(The following article by Alycia Ambroziak was published by the Montreal Gazette on July 8.)
MONTREAL — Commuters off the western tip of Montreal Island will have a new train station as of Aug. 4.
The new Vaudreuil station was inaugurated yesterday by Transport Minister Yvon Marcoux, along with Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Réjean Boyer and Florence Junca-Adenot, director of the Metropolitan Transit Agency.
About 1,000 people are expected to eventually use the service daily, the three officials said.
As of Aug. 4, there will be two Montreal-bound departures from Vaudreuil: at 7:10 and 7:45 a.m.
The trains will leave Montreal daily for Vaudreuil at 5:20 and 6 p.m. Initially, there will be no weekend service.
More runs will be added as the project grows, Junca-Adenot said.
Sometime in 2005, the station – at the end of Boileau St. in the Vaudreuil sector of Vaudreuil-Dorion – will have other transport links – buses from outlying regions, such as Pincourt, Île Perrot, St. Lazare and Hudson, will ferry passengers to the station.
A proper station, as opposed to the shelter that now stands at the platform, is also planned. The site, near the junction of Highways 40 and 540, will also be used as a garage and maintenance shop.
The station had been slated to open in March but a disagreement over train signals between the AMT, which oversees the station, and CP Rail had to be resolved through mediation by the National Transportation Agency, the regulatory body of Transport Canada.