Haunted Montreal Blog #97 – The REM’s Ghostly Gamble Part 3

Welcome to the ninety-seventh installment of the Haunted Montreal Blog!

With over 500 documented ghost stories, Montreal is easily the most haunted city in Canada, if not all of North America. Haunted Montreal dedicates itself to researching these paranormal tales, and the Haunted Montreal Blog unveils a newly researched Montreal ghost story on the 13th of every month!

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With the Hallowe’en Season fast approaching, Haunted Montreal’s seasons of public outdoor ghost tours is in full swing! Offered every Friday and Saturday Sunday, we have four ghost tours on rotation (Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and Mount Royal.)

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is also offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

Our Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery happens on the first Friday and Saturday of every month.

Private tours for all of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours start at $215 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

Lastly, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. More details are below in our Company News section!

This month we examine one section of Montreal’s new light rail system, the REM, which is finally operational. The line, running from Central Station in Montreal to Brossard, passes over the Black Rock Irish Famine Cemetery. Given that the REM desecrated the hallowed ground by removing over a dozen bodies to insert a concrete pylon, many people speculated that the REM would become haunted. It appears to be the case – since its opening, the REM has been plagued with numerous electrical problems and was even struck by lightning!

Haunted Research

After years of planning and construction, the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) finally opened the first leg of its light train system on July 31, 2023. This section of track runs from Montreal’s Central Station to Brossard on the South Shore.

However, it has been plagued with various problems, from electrical failures and noise complaints to broken elevators and passengers being deployed to train garages.

There are also major delays on the construction of the Griffintown Station, which is very late and likely will not open in the near future. It appears that CDPQ Infra, the organization in charge of the project, has been caught totally off-guard.

While it might be tempting to say that it is bad luck causing the REM’s woes, a much more likely cause is paranormal activity triggered by angry Irish Famine ghosts.

Haunted Montreal has been following and blogging this story for several years now. Part 1 of the blog appeared in January, 2020 and examined the REM’s decision to desecrate the Irish Famine Cemetery at the Black Rock. Indeed, the REM’s workers dug up over a dozen skeletons to insert a concrete monorail pylon into the heart of the cemetery.

Generally-speaking, the Dead do not like to be disturbed, especially when their funerary marker, the ominous Black Rock, is engraved with the following words:

“To Preserve from Desecration the Remains of 6000 Immigrants Who died of Ship Fever A.D. 1847- 48.”

Part 1 speculated that the light rail system would likely become haunted due to the desecration. It also theorized which ghosts might appear to haunt the trains and surrounding infrastructure.

Part 2 of the series offered the REM an inexpensive solution to prevent the Irish Famine ghosts from infesting the system by painting the concrete pylon Haint Blue, a colour known to ward off spirits.

Haunted Montreal warned REM officials that failure to comply would almost certainly result in the new system becoming ghost-infested. However, REM administrator Isabelle Lachance dismissed these concerns, stating that there were no plans to paint the pylon Haint Blue.

Paranormal expert Dominique Desormeaux had warned about the disturbing consequences of the REM’s failure to protect its transportation system: “Ghosts will feast on the electrical side. They look for a source to be able to manifest themselves, so yes, ghosts will haunt the REM. I’m telling you, you will see people complaining about strange stuff happening at the REM and to the people working there. The ghosts will even cause trouble for the train and there will be often be power shortages and train malfunctions.”

Unfortunately for the REM, Desormeaux’s predictions turned out to be true for the most part.

On the first day of the REM’s grand opening, electrical problems started appearing throughout the rail network. In fact, the system experienced three power failures during the first three days, forcing passengers off the trains and onto busses.

Furthermore, many elevators and escalators broke down, leaving many disabled passengers stranded and upset.

Then, the evening after opening, three REM passengers were mistakenly sent to a train garage in Brossard. A man named Grégoire, his wife and a tourist from South America ended up trapped in the REM’s garage after the driverless train seemed to take on a life of its own. Instead of driving towards Montreal, it unexpectedly drove backwards from the station into the train garage where it turned itself off.

According to Grégoire: “The train shut down, the lights were dim and then we were looking around, there was no way out and we could see all the trains around us, so that was kind of spooky.”

Fearing they were going to “spend the night” on the train, Grégoire’s wife used the intercom system to tell security guards that they were trapped in the garage. Ten minutes later, an operator ordered the driverless train return to the Brossard station.

From there, REM staff picked them up and drove them home.

The next major incident was literally shocking – a lightning bolt hit the REM! On the night of August 3rd, the electric bolt zapped the light rail system, temporarily halting its operation.

CDPQ Infra’s director of communications, Jean-Vincent Lacroix, later explained that the REM “is designed” to deal with this type of event.

However, a local Irish-Montrealer named Seamus who has ancestors buried at the Black Rock stated: “It’s God himself who is striking the REM with lightning because they desecrated the Irish Famine Dead. What a disgrace! Indeed, I predict that the Dear Lord will continue sending the lightning bolts until the whole system is destroyed! When you mess with the Irish Famine Dead, you are messing with God himself!”

Furthermore, there have been reports that whenever the REM train passes over the Black Rock Irish Famine Cemetery, strange things tend to happen. For example, sometimes the train starts shaking and other times the interior lights begin flickering on and off. In another case, a rider from Brossard complained of feeling nauseous every time the REM train rolls over the hallowed burial ground.

There have also been endless noise complaints from those living in the condo towers that have sprouted up along the line in neighborhoods like Griffintown and Nun’s Island. Initial promises by REM officials to mitigate excessive noise have not born fruit.

Journalists have determined the trains generate a noise level ranging from 75 to 100 decibels, which is far higher than the 55 decibels recommended by the World Health Organization.

Nearby residents have complained this the endless noise exposure causes stress, impacts mental health, and contributes to issues such as high blood pressure and sleep deprivation.

In addition, CDPQ Infra initially stated the new Griffintown station would be finished and up-and-running in 2024.

However, after numerous delays, CDPQ Infra is no longer committing to a completion date.

“We are still studying the possibilities for the construction of this station. It is made more complex by other projects that are in the vicinity and because the train is currently in operation,” CDPQ Infra said in a statement.

To make matters worse, Mayor Valerie Plante turned a blind eye to concerns from the local and international Irish communities when she insisted on co-branding the station with Bernard Landry, a deceased politician.

Despite pleas from the Irish communities and negative local and international media reports, Plante rebranded the station “Griffintown-Bernard-Landry.”

Given the disrespect and endless delays, many in the Irish community believe the station is cursed – and will never be completed. Indeed, according to Seamus: “Griffintown was once Canada’s largest Irish neighborhood. It was where the survivors of the Irish Famine settled during the dark days of Black ’47 after crossing the Atlantic on coffin ships. Rebranding the Griff is nothing short of sacrilege and that REM station is doomed, I tell you!”

Lastly, there one of the most serious issues. Since Hydro-Québec purchased the land where the Black Rock cemetery lies in 2017 to build a new substation, there has been a lot of doubt about its promise to preserve the burial ground. Hydro-Québec had promised to build a world-class park on the site in conjunction with Montreal’s Irish community.

However, since Hydro-Québec got involved there has been one desecration after another against the Irish Famine Dead and their memory. An upcoming Part 4 of this series will delve into those issues and related hauntings.

To conclude, the REM has failed to protect its system from the paranormal. In desecrating the Irish Famine Dead at the Black Rock Cemetery with a concrete pylon, REM essentially invited their ghosts to haunt the system. The resulting disturbances, electrical and otherwise, will likely only intensify in the future.

As such, ride the REM at your own risk!

Company News

With the Hallowe’en Season fast approaching, Haunted Montreal’s seasons of public outdoor ghost tours is in full swing! Offered every Friday and Saturday night, we have four ghost tours on rotation (Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and Mount Royal.)

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is also offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

Our Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery happens on the first Friday and Saturday of every month.

Private tours for any of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $215 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

You can bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office party, house, school or event by booking one of our Travelling Ghost Storytellers today.

Hear some of the spookiest tales from our tours and our blog told by a professional actor and storyteller. You provide the venue, we provide the stories and storyteller. Find out more and then contact info@hauntedmontreal.com

Our team also releases videos every second Saturday, in both languages, of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog. Hosted by Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French), this initiative is sure to please ghost story fans!

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In other news, if you want to send someone a haunted experience as a gift, you certainly can!

We are offering Haunted Montreal Gift Certificates through our website and redeemable via Eventbrite for any of our in-person or virtual events (no expiration date).

Finally, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. We are selling t-shirts, magnets, sweatshirts (for those haunted fall and winter nights) and mugs with both the Haunted Montreal logo and our tour imagery.

Purchases can be ordered through our online store.

Haunted Montreal would like to thank all of our clients who attended a ghost walk, haunted pub crawl, paranormal investigation or virtual event!

If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page, something that really helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours.

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Coming up on October 13: Dow Brewery

Built in 1861, the massive Dow Brewery in Grffintown was once the largest producer of beer in Montreal. However, after a poisoned beer scandal in the 1960s, the brewery began falling into a slow decline. In 1998, it was abandoned – electricity was cut off and the building was allowed to fall into ruins. Contaminated with asbestos, the Dow Brewery has since been used by urban explorers, ghost hunters and mediums. With a confused ghostly girl sometimes appearing inside the ruined building, many are convinced that the old brewery is haunted.

Author:

Donovan King is a postcolonial historian, teacher, tour guide and professional actor. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, he combines his skills to create the best possible Montreal ghost stories, in both writing and theatrical performance. King holds a DEC (Professional Theatre Acting, John Abbott College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill), MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary) and ACS (Montreal Tourist Guide, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). He is also a certified Montreal Destination Specialist.

Translator (into French):

Claude Chevalot holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from McGill University. She is a writer, editor and translator. For more than 15 years, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to literary translation and to the translation of texts on current and contemporary art.