Agence métropolitaine de transport

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Agence métropolitaine de transport
Reporting marks	AMT
Locale	Greater Montreal Area
Dates of operation	1996–present
Track gauge	1435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Le 500 Place d'Armes, Montreal, Quebec

The Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) or (English: Metropolitan Transportation Agency) (AAR reporting marks AMT) is the umbrella organization that plans, integrates, and coordinates public transportation services across Canada's Greater Montreal Region, including the Island of Montreal, Laval (Île Jésus), and communities along both the North Shore of the Rivière des Mille-Îles and the South Shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It was created in 1996, replacing the STCUM's commuter rail service. The AMT operates Montreal's commuter rail service.

[edit] Overview

AMT's territory spans 63 municipalities and one native reserve, 13 regional county municipalities, and 21 transit authorities. It serves a population of approximately 3.7 million people who make more than 750,000 trips daily.

AMT's mandate includes the management of reserved (HOV) lanes, metropolitan terminuses, park-and-ride lots, and a budget of $163 million, which is shared amongst the transit corporations and inter-municipal public transit organizations. Apart from these essential services, AMT is also responsible for Montreal's commuter rail service, which links the downtown core with communities as far west as Rigaud, as far east as Mont-Saint-Hilaire, and as far north as Saint-Jérôme.

[edit] Commuter trains

Map of AMT commuter trains (from summer 2006)

The AMT has two types of trains: diesel-electric push-pull trains and electric multiple unit (EMU) trains. The Deux-Montagnes Line line is the only EMU line, all the others use push-pull locomotives. The Deux-Montagnes line was electrified because of the 4.8 km (3 mile) long poorly ventilated tunnel to Central Station. Diesel trains through the tunnel were at one time restricted and are now prohibited. The AMT's Mont-Saint-Hilaire, VIA Rail's and AMTRAK's trains all back into Central Station.

The AMT commuter trains (trains de banlieue) operate on tracks owned by Canadian National, Canadian Pacific and Quebec Gatineau Railway. The Deux-Montagnes and Mont-Saint-Hilaire lines run on CN trackage and operate out of Central Station, while the Dorion-Rigaud, Blainville, and Delson-Candiac lines run on CP trackage and operate out of Lucien L'Allier terminus, beside the historic Windsor Station. The Blainville line also runs on Quebec Gatineau Railway trackage and on the AMT's own trackage between Sainte-Thérèse and Saint-Jerome.

The train lines are integrated with the bus and metro network maintained by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), or Montreal Transit Corporation.

[edit] List of commuter train lines

• Dorion-Rigaud Line █▌
• Deux-Montagnes Line █▌
• Blainville-Saint-Jerome Line █▌
• Mont-Saint-Hilaire Line █▌
• Delson-Candiac Line █▌
• Repentigny-Mascouche Line (future) █▌

[edit] Fares

The greater Montreal area is divided into 8 fare zones. Starting from downtown Montreal, they stretch outwards in all directions. The first three zones are within the cities of Montreal, Laval and Longueuil only. Zones 4 to 8 are circular around the centre of Montreal. This standardized fare zone means a user generally pays the same amount whether they travel by bus or by train. The commuter train fare system is based on the assumption that the user is travelling to or from downtown. There are no reductions, for example, for travel between zone 2 and 5 or exclusively in zone 3 (see Fares).

To use the train, passengers must have a validated TRAM ticket (Zone 1 to 3) or a TRAIN ticket (Zone 4 to 6). The difference between the tickets is that a TRAM ticket provides access to the Montreal Metro or STM buses without any additional payment. Regular users can get a TRAM Monthly Pass which allows for unlimited travel on any type of service within the zone indicated on the front of the card or a TRAIN monthly pass which is valid on the trains only. Tickets and passes for commuter trains are valid for any line, as long as travel is limited to the zone for which the ticket is purchased and is used within 90 minutes. The STM's CAM (Carte Autobus Métro) card is no longer valid for access to zone 1 (nor, with a one ticket supplement, to zone 2) commuter trains on the Island of Montreal.

Tickets are sold by automated vending machines at each station. Passes for all zones are sold at Gare Centrale and Lucien-L'Allier stations. Passes for Zones 1-6 are sold at a few stores near the suburban stations. Consult the full list on the AMT's website.^[1][2] Passes are valid for a calendar month, and are normally on sale from the 20th of the previous month to the 5th of their month of validity. Passengers can also subscribe to La TRAM Postale which automatically debits the passenger's bank account or credit card and the sends the monthly pass by mail.

[edit] Locomotives and passenger vehicles

The AMT has a variety of rolling stock ranging in date from the 1960s to 2005, originally acquiring rolling stock directly from the railroads. More details can be found in the External Links section

[edit] Locomotives

• 4 General Motors GP9u Locomotives (1310 — 1313). 1,800 hp. Built in 1959. Rebuilt in 1993 by GEC Alstom.
• 11 General Motors F59PHI Locomotives (1320 — 1330). 3,000 hp. Built between 2000 and 2001.
• 6 General Motors F40PH Locomotives (various numbers). 3,000 hp. All former Amtrak units on lease from TITAN Transit, Inc.

[edit] Passenger cars

Two-level rail coach

• 80 Single-Level Coaches (originally from GO Transit); Built between 1967 and 1976 by Hawker-Siddeley Canada
• 24 Single-Level Coaches; Built in 1989 by Bombardier Transportation (similar to NJ Transit's Comet II series)
• 9 Bi-Level Coaches (Gallery Design); Built in 1969 by Canadian Vickers
• 22 Bi-Level Coaches; Built in 2004 by Bombardier Transportation
• 58 Single-Level Electric Multiple Unit (MR-90 Design); Built in 1994-1995 by Bombardier Transportation.
• 160 (on Order) Bi-Level Coaches; to be built in 2008-2009 by Bombardier Transportation^[3]

The 80 Hawker-Siddeley cars are in operation on all lines except the Deux-Montagnes line. There are two types of cars; the 100 (1000) series and the 200 (1200) series. The only difference is the 200 and 1200 series has high doors for use at Central Station and are only used on the Saint-Hilaire Line

The 24 Bombardier single-level cars are in operation exclusively on the Dorion-Rigaud line Line. These are the 700 series.

The 9 Canadian Vickers Galley cars were rebuilt from June 2005 to December 2006. They were returned to the Blainville-Saint-Jerome Line with the introduction of service to Saint-Jerome. They are the 900 series.

The 58 Bombardier Electrics are exclusively used on the Deux-Montagnes line These are numbered in the 400s, and operate in married pairs (as only one car in each pair has motors).

The 22 new Bombardier BiLevels are in operation on the Dorion-Rigaud line and Blainville Line. Although originally planned to be part of the revitalization project for the Dorion-Rigaud line, a set was put on the Blainville line while older Double Deckers from the 1970s are being rebuilt. These are numbered in the 2000s.

On December 18, 2007, the AMT announced it had awarded Bombardier a $386 million dollar contract to built 30 bilevel commuter cars with an option to built 130 more. These cars will be based on the Comet VI series of NJ Transit, as opposed to the recent purchase of GO-style bi-level cars, and will be able to enter the Mount Royal Tunnel (since the Comet VI need to enter the Penn Tunnels between NJ and NYC). They will be numbered in the 3000s.

[edit] History

Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) had long operated commuter trains in the Montreal area, but by the 1980s, their services had dwindled to one route each. The Société de transport de la communauté urbaine de Montréal (STCUM), or Montreal Urban Community Transportation Corporation (MUCTC), which already managed metro and bus services across the Island of Montreal, assumed management of CN's Deux-Montagnes commuter service and CP's Rigaud service in 1982 as the two railways began scaling back their services.

In 1997, management and financing of both lines was transferred to the newly-created AMT, which had been established to distribute funding and coordinate transportation planning among the numerous transit operators throughout the Greater Montreal Region. Later that year, the AMT inaugurated service between Blainville station and the Parc/Jean Talon train station in Montreal's Park Extension district, connecting to the metro at Parc . Originally, the service was designed to provide a temporary alternative for motorists from Laval and the North Shore of Montreal, while the Highway 117 Dufresne Bridge was being repaired. The service proved to be so popular that the AMT continued to fund it, and even extended a number of trains to the Lucien-L'Allier station downtown in 1999, and continues to provide off-peak daytime weekday service on this line. The service was extended further north to Saint-Jérôme in 2007.

In 2000, AMT inaugurated its service to McMasterville (which runs along a CN line), and later extended it to Mont-Saint-Hilaire in 2002.

In 2001, the AMT initiated a pilot project, launching service on a fifth line (using CP tracks) to Delson. This was later extended to Candiac in 2005. More information about the history of each line can be found in their respective articles.

[edit] Express buses

The AMT also runs a Metropolitan Express Bus.

• Express Terminus Centre-Ville 90, also called Express Chevrier — operated by the RTL in Longueuil and links the Chevrier Park-n-Ride in Brossard to the Downtown Terminus.

[edit] Future projects

[edit] General

The AMT's future projects include:

• The AMT is currently developing a commuter train line to connect eastern Montreal as well as the North Eastern suburbs to downtown Montreal. The Repentigny-Mascouche Line, is set to begin service in 2010. ^[4]
• Studying the return of light rail service to Montreal. One light rail route would follow Rene Levesque Boulevard from Gare Centrale, then north along Bleury Street and Park Avenue to meet up with the Parc Station. Another route would go from Gare Centrale, along the Autoroute 10 corridor, to Chevrier Park-n-Ride in Brossard, which is identical to the current Route 90 RTL express bus. Light rail is, however, also being studied as part of the ongoing waterfront revitalization plans.^[5]

[edit] Deux-Montagnes Line

To ease over-crowding on the Deux-Montagnes Line, there are plans to:

• Extend the double track from its current end point at the Bois-Franc station to the Roxboro-Pierrefonds station in Pierrefonds-Roxboro.
• Create an overpass for commuter trains to by-pass CN's Saint-Laurent subdivision just south of the Montpellier station, where CN opeates a freight line with moderate usage. VIA Rail also operates trains to Jonquière and Senneterre. CN says that it will not allow any more commuter trains without a new overpass.
• Open two new train stations: one at Autoroute 13 near boulevard Gouin (between Bois-Franc (AMT) and Sunnybrooke stations), and another in Saint-Eustache, just east of the line's current Deux-Montagnes terminus.

[edit] Blainville-Saint-Jerome Line

To improve service and attract new users to the popular Blainville-Saint-Jerome Line, there are plans to:

• Bring the line into Mount Royal Tunnel, joining the Deux-Montagnes Line. The proposed plan would reduce travel time to downtown Montreal by 15 minutes, arriving directly at Central Station, instead of circling Mount Royal to arrive at Lucien-L'Allier station, west of Central Station. The AMT plans to purchase hybrid locomotives, like the ones to be used on the Repentigny-Mascouche Line, so that trains may run electrically when in the tunnel while continuing to operate on diesel on the rest of the line.
• Double the track between Saint-Martin Junction and Sainte-Rose train stations in Laval, Québec to increase the number of daily trips.

[edit] Dorion-Rigaud Line

To increase service on the Dorion-Rigaud Line, there are plans to add tracks specifically used for commuter trains. The tracks are used by the AMT under the permission from Canadian Pacific.

[edit] References

1. ^ Tarifs
2. ^ Points de vente de titres
3. ^ (similar to NJ Transit's Comet VI series)[1]
4. ^ MTA joins with New Jersey on train order
5. ^ Société du Havre de Montréal

• The Canadian Trackside Guide

[edit] External links

• (French) Agence métropolitaine de transport
• (English) Agence métropolitaine de transport (Corporate information only; the AMT does not offer English travel information on its web site.)
• (French) Marc Dufour's website about the Deux Montagnes Line
• AMT Rolling stock
• Current AMT Roster