Montreal's new REM line takes wrong turn, leaves passengers stranded in the garage

After a night at the movies on Montreal's South Shore on Monday, Michel-André Grégoire and his wife got an exclusive tour of the city's new light-rail train garage, but all they really wanted was to go home.

The couple got stuck in the garage in Brossard, Que., because the train they boarded went the wrong way for reasons that remain a mystery.

"At the beginning, we were laughing about it. We said, 'Ok, we're going to sleep here and we'll take the first train out tomorrow morning and we'll go back home,'" said Grégoire in an interview Tuesday evening.

After watching a flick at Quartier Dix30, he and his wife boarded the train at the Du Quartier station around midnight to head back home to Nun's Island. Their late-night journey came at the end of the first official launch day for the new, automated light-rail line, the Réseau express métropolitain (REM).

They followed the signage to make sure they were on the right train. But after about 20 minutes, nothing happened. Then, a voice greeted them on the train: "Welcome to the REM. Next station: Panama." A reassuring message since the station after Panama was their final destination.

This was the view of the garage when the train pulled into the REM garage in Brossard, Que. (Submitted photo)

However, things took a turn for the worse. The train started to head in the opposite direction, back toward Brossard.

The train pulled into the brightly lit garage, with parked trains all around them on the tracks. There was a third passenger on board with them, a tourist from Venezuela who didn't speak English or French, and the three of them were all equally confused.

Michel-André Grégoire. (CTV News)

"You cannot open the door. There's no driver," Grégoire said.

His wife found an intercom system on board and asked for help. After about eight minutes, Grégoire said the voice on the other end told them "the train was not responding" and to wait for it to take them back to the Brossard station.

Once they arrived there, a REM employee was waiting for them with a company SUV, which finally drove them home.

A REM employee drove the couple home in a company SUV after the mishap. (Submitted photo)

"They did apologize," he added.

"My frustration was: it's been two years that we've been waiting for it. It's been about a year now they're doing tests…and on the first official day, two major breakdowns and a train that is not responding. On our side, what they told us was they don't understand because they're supposed to bring you back home and it decided to go the reverse side," he said.

PASSENGERS WERE SAFE: CDPQ INFRA

CDPQ Infra, which owns the REM, didn't provide an explanation as to what caused the incident.

"The team on the ground is confident that such an event is exceptional and will not happen again," a spokesperson wrote in an email to CTV News.

"Passengers were safe inside the train at all times. As soon as our operators spotted the passengers, they were immediately taken care of and returned to their destination."

The mishap has left a bad taste in Grégoire's mouth.

"What can I say? Things happen. No harm done, but it's quite shocking to see. What can happen next?" he said.

"To be honest, OK, it's brand new, it's fun, but I prefer to take my car."

There were two other service hiccups on the new light-rail line on Monday. During the morning rush hour, a switch problem caused the system to shut down for 45 minutes. Then, around 11 p.m., passengers were directed to shuttle buses during a service disruption that lasted for about an hour.

The REM said it recorded 25,000 passengers on Monday, which was far fewer than the approximately 60,000 riders a day who boarded the trains over the weekend when service was free.

With files from CTV News Montreal's Matt Grillo and The Canadian Press