Final Azur train is delivered
The final Azur train from the batch ordered by the STM in 2018 has been put into service. There are 71 Azurs in the system now, and this item says the STM still has 423 MR73 trains too, which sounds like a lot.
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Kate
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James 11:00 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
I’m very proud to say that I worked on that project from 2010 to 2014. We delivered a high quality train to the STM.
Kate 11:24 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
Bravo, James.
Spi 11:37 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
423 surely refers to the individual cars, each MR-73 metro set consisting of 9? cars. Now that the azur is one single long train 1 azur replaced 9 older metro cars.
That’s the only logical explanation
Kate 11:39 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
What I was thinking as well, Spi.
carswell 11:45 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
Seconding that bravo, James. I still get a thrill when boarding the Azur trains and the quality of the onboard experience is a quantum leap better than the MR-73s deliver.
Max 12:17 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
I spotted this unusual door track a couple of years ago. Presumably has something to do with calibrating the automatic braking system. It was on the very first door of the lead car. Something to look for if you’re bored and riding in the first (or last) car.
James 12:22 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
The MR73 are composed into 3-car units. So 413 cars makes 141 3-car sets that are then coupled together into a 9-car train. So they can make 47 trains.
The Azur trains are: 52 (base order in 2010) + 2 (penalty for late delivery in lieu of money) + 17 (follow-on order in 2018).
The Azur gains a lot of interior space by deleting the 4 unnecessary operator cabs in the middle and adding the inter-car gangways.
Kate 12:27 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
Is the MR73 only used on the blue line now? Or is it also running on the yellow line?
Max 12:31 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
I don’t know about the blue and yellow, but you see them on the green line sometimes. It’s kind of a disappointment now whenever one shows up.
James 12:33 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
According to the STM’s own press release: https://www.stm.info/fr/presse/nouvelles/2021/la-stm-met-en-service-son-dernier-train-azur there are only 360 MR73 cars in operation now (40 trains instead of 47). Even Wikipedia is confused as it says 216 cars.
carswell 12:49 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
@Kate Have never seen the Azurs on the Yellow Line. In October, the last time I rode it, all the trains were MR73s.
mare 17:39 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
I think the Azur trains are pretty good, especially compared to our old rolling stock. Compared to many European train designs they’re just adequate.
Two of the few things that are bad in the Azur have to do with metro stops. The next station announcements above the ‘corridor’ show 50% of the time the totally useless indication “Prochain station” instead of the actual name of the next stop. And the alternating is very slow so there’s a very high chance that a quick glance is not enough, but you have to keep looking for a few seconds. “Prochain station” should be omitted or printed above the sign, and the name of the station should be displayed at all times, maybe with a very short blank to draw attention.
The other one is that the screens with the track line and the current and next station are the same on both sides of the train. So on one side the train appears to go backwards. Maybe a minor detail, but it annoys me every time I see it.
ant6n 20:08 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
Also lack of handles. And given that they went from 4 to 3 doors per side of car, they could’ve made the doors even wider.
James 20:10 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
Mare: I was actually the person that programmed the automatic announcement database when it was delivered to the STM. The STM can freely change the types of messages as they have full control over the system. However, the current messages are what I delivered in 2014.
There are three messages: “Prochaine station XX” when the train departs a station, “Station XX” as the train enters a station, and just “XX” when the train is stoppped in the station. The last message is fixed for the duration the train is in the station.
These three visual announcements are syncronized with the audio annoucements. The scrolling speed and upwards direction was decided by the STM for accessiblity and ease of comphrehension reasons.
The “Prochaine station” words are necessary – imagine if the train stops in the tunnel.
There is a benefit of having the “thermometer” always display in the same format – people get used to it and know where to look each time. Also there is only a single video stream sent to the displays.
CE 20:24 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
Weird, I looked at that screen this morning and thought the same thing. As we were rolling into Jean-Talon, I thought, why are there a few seconds when the screen just says the word “station”? Why not just say the name of the station?
Max 22:31 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
The LED displays on the exo trains suffer from the same single-line inadequacies, but worse. Some of the abbreviations they use to cram the station names into the 15 available characters are just laughable, never mind their typographically obnoxious inability to display lowercase descenders. And when you board the train at Lucien L’Allier they just say “exo”, as if showing a countdown to departure or the train’s ultimate destination were some sort of technological impossiblility. Gah!
At least the STM went with two-line displays for their buses.