Testing has begun on the Réseau express métropolitain’s airport branch, the operator of the light rail network said Wednesday.
REM cars began operating automatically last weekend, at low speed, on the line that will eventually connect to Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.
The speed of the cars — and the frequency of testing — will increase in the coming weeks, the REM said.
The train cars are currently running to the future Marie-Curie station in the Technoparc area of the St-Laurent borough, one of two stations on the REM’s airport spur.
Once the airport completes construction of the YUL-Aéroport-Montréal-Trudeau station, testing will begin along the entire route.
Both stations are scheduled to be commissioned before the end of 2027 and will be commissioned at the same time.
The REM says it is testing all components of the network, including the cars, platform screen doors and communication systems.
The REM says after testing it will begin integrating the branch with the rest of the network and then conduct trial runs where trains operate under normal service conditions without passengers before regular service begins.
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