Despite continued pleas from coroners, STM not proceeding with platform screen doors on the metro any time soon

Montreal's transit authority said it has no immediate plans to implement platform screen doors on the metro despite repeated pleas from Quebec coroners who say the safety barriers can prevent suicides and assurances from the province that the costs to install them would be covered.

Warning: This story contains details about suicide.

Montreal's transit authority said it has no immediate plans to implement platform screen doors on the metro despite repeated pleas from Quebec coroners who say the safety barriers can prevent suicides and assurances from the province that the costs to install them would be covered.

The city's new light rail line, the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), opened to the public in July 2023 and was the first public transit system of its size in North America to install the safety barriers at all of its stations. The automated barriers span the length of the platform and only slide open when the train has arrived and is stopped at the station, preventing people or objects from entering the tracks.

But none of the stations in the city's much larger metro network have such structures. As recently as last year, a coroner urged the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) to install them after a passenger entered the Berri-UQAM station one day in January 2023 during the morning rush hour and died by suicide.

She was 12 years old.

"[The girl's] death caused by the collision with the metro train could have been avoided if platform doors had been in place," wrote Coroner Karine Spénard in her investigation report obtained by CTV News.