ban.]

 Here’s an update from Point-St-Charles today from my friend:

so as usual there’s the last two MR-90s and the comets, but also today locomotive 1345 was on its own. Also exo has gotten some more CRRC cars, but these ones are coloured BLUE!

 

correction: I saw them while on a ride to Mont-St-Hilaire and they’re actually teal

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by D. Ban.

[Scrabbleship]

I'll be up in Montreal for the first time since the mid-2000s the first week in October and I'm wondering which exo lines run the bilevels and which lines run the multilevels. I'd think that the bilevels would be restricted to anything out of Gare Windsor Lucien L'Allier given how Gare Centrale has high level platforms but is there any rhyme or reason of when or where the bilevels run? I'd like to get a ride on each while I'm out that way.

[Gerbil]

45 minutes ago, Scrabbleship said:

I'll be up in Montreal for the first time since the mid-2000s the first week in October and I'm wondering which exo lines run the bilevels and which lines run the multilevels. I'd think that the bilevels would be restricted to anything out of Gare Windsor Lucien L'Allier given how Gare Centrale has high level platforms but is there any rhyme or reason of when or where the bilevels run? I'd like to get a ride on each while I'm out that way.

The Bilevels are on the St. Jérôme line, and only a few specific departures. I am unsure for the morning ones, but for the afternoon they are the following from Lucien L'allier (occasionally there are changes though) :

16:35, 17:10, 21:10

All the other lines and the other St. Jérôme line trains are multilevel.

[D. Ban.]

On 8/1/2023 at 10:45 PM, Gerbil said:

The Bilevels are on the St. Jérôme line, and only a few specific departures. I am unsure for the morning ones, but for the afternoon they are the following from Lucien L'allier (occasionally there are changes though) :

16:35, 17:10, 21:10

All the other lines and the other St. Jérôme line trains are multilevel.

I don’t know for all morning trains but I know that usually Bilevels are on Trains 172 (6:10) and 174 (6:35)

[Chris_the_traveller]

Looking at the Canadian Rail Atlas, there is no track displayed west of Hudson on the M&O Subdivision. Has the section from Hudson to Rigaud officially been decommissioned? I know the track has been in terrible shape since the AMT abandoned service to Rigaud, but it would be a shame if the right-of-way is not kept so that we have the option to restore service in the future. https://www.railcan.ca/rac-initiatives/canadian-rail-atlas/

[D. Ban.]

On 12/22/2023 at 7:24 PM, Chris_the_traveller said:

Has the section from Hudson to Rigaud officially been decommissioned? 

Indeed it has

[Articulated]

Lucien L'Allier Station will be closing on April 1 for 6-12 months in order to do a full reconstruction of the train platforms. The three exo lines that serve it will terminate at the closest Métro stations to downtown: lines 11 (Vaudreuil/Hudson) and 14 (Candiac) will terminate at Vendôme, while line 12 (St-Jérôme) will terminate at Parc.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/lucien-lallier-closing-repairs-1.7135647