Recurring REM interruptions: CDPQ Infra apologizes and promises to improve

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec apologized Thursday for repeated service interruptions in recent days at CDPQ Infra’s subsidiary Reso Express Metropolitan (REM) and promised to take steps to improve.

“CDPQ apologizes to customers affected by the infra situation and wishes to reiterate its commitment to provide them with reliable and quality public transport service,” the organization announced in a press release.

Since the start of the week, three major breakdowns have paralyzed REM for hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, in some cases leading to train evacuations. Many users complained that they were left in the dark as to what would happen next.

Promising to improve, the REM manager announced several measures to strengthen incident management by the Consortium of Partners for Metropolitan Mobility (GPMM), made up of Alstom and Atkins Realis (formerly SNC-Lavalin).

Therefore, CDPQ Infra wants to have a plan to “significantly improve incident management”, respect planned evacuation times when a problem occurs and improve its communications with customers.

“CDPQ Infra will carefully monitor the deployment of this plan, which will begin immediately and will continue in the coming weeks to meet the needs of the highest quality consumer service,” the group added.

Although incidents are common in public transport, the organization recognizes that the standards imposed on the management of these incidents should be higher.