The Orange line of Montreal's metro system is up and running after a problem with a new AZUR metro train damaged track equipment and forced a shutdown of the entire Orange line for part of Saturday.
"The incident began at 2:50 p.m. at Du College station," Société de transport de Montréal spokeswoman Amelie Régis told CJAD 800 News. Régis also confirmed the train that broke down was one of the new AZUR models, currently being rolled out gradually on the Orange line.
While service was gradually restored to most of the line, the western tip remained closed Saturday night, and service from Plamondon station to the end of the line at Cote-Vertu station was shut down until early Sunday.
The metro shutdown comes mere days after STM chair Philippe Schnobb pledged to improve service this year, after a swath of service interruptions led to some bad press in late 2016, and to look at better ways of communicating shut downs and their extent to riders.
The number of metro shutdowns led the official opposition at city hall to motion at the last council meeting for the STM to outline to councillors its response plans when responding to a metro breakdown, and for a report of all the recent interruptions.
"Unfortunately the mayor and his party voted it down, which I think wasnt too much to ask from our point of view," Projet Montreal councillor and party transportation critic Craig Sauvé told CJAD 800 News. "I wasn't asking for a huge budget, I was asking for a plan."
Sauvé was among those that got stuck on the metro after service went down.
"For me it's not the end of the world, because I can walk 20 minutes, but not everyone is in as good health as I am," he said.
It still wasn't the smoothest experience for him.
"The line-up [for replacement shuttle buses from Lionel-Groulx station] was around the corner, all the way down Atwater St. and around St-Jacques St."