There are still many questions after yet another incident with the REM on Friday, when the light-rail system stalled, and riders had to switch trains in the middle of the track, two storeys in the air. REM user Terry Sylvester found her typical 20-minute commute home turned into a three-hour ordeal. “People got hurt. I mean, someone fainted because it was so hot. Someone had a little panic attack. She started crying. It was just an overall mess,” he said. But are persistent problems having an impact on ridership? Pulsar, the group that runs the REM, admits there are slowdowns, but said Friday’s incident was an anomaly. “It was a special incident that occurred on Friday,” said Maxime Laliberté, spokesperson for Pulsar. “The train didn’t respond anymore, so we were not able to move the train. It’s not really not ideal, especially for people who have a fear of heights… but we had no choice.” According to researchers from McGill University, while incidents like Friday’s do have an impact on ridership, the bigger problem is communication when something goes wrong. Commuters on a stalled train need to understand “why it’s interrupted and what’s causing it, and how long will it take?” said Ahmed El-Geneidy, a professor at the School of Urban Planning at McGill. According to a McGill survey published in May, three-quarters of commuters on the North Shore are satisfied with service. That drops to about 70 per cent when it comes to the Brossard branch. Sylvester said she is considering a change. “I’ve been taking the REM for three years, and I have to tell you, I can’t count how many times I was either late or stuck,” she said. “I’m at the point where I’m like, I need to find a job on the South Shore.”
