There's Finally A Movement To Make All Of Montreal's Wretched STM Station Doors Automatic
After years of lost hats, unplanned chest workouts, and pure winter chaos, there's finally a movement to motorize all of Montreal's metro station doors. Just about every STM customer has a story about the doors, but they present particular challenges for people with reduced mobility, Ensemble Montreal, the city's official opposition party, says. The party will table a motion asking the STM to add an automatic opening option at all station doors.
"Even people who don't have problems moving around have to work even harder to get these doors open," said Chantal Rossi, City Councillor for the District of Ovide-Clermont.
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"Now imagine what it must be like for people with reduced mobility or seniors. Or even someone with a stroller."
Their design is supposed to make them easier to open, but they get jammed up because of the "piston effect" — "air pressure differential due to speeding trains in the tunnels."
Only 22 stations have motorized butterfly doors for people with reduced mobility, according to Ensemble Montreal.
"That's very little, especially when you consider that they are used by tens of thousands of travellers every day," said Rossi.
The city council motion aims to make motorize all butterfly doors by 2024.
While the STM is already planning to update some doors, the improvements will only happen in stations that are getting elevators.
By 2025, the STM plans to equip automatic doors on 44 out of more than 300 entrances, the party says.
Looking at this, Ensemble Montreal wishes that the STM had a "more ambitious program for door automation."
"We know that the STM has made a lot of efforts in recent years to meet the needs of universal accessibility in the metro, notably by installing elevators in different stations," explained Rossi.
"But let's be frank: the first obstacle to accessibility in the metro remains the opening of the entrance doors to the stations! We have to tackle this right now and ensure that every station is equipped with them in the short term."
