“It’s like the 12 labors of Hercules”: Encouraged by REM, he takes his car.

One Man From the south bank Suffering from gout Abandoning public transport for a car after the first journey on the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) can be a barrier.

• Read more: “Criminal nature” fire near future REM station

• Read more: “We’re losing our Latino”: REM price sows confusion among seniors

• Read more: “I imagine it’s normal”: REM’s rough first week doesn’t worry its users

“It’s like the twelve labors of Hercules. Four days of joint pain. I still can’t take cortisone every time I take REM. It’s pointless!” Telson resident Robert Caughey is furious.

Despite his 175kg and knee problems, the 57-year-old boarded the Exo Express 100 to work downtown before the bus gave way to REM because of a no-compete clause at the Champlain Bridge.

The office worker expected REM to make his life easier, but his first ride on Wednesday morning turned out to be a real obstacle. “It took me an hour and a half and I was sweating,” he says.

Like Mount Everest

He must take the first exo bus to get to Brassard Station, where he notices the absence of an escalator, the first hazard.

“You have to go down, pass under a walkway and then up the stairs. Otherwise we have to take the lift, but it takes too long,” laments the father of three youngsters.

Once aboard, there are few places to sit and he struggles to stand even with his walking stick on a moving train. Returning to Care Central, he finds himself a prisoner of the platform.

“I was taken. The staircase was like Mount Everest in front of me. Place Bonaventure has no escalator, no elevator,” he said, shockingly.

For Robert Robert Kaghi, this staircase from the REM platform to Central Station is the equivalent of Mount Everest.

Photo by Anuk Lebel

broken down

Also, towards the central station, lifts, escalators are non-functional.

At Gare Centrale station, escalators were still down on Wednesday.

Photo by Anuk Lebel

So the security guard directs him to the steep staircase, taking over 10 minutes to climb another Mount Everest.

Down the Henri-Pourassa boulevard, the obstacle course continues, putting extra pressure on his knee.

“I’ve never taken my car, but I have no choice there, even if it means extra costs and getting stuck in traffic,” he says.

No service from the start

According to our information, the escalators at Gare Centrale and Île-des-Sœurs stations are never operational. As for the central station elevator, CDPQ Infra, a subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec, did not specify how long it was out of service.

“Equipment including elevators and escalators are in operational period. Teams are on the ground to resolve any outages as quickly as possible,” explained a spokeswoman, Jessica Theroux, via email.

The presence of an escalator in a station is established according to the “performance criterion” based on the same height value used by the Société de Transport de Montreal (STM), the CDPQ indicated last week to justify their absence in Infra Panama, Du Quartier and Brossard stations.