The BEST Metro Train EVER? - Montreal REM First Ride & Review! 

Buses are running to the REM ....from all the south shore cities to Brossard station and Panama ... Nobody needs a car to the REM , parkings spaces are for people from outside Montreal or from USA .... there are hotels next to the Du Quartier ststions for tourists .

We don't have massive parking at every rail station like Toronto or Calgary. People who will park at Brossard are not coming from Brossard, they're coming from Drummondville, Magog or cities outside greater Montreal. We don't want people from regions to go to hockey games or festivals with their cars so they have to park somewhere. Same will happen at 2 Montagnes with Laurentians and Outaouais rural people.

Hey, just wanted to quickly note at 2:15 that “automated” isn't the same as “artificial intelligence” - AI usually refers to a system that makes decisions based on sample data rather than on explicit instructions; an automated train control system doesn't quite match up. Definitely not your fault - with how quickly automation and AI are coming into the digital world, it can be easy to get them mixed up! Just would like to politely point that out so that we can keep the definitions from becoming blurred over time, because then we won't be able to tell them apart! Awesome video, by the way! I can't wait to go to Montreal and ride the REM, it looks really modern and well-built.

The parking lot at Brossard is actually an outlier. There are far fewer spots on the other stations on A1. The model is more using RTL buses--the South Shore transit system--to feed into Panama and Brossard.

At the beginning fo the project two stations were missing Édouard-Montpetit and McGill. but the opportunity was too good to let it go. So now the REM will transfer people from/to the blue line 5 of the metro at Édouard-Montpetit and People from/to the green line 1 at McGill. When Part 2 aka A0 (Mont-Royal Tunnel) will eventually open in late 2024. the last part is the airport schedule to 2027-2028. The addition of those two stations did add to the price of the project from 6,3 B$ to 6,9$ Inflation and Work delay due in part to Covid and the founding of unexplosed explosif in the Mount-Royal tunnel made it explode to 8 B$ for 67 km of new track.

Rem is a new montréal metro

Calling the REM "light rail" is misclassifying the system. It is a metro system with an alternative designation and different infrastructure than the other metro system, the Montréal Métro, in the city and will have more of a suburban character to it. The Alstom Metropolis Saint-Laurent (to differentiate from all the other Alstom Metropolises out there running on mainly, well, metros) two-carriage train is 38.1 m long and has a maximum capacity of 390 pax. The MPM-10 (also known as the "Azure" trains running on the Montréal Metro proper) nine-carriage train is 152.43 m long and has a maximum capacity of 1555 pax. The Alstom Citadis Spirit (which is the vehicle running on Ottawa's Confederation line and which much more fits the designation of "light rail") is 48.5 m long and carries 300 pax. This is also a low-floor vehicle, as opposed to the former two which are high floor. In terms of capacity per length of train, we come out to 10.24 pax/m on the Alstom Metropolis trains, 10.2 pax/m on the MPM-10, and 6.19 pax/m on the Alstom Citadis Spirit. The only thing "light" about the REM is that its stations are being built for trains of a maximum of four carriage trains, wheras the international standard tends to be around 6 carriages per train. But it will certainly make up for that in higher frequency of service. REM stands for Réseau Express Métropolitain-Metropolitan Express Network, as it is intended to serve the Montreal Metro Area and calling it "Metropolitan Metro" would sound silly. But that doesn't make it a light rail system.

at 8:00 thats Du Quartier not Panama and it is pretty "walking friendly" because one of those bridges that you can walk through go to where a lot of people live in that area.

I live in Montreal and I used the REM once at the end of July, from Gare Centrale to Panama stations, to do my grocery Kim Phat & Maxi in Brossard. Gotta love the view of the skyline and the Champlain Bridge. I would like to go the Quartier Station once the 2nd T&T Supermarket in Quebec opens in Quartier Dix30 next year. I love how efficient this transit is and I'm curious how it will fare during the winter. Nice content, keep it up!

I love it a lot! Its very comfortable, fast and its a really smooth ride!

Great concise review!

nice video bro!

Looking forward to the REM extension to Pierre Trudeau International airport.....I love being able to jump on light rail directly at the airport like in Portland, Oregon.

Brossard parking was built long before the REM. Hopefully it will be redeveloped

great Video

BTW, the speed tops aout at roughly 70kmh most of the way. Reached 80 in a few spots. Not 100kmh. You may have noticed the heavy feel for these steel trains (not "light rail") and if you stop at Île des Soeurs, you can really feel the ground shape with every train passing. Travel time is 18 minutes from Brossard to Gare Centrala, and it will add about 25 minutes to the airport. The time from gare Central to Deux Montagnes will be about 10 minutes longer than with the previous commuter train and without comfortable seats for what will now be a 45 minute ride compared to back when it had commuter trains.

If a transit system goes from the suburbs to downtown, the suburban end has to be parking lots. People in Brossard live in one and two family homes. Eventually there'll be apartment complexes.

I'm super hyped for the West Island branch to open up. It used to take about 1.5/2 hours to get from where I live now, on the end of the green line, to Fairview.

Nice vidéo! I’m looking forward to the REM linking the airport, that will be big for the city. With regards to cars at the station, you make a good point. Here in Montreal though there has been an effort to build up residential projects around the Metro and REM stations thereby making it walkable by many if not most of the regular usures. This is why some of the stations seem to be away from built up areas. The train link thereby becomes a selling point in theory for the potential buyers.

I grew up in Montreal and when I moved to Toronto a long, long time ago I couldn't believe the difference as far as public transit went. Toronto had this limited loop of subway trains that shrieked, metal on metal, from one ugly station to the next. I always felt I had to pee because the tiles on the walls were like something out of a 1940's high school toilet. A lot of the cars weren't air conditioned which come July was like being in a sauna-death-boxcar. I couldn't believe these people put up with it. Or their stupid streetcars. One breaks down on, say, Queen Street West, and that's it. You'll wait on the street for an hour as they all back up like cows patiently waiting for the barn door to open.

I completely agree that you should be able to travel by public transport easily without resorting to a private car. The number of vehicles parked at Brossard suggest feeder buses could be commercially viable or at least provided with minimal subsidy. Perhaps that will happen in due course. Glad you waited for the madness of the opening days to subside before making this.

The city was not involved in REM, neither was the ARTM, the overall transit planning agency. The Government had asked CDPQ to come up with transit solution to fill 2 gaps : use the space on the new bridge replacing Champlain to provide second transit link to south shore. And secondly, built trancks to Dorval airport (which already had rail station built under the USA terminal) , with the rebuilding of the Turcot highhway interchange already making space for 2 tracks dedicated for that service. CDPQ came back with convoluted plan to take over the train station, kill off the newly opened Train de L'Est to Mascouche and the Deux Montagnes lie so it could use the tunnel from Central station and reproduce a slower service to Deux Montagnes, and do a branch to airport, and a political gesture to gain support from west is,and MP by having a cheap brand in west island with station on highway. Because CDPQ is not a trransit agency, the law requirng transit agencies to fit their projects within ARTM's plans did not apply so it was able to apply its wrecking ball to all of the long term planning for transit. In West Island, we were to lose our existing CP tranin service to Dorion/Hudosn and our express buses to downtown because it negotiated exlcusivity agreement where no other mode can compete against it. This was done at a time when CDPQ said project would be profitable and self funded. Once all signed, the procect ceased to be self funded with both provincila and federal government handing out out bilions, and provincial government garanteeing any operating deficits to ensure CDPQ is profitable even if the service isn.t. And only a week before opening did signs go up to show just how much of Central station they took over. Montréal had already lost Windsor station (for CP station) and CN's Gare Centrale had seen tracks closed after the big cuts in the 1980s. When CDP announced it, the message was they would re-open these tracks (5-6 and 7-8) amnd not impede commuter and intercity trains. The week before, when siognage came up, it showed thet not only took 9-10 but also 11-12. Just under HALF of our only remaining intercity/commuter train sttion. (trains that could only go to Windsor station now stop on open platforms near the Lucier l'Allier métro station, far away). Ironically, during environmental studies in 2016, they were asked why they did not choose the government solution along CN tracks through Turcot which is the direct route to airport and their response is that it woudln't be ready in time for a 2020 opening that they promised to get approval. The tracks/space through Turcot was made available in 2018, on time, (remember, the station in the airport was already there) and their grandiose project now required building deep tunnel under runways and airporty terminal and demolish a big part of the elevated garage structure. Ran out of money, prjuect stalled until federal government agreed to second bailout and now it is only 2027. Meanwhile, the originally planned train station was converted to garage.

Automation is not Artificial Intelligence. Automation start in the 1970's with the French MATRA VAL Véhicule Automatique Léger [Light automated Vehicle] aka Vite à Lille [Fast in Lille], Vite au lit[Fast to the bed].

Good video. Not sure about your comment about the parking and I know that people in the west island will be driving cars to the stations as the public transit is pretty bad.

the rem is so cool can you make more videos about the montreal trains and exo and the rem

Édouard Montpetit métro station remains separate from the new REM station. The only connection between the two is the existing tunnel from the métro station across Vincent d'Indy to the former métro exit on east side of Vincent d'Indy. It was demolished and a very large above ground building built to hide the historic music faculty building. Transfers will means someone gets off métro, goes all the way up to one level below ground, exists métro farre-pad area, then walks across the tunnel to what is now the REM station, takes elevator down to fare gate level, takes elevator down to platform level. (and vice versa) Thge work being done at Édouard Montpetit métro station is to install elevators as part of accessibility project. The only sign of REM is that the tunnel to Vincent d'Indy has been boarded up.

Brossard has a bus terminal its on the other side of rem station in Brossard you just didn't find it hard enough dude

Loved the video... great fun! @5:11 ... for what it's worth, the old bridge was "le Pont Champlain" the new one is "le Pont Samuel de Champlain" same guy... but different name... honest! they have different wikipedia pages ... @8:00 When you showed the station in the highway median with the pedestrian overpass... that was not Panama, but Du Quartier. Du Quartier is actually picture perfect Transport Oriented Development... you take the overhead walk-way one way to get to a hotel and pile of condo towers, or you can walk the other way and get to a shopping mall with movie theatres. and other entertainment. You can see the cineplex odeon logo from your shots of across the highway. You didn't show any shots of Panama. Panama station is the next one, Yes it's also in a highway median, but it's actually great, You take the stairs or elevator down to the huge, quiet pedestrian only tunnel that allows people to peacefully cross the highway. On one side is an urban planner's dream bus terminal, and on the other you walk straight into a residential neighborhood. @9:47... the only station with a huge parking lot is the Brossard Terminus, it's kind of normal this is a bridge to the vast suburbs on the south shore... At the end, you said they were spending "a lot of money" ... The REM is 67km in length, is completely grade separated and automated, and is close to on-time. The entire REM costs about 1/2 of the Eglington Cross town... which is 12 km. not grade separated and therefore not automated, and years behind schedule. Not trying to dis that project, just to say that in terms of value for money, the REM seems to be quite good.

0:56 At 4.50$ you get Zone A and B. Brossard is in Zone B. To get to Zone C it would have cost 6,75$. 4:31 Did not mention going from Edouard Montpetit to downtown you would get off at McGill station and Bonaventure station. 5:08 original Champlain Bridge was built in 1962. 8:03 It's Quartier Station

You got a number of things wrong in your introduction. It wasn't the city government that decided to build the REM. The provincial government gave a mandate to CDPQ to find a solution to serve the south shore and the airport. CDPQ came back with a proposition that was far more ambitious than what had been asked. CDPQ provided the lion's share of the investment while the provincial and federal government only provided 1.3 billion each. That's an absolute bargain for what we are getting. Another detail that you got wrong is that the trains do not "terminate" at gare centrale. They will through run. The old bridge and new bridge don't quite have the same name. The old bridge was called the "Champlain" bridge while the new bridge is called "Samuel-de-Champlain". Also, you mention the large car parkings, but I can assure you that they would in no way suffice if everybody drove to the station. There's maybe a thousand parking spots, which is less than 10% of what I expect the south shore ridership to be. Montreal and its suburbs have an acceptable bus system unlike many US cities. Several of the stations have large bus terminals attached to them. You made absolutely no mentions of that fact.

Unfortunately, they won't be clean for long

It’s still a full on metro not lrt. LRT is something like eglington crosstown or o train.

Does it go to the west island Noah 🚈

Except for CDPQ stealing the Deux Montagnes right of way that dates back to early 1900s when the tunnel built and residentials built around the stations and thus accessible by foot/bike, the CDPQ-built right of way is generally all along highways because the government gave it the land, but by definition transit witrh stations on major highway is inaccessible except by bus or car. The south shore only has Brossard with significant parking. And it replaced the Chevrier secondary bus terminal that massive parking. (and that aereas loses rapid transit since not served by REM). Brossard will become paid parking. And of interest, its main car access is from direct exits from highway 10, but only the east. (so cars traveling from far way to montreal can exit to Brossard parking lot, and at night can only access 10 Eastbound to get to further distinations) Panama, du Quartier are highway stations. Du Quartier is a shopping mall station (despite the PR pitching a new office development with a hotel and a couple of condos being built - note, living next to highway is never desirable). What you forgot is that on other side, Brossard is a new bus terminal which will mainly serve EXO buses that serve towns in C and D zones. This is smaller but nicer than the Panama one. But also must walk outside between REM and bus terminal, though it is covered walkway. With loss of reserved bus lanes, other transit agencies that are outside the ARTM jurisdiction are now being told they have to stop at either Brosssard or Panama and let their passengers take REM downtown. But being outside of ARTM, it means their tickets for single ride to downtown wil now require 2 tickets for passengers: the bus ride from their distant town to REM, and then an AB fare from ARTM to get on REM to downtown.

Busses and street cars should form a vital link to community. Current routes need updating for these new stations. REM will relieve demand on some surface routes also. 7 billion is huge amount of money, corrupt kickbacks for sure..

And when there is a snowstorm and ice on the tracks, you will revert to the metro to get to the south shore.

Western hemisphere was coined by our neighbours in the USA. The real name for our continent is America

Lorsque le train pourra traverser le tunnel sous la montagne, l'auto sera inutile .