ehlow
Senior Member
I'm kind of surprised about Montreal. I frequently get jerked around or thrown forward in the sections between stations, but I suppose that could be when the operators are practicing.
I knew that the doors were manually operated. Usually a train will lie in wait with the doors open. Once it sees that someone is rushing to catch the train, it will wait until the person is about to enter before suddenly and without warning slamming the doors shut. If they are unlucky, body parts may be caught. No machine could be so capricious or sadistic.
The response whenever something gets caught also leaves something to be desired. I once sat in a train for 5 minutes because the doors had been closed before everyone could enter. Someone's backpack was caught in the door behind them and wouldn't budge. Rather than open the doors to let it be removed, the operator seemed to think repeating "vieullez dégager les portes s'il vous plait" on the PA system would be effective. Not wanting to let other people enter the wagons, he would open the doors for a millisecond...which was not enough time to actually free the bag.
That's quite a different experience than what I've had in Montreal. I've always found the trains were driven better or smoother or more confidently than the TTC.
At first I wondered why it felt so much nicer, I figured it might be the rubber tires. But then I took the line that goes to the island, the only one which gets driven manually, and it felt like the TTC subway. So I attribute the smoothness of the driving to ATO.