STM says customers to blame for roughly half of métro delays
Métro delays were on the upswing in 2017 for the second consecutive year. The Société de transport de Montréal provided figures to CBC Montreal recently showing that delays and breakdowns on the métro increased in 2017 compared with 2016. That’s a bad sign, considering 2016 was also not a very good year for métro delays.
According to the STM’s annual report for 2016, 97.5 per cent of métro users arrived at their destination on time in 2016, down from 97.7 per cent the previous year. At the time, the STM blamed a series of shutdowns that affected all four subway lines in November of that year. There were a total of 923 métro delays of five minutes or more recorded in 2016.
In 2017, the number of delays shot up to 1,171. Some of those delays can be traced back to a major breakdown that occurred at the beginning of the year, when the Orange Line was shut down for 10 hours after a new Azur-model train broke down. The new trains were then taken out of service for two weeks, which caused some more delays in the network.
On its website, the STM posts monthly statistics on métro service delays and the cause of those disruptions. The STM is quick to point out that customers are to blame for roughly half the disruptions. Those can manifest in people stopping the doors of a train from closing, walking on the tracks or medical emergencies.
In fact, a new awareness campaign by the STM claims that 550 objects that fell on the tracks caused 19 hours of service interruptions in 2017 alone. The other reasons given for delays were issues with “rolling stock equipment, train operation or other.” Among those, rolling stock issues made up the bulk of the delays.
Craig Sauvé, the executive committee associate member in charge of mobility for the Plante administration, said he’s confident the STM can get a handle on the delays. He said many are linked to growing pains with the new Azur cars, and those will probably decrease as drivers and maintenance crews gain experience. Another cause is old and outdated equipment and infrastructure. However, Sauvé said he’s shocked by the sheer number of customer-related delays.
“I get the daily reports, and it happens so many times that people drop their cellphones or bags, and then jump down to get them,” Sauvé said. “Security calls the central, and it can cause a delay of up to 10 minutes.”
The STM has taken some steps to improve the situation, like removing garbage bins from platforms (after a fire in a garbage bin in 2016) and improving maintenance on the Azur-model trains. Sauvé said more measures are planned.
STM spokesperson Amélie Régis pointed out that despite the increased problems in the network, Montreal’s métro has a good ontime record when compared with othermajorcities.