This morning's Gazette is reporting on train car doors that won't open. I can vouch that this is a hassle, but not the end of the world as long as the train doesn't leave as people rush to the next car to get on/off.

More worrying was a news item I heard on CBC radio this morning. Someone had written in to claim that since earlier this week there were fewer two cars on the West Island train, resulting in the remaining cars being overcrowded to the point of not being safe. CBC wasn't able to get through to anyone yesterday, but this morning a PR rep from AMT called and left a message on their phone, saying that the cars had been removed to prepare for the new departures being added next week.

While is isn't clear what they meant by this, it suggests that in order to accommodate the additional departures. AMT is taking cars from other trains to make the new cars! So while they may be adding departures, the increase in capacity of the train line is not a large as one would expect. This approach would be unworkable on the South Shore line, simply because all the new departures are off rush hour, which makes them useless for the majority of commuters. Those extra departures may as well not exist. If rush hour service suffers because of these extra departures, I foresee a backlash against the AMT and the commuter service.

Again, no confirmation on whether our rush hour trains are being shortened. The train has seemed fuller then normal this year, but I'm not sure if that is because of more people using it or fewer cars. Something to to keep an eye on.