If you're expecting the people who run Montreal's commuter trains to compensate you for all those those times you've had to stand out in the bitter cold waiting for a train that never came — forget about it.
The RTM says it won't be giving out compensation, but it is working on an action plan to make sure there aren't nearly as many delays.
The RTM admits there have been far more delays than usual lately, particularly on the Deux-Montagnes line, which runs from Central Station through Town of Mount Royal, St. Laurent and the West Island. Spokesperson Héléne Arsenault says the punctuality rate now sits at 80 per cent — in other words, one out of five trains is late.
But Arsenault says the RTM will get it fixed.
"Since the past five days, our teams are working on a detailed action plan which will improve the reliability of our lines," Arsenault told CJAD 800's Andrew Carter. "This plan will be communicated within the next weeks in order to present the concrete measures and the investment that is necessary."
Meanwhile, the RTM's director-general Raymond Bachant apologized for the delays in a statement, and promised to sort out the problems on the Deux-Montagnes line. He says his teams have largely solved the problems on the five other lines.
Bachant suggested many of the problems this winter stemmed from a decision made by the RTM's forerunner agency, the AMT, which decided to cancel a maintenance program on train cars for the Deux-Montagnes line in 2016. The decision, he says, was apparently made in anticipation of the brand new REM light-rail network, whose sleeker new train cars will begin running along the Deux-Montagnes line's tracks in a few years.
Transport minister André Fortin says he wants that action plan by the RTM on his desk within the next two weeks, and the public transit lobby group Trajectoire Montréal — formerly Transport 2000 — has launched an online petition demanding the RTM fix the delays, and compensate users for their troubles.