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Summer 2004

Canadian Pacific Railway Employee Communications
Room 500 401-9th Ave S.W. Calgary AB T2P 4Z4
I'll Take the Train

Fifty-five daily commuter trains serve about 20,000 riders.
Increasingly, harried city commuters opt for the comfort and reliability of a railway coach.
 
Passenger railway service is the public face of railroading; and it's all smiles lately for CPR's commuter operations in the Montreal Service Area. Gone are the days when government regulators forced commuter rail service providers to go it alone, turning a blind eye to the dicey economics of paying for track and equipment that sits idle outside of weekday rush hours. Today, partnerships with governments recognize the tangible benefits that efficient commuter services afford the public, as well as their potential role as a city-shaping tool.
 
"The 55 commuter trains we operate daily in and out of the City of Montreal on three separate subdivisions serve about 20,000 riders, taking thousands of cars off the over-burdened road system", said Johane Lemay, CPR's director of Montreal commuter rail service.
 
"The success of the operation in recent years has warranted operational, financial, and safety studies of expansion on two additional lines".
 
CPR's original commuter service to the Lakeshore area of Montreal's West Island is nearly as old as the railway itself. Windsor Station, and the access track through Montreal West and Westmount - then known as Montreal Junction and Cote St. Antoine, respectively - was opened for train service on 4 Feb 1889. The lines from Windsor Station (now Lucien L'Allier) to Blainville and Delson built a respectable local service between the two World Wars, mostly catering to farmers shipping produce to the city and vacationers looking for a peaceful respite in the country.
 
Key performance statistics in recent years have been impressive. In 2003, Montreal commuter services set a target of 96 percent for on-time performance and exceeded that lofty goal on all three lines; service to Blainville came in at 98.1 percent. In the same year, there were no train accidents or cardinal rule violations.
 
Johane credits the good work from her six-person management team and the great service they get from CPR's mechanical services, train crews, and track forces. Good working relationships with the Network Management Centre (NMC), CPR Police Service and, of course, the local transportation agency, AMT (Agence Metropolitaine de Transport), are also essential elements of the successful operation.
 
The commuter service contributes to the vitality of the Montreal Service Area. "AMT is confident we can provide good value and good service", she said. "While CPR develops revenue that helps support maintenance and infrastructure repairs on the subdivisions".
 
Together, CPR and AMT have recently installed Central Traffic Control (CTC) on the Montreal & Ottawa subdivision and have completed a new over-night storage facility for commuter locomotives and coaches in Vaudreuil, Quebec. They are also upgrading the roadbed to allow for 55 mph operations on the Lachute subdivision.
 
And the Montreal commuter team and AMT are in the midst of negotiations to sign a long-term contract for maintenance services by our mechanical folks at St. Luc yard.
 
In another positive development, the venerable 800-series AMT coaches on the lakeshore run which date back to the CPR steam era are being retired in favour of 22 new double-decked cars that AMT has ordered from Bombardier out of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The new cars are expected to be in service by early 2005.
 
"Stability in the relationship between AMT and CPR is good for both parties", Johane said. "The confidence we have in one another allows us to build a long-term strategic plan and grow together in a way that benefits both Montreal and the CPR".

This Momentum article is copyright 2004 by Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.