Get a look inside the new REM trains, promised to hold up to Quebec winters

CTV Montreal: New REM trains A first look at the new REM trains is drawing questions about if they can hold up to harsh Quebec winters.

As new trains for the REM light rail system were unveiled Friday, officials curbed concerns about how they will hold up to harsh winters.

The cars were designed after feedback from more than 4,000 public transit users and built to be automated and reliable.

Get a look at them here:

Already in used in China, Singapore, and Brazil, the pressing concern was if they can operate in the dead of winter.

“We have been through a very rigorous process on the criteria,” said Macky Tall, president and CEO of CDPQ Infra, the company building the REM. “We have imposed on GPMM, the consortium responsible for building them, specifically so they are ready for harsh winter conditions.

Alstom, the company manufacturing the trains, built a similar model for Ottawa. Those cars ran into several problems, including frozen doors, lack of heating, and broken equipment due to snow accumulation, according to reports there.

The REM insists its trains will meet specifications designed for Quebec winters.

“We are going to have also some group tests, tests in the field, and also some tests in a chamber a cold chamber to make sure that we have extreme conditions to make sure that at the end we have a program that is responding to this criteria,” said Jean-Vincent Lacroix, director of media relations for the REM.

Trains will have heated door thresholds and floors, as well as ice protection equipment and scrapers. They'll even be tested in a cold chamber in Austria.

The REM will also have maintenance centres in Montreal.

“With this project, it's not just to build a train. It's also to have an expertise in Montreal, to make sure that we can maintain this train for 50, 100 years,” said Lacroix.

Questions remain about access to parking at train stations in the West Island.

CDPQ Infra promised thousands of spots along all the REM lines in initial plans but has since cut that down to a mere 700. At some stations, there will be no spots whatsoever.

“We understand those concerns and are committed and working hard (to ensure) that the REM is a project that is integrated well from an urban architecture point of view and an impact that is acceptable,” said Tall.

Montrealers won't have to wait long to see a train in action: A prototype will operate on a closed track on the South Shore as early as next year, and the REM is expected to be operational by 2021.