Montreal light-rail transit system shuts down on 1st official day of service

Montreal's new light-rail transit system had a bumpy debut on its first full day of operation as a problem with the track forced a shutdown at the height of the morning rush hour. The Reseau express metropolitain, or REM, officially launched Monday for paying passengers after more than 120,000 people tried out the system for free over the weekend.

Montreal's new light-rail transit system had a bumpy debut on its first full day of operation as a problem with the track forced a shutdown at the height of the morning rush hour.

The Reseau express metropolitain, or REM, officially launched Monday for paying passengers after more than 120,000 people tried out the system for free over the weekend.

A spokesperson for the REM said a switch problem on the tracks caused service to shut down at around 8 a.m. before it resumed at around 9:15 a.m.

"There was a technical problem on a switch. It's part of the tracks of the REM, it was a situation that needed a field team to repair it," Jean-Vincent Lacroix said.

He said there was a partial closure of the 16.6-kilometre route starting at 8 a.m., and at 8:30 service was interrupted completely for 45 minutes to allow for repairs.

Lacroix said the first priority was to get passengers already on board to the next station. Authorities then set up a shuttle service using city buses to transport people to downtown Montreal from the South Shore suburbs. But there were hiccups as commuters were left waiting in long lines to take crammed buses across the Champlain Bridge.

"It's not a great first look," said Luc Therrien, a Brossard resident who boarded a bus at the Panama station south of Montreal. He was hopeful the afternoon ride would go more smoothly.