Montreal City Weblog

Kate 08:54 on 2023-08-01 Permalink Reply  

• Anton 10:42 on 2023-08-01 Permalink

  I thought they ran tests for years.

• Kate 10:47 on 2023-08-01 Permalink

  They did. But we never had any reports about how many glitches the test runs encountered.

• Blork 11:12 on 2023-08-01 Permalink

  Tests based on simulations are very different from real-world tests. The trains in the previous tests were always running empty. Now they’re running full of people. That shouldn’t make any difference, but “should” and “does” are not as distant as we’d like to think. Does the added weight of all those passengers make a difference? Maybe there’s some kind of radio interference from there suddenly being dozens of active mobile phones on the train? Maybe some idiots are pushing the emergency buttons or doing some other dumb shit that wasn’t anticipated?

  I have the greatest respect for people who test systems, but good testers know that testing isn’t completed until real-world usage has been tested.

• Tim F 11:47 on 2023-08-01 Permalink

  I have a hard time understanding why they didn’t keep the bus service running in parallel while they finished their “rodage”. Exclusivity contract aside, it’s in CDPQ’s best interest to make the launch as smooth as possible.

  On another note, I posted on Reddit what happened we cancelled electric commuter service to the south shore in 1956. People didn’t adopt the new bus service and congested the limited diesel train service from St. Lambert instead!

• Kate 13:18 on 2023-08-01 Permalink

  Blork, when they ran the Azur trains in the metro for awhile before putting them into service, they had sandbags aboard to simulate passenger weight. Surely something like this must have been done with the REM?

• Spi 14:22 on 2023-08-01 Permalink

  They did do sandbag testing and all the other test you’d expect, but there’s a limit to how much you can replicate real world usage without actually operating in real conditions. Sandbags don’t move around while in motion and then crowd around on certain sides.

  Some hiccups were to be expected but 1:30 on the very first day is pretty serious. I’m not quite satisfied with their contingency planning, I’d have expected a better bus shuttle system ready to go for this kind of situation at least for the first couple of months.

• Anton 16:59 on 2023-08-01 Permalink

  Overlapping service on the 45 and 90 for two weeks or so is really not too much to ask? Call it a beta run…. I guess that would be pretty expensive.

• qatzelok 17:15 on 2023-08-01 Permalink

  I took my first ride from Panama to Gare Centrale today. I was the only passenger with a bike, and the only one wearing a life jacket in case the whole thing crumbled into the river.

  *not the second part*

• Daniel 10:25 on 2023-08-02 Permalink

  Oh Spi, are you not quite satisfied with the contingency planning? Are you sure we aren’t still being “overdramatic” as you repeatedly accused commuters just the other day? You were singing the praises of the “incredible amount of freedom and flexibility” we’d all have! I guess all the “disinformation and uninformed opinions/complaints” maybe had a little validity to them after all? Who could have possibly seen this coming?!

• Spi 18:00 on 2023-08-02 Permalink

  Daniel, one doesn’t contradict the other. You can have contingency plans in place that are satisfactory without having to run a completely ghost doubling of service. But hey if you can’t see the nuance between the two that’s fine.