Rigaud train a thing of history

After more than 120 years of chugging along, Rigaud’s train service was relegated to a place in history last Wednesday, when its final evening run pulled into the station.

Service from Rigaud was terminated after the town said it could not pay about $300,000 a year to the AMT, Montreal’s regional public transportation body. The town used to pay $160,000 a year for its train service.

Amid some fanfare, reporters, television cameras and town officials watched as passengers disembarked for the final time on June 30.

The town was served by only two trains each weekday, one going to Montreal in the morning and one returning again in the evening.

Critics say more people would have made the 90-minute commute from Rigaud to Montreal if the AMT had provided additional daily runs.

In a letter sent to the AMT and the transportation ministry, Avrom David Shtern, Green Coalition Transportation Critic asked: “Why is it that Quebec pays 100% of the cost for highways but asks local municipalities to pay an ever increasing share for commuter rail?”

Shtern points out that, while the government is “spending billions on highways like autoroute 30 which encourages geometric sprawl in the Rigaud area,” most people will not use busses such as the one now ferrying people from Rigaud to the Vaudreul-Dorion train station.