MONTREAL - The federal and provincial governments announced Friday they will help build a new $120-million train maintenance facility in Lachine.
The facility will be used to inspect, maintain and repair many of the trains used on key commuter lines.
The government and the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) are in the process of buying new commuter trains. They will be state-of-the art, and officials said the idea is to maintain them well so that they last a long time.
The cost will be split three ways, with $25 million being from the federal government, $62 million from the province and the remaining $32 million from the AMT.
The project is expected to create more than 100 permanent jobs and will be located in the Lachine industrial park.
Commuter trains will be parked there between the morning and afternoon rush hours, where inspections, maintenance and repairs will be carried out on a daily basis.
The AMT says doing repairs indoors will mean a world of difference for the trains.
"When the mechanics want to do the inspections or any repairs, they are in the snow and everything which means the environment of work is very hard," said Nancy Frechette of the AMT.
"In the future we have said we will have an inspection building to make sure they can inspect the train set in one time and at the same time will have a small building for repairs and the locomotives."
