The 411 on the 211 911

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

Two different buses on the 211 West Island/downtown line suffered two different malfunctions in as many weeks, but the STM says it is nothing more than an unfortunate coincidence.

"These are things that happen very rarely," said Isabelle Tremblay, a spokesperson at the Montreal transit authority. Two weeks ago, a 211 bus finishing its run near the Lionel-Groulx metro station caught fire but all passengers were evacuated before any harm was done, since the fire started very gradually, giving the driver a smoky warning sign.

Last Tuesday, a West Island-bound 211 bus lost one of its wheels near the Pointe Claire train station. Luckily, it was able to pull into a loop near the station, and the wheel came to a stop near the highway without anybody getting hurt, Tremblay said.

"Unfortunately, this means other buses had to stop one stop earlier or later, so some people had to walk," said Tremblay.

The STM is currently investigating what went wrong with the wheel-losing bus. Unable to determine the cause of the fire on the other one, it has called on an engineer from manufacturer NOVA Bus to inspect.

"There are very severe and very thorough inspections," on all buses that the company manufactures, said NOVA marketing manager Pierre Pélland. He estimated the lifespan of an average bus was 16 to 18 years.

"The bus that caught fire dated back to 1997," Pélland added. He was not sure of how old the one that lost its wheel was.

Marianne Rouette, another STM spokesperson, said the last time a Montreal bus was involved in an incident involving a fire was in August 2007. "The cause was not identified either," she added.

According to Tremblay, the STM operates a fleet of about 1,600 buses.

West Island resident Kathy Baran was on the bus that lost its wheel last week. In a phone message to The Chronicle, she said she was frustrated the bus driver left passengers on the side of the road and told them to walk to the next bus stop. "Thank God we weren't on the highway," she said.

According to Tremblay, the driver proceeded according to STM guidelines. Since the bus had stopped at the loop near the station, she said, it blocked other buses from stopping there, which forced passengers to either hop on a train or walk to the next bus stop. "It wasn't too far to walk," she said.