Ontario offers Quebec a GO train to ease post-collapse traffic

Ontario is chipping in a GO train to help Montreal and Laval's transit agencies adjust to increased ridership inthe wake of the weekend collapse of a key commuter overpass.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has offered the use of acommuter trainthat usually plies"GO Train" routes in theToronto areato help the overloaded public transit systems in Quebec.

"[Quebec officials]tell me there has been an increase, [a]fairly dramatic increase, in demand for the rail," McGuinty told reporters in Toronto on Tuesday.

"There's a rail line that runs along the site of the tragedy, and more and more people want touse that rail line. We are more than pleased to help out."

The GO train can carry up to 1,400 commuters at a time.

Montreal authorities will go to Toronto on Wednesday to pick up the train and bring it back to Quebecvia CN's rail tracks. McGuinty said Montreal can keep the train as long as it wants, because it's not being used in Toronto.

In the past two days,at least 1,000 people a day have opted to use a special shuttle bus serviceoffered between Laval and Montreal's subway line, said the island's transit agency, the AMT.

The buses, which run betweenCinma Guzzo and the Henri-Bourassa subway station were running at full capacity during Tuesday morning's rush hour.

For some commuters, the experience left a mark. It was "very incredible and helpful," said Lilianne Sncal, from Laval, who took a shuttle bus from Cinma Guzzo to the Henri-Bourassa metro station. "I used to park my car at the [commuter] train station, but I prefer it this way."

Others who tried public transit Tuesday after spending hours caught in gridlock Monday were astounded at how fast the shuttle bus got them to the subway system.

"The time it takes to cross the Viau bridge, it's more than an hour [by car]. With the bus it's a few minutes," gushed Simon Lacombe, who works in Montreal, but lives in Laval.

"If the pass was cheaper, I'd take the bus. It's more fun on the bus," he said before getting on the shuttle Tuesday morning.

Most overpasses pass inspection

Meanwhile, transport officials in Quebec are reassuring the public that all but one of the province's overpasses are safe, even though they still have no idea why one collapsed in Laval on Saturday, killing five people.

Officials with Quebec's Ministry of Transport selected 18 overpasses for special inspection following the collapse, because they are built in a similar fashion to the de la Concorde overpass that crumbled over Highway 19.

There are about 5,000 overpasses in the province.

Officials concluded late Monday that 17 are safe and can remain open, but one the De Blois overpass on Highway 19 in Laval will remain closed, because it may pose a risk.

Engineers have propped the De Blois structure up with reinforcements, and have drilled observation windows into it to see if it is safe, said Anne-Marie Leclerc, Quebec's deputy minister of transport.

"That's a part of the investigation. We're looking for specific behaviours, specific aspects and strange manifestation," she said. "If [engineers]find something a little bit strange, they would do something."

Span may help pinpoint cause of collapse

The De Blois overpass may provide clues to the mystery of the de la Concorde span collapse. Not only is De Blois located within a few hundred metres of de la Concorde, but it was built at the same time in 1970, and has a similar structure.

A second overpass in Montreal, which intersects highways 40 and 15 on the eastbound side, is under observation as well, Leclerc added. Engineers have removed a piece of support steel from the overpass to get a better look at the condition of the concrete underneath but they deem the span safe enough to remain open to traffic, Leclerc said.

"It'sOK for the rest of it but there's a small piece that we don't see so we have to take out the shield and complete that," Leclerc explained.

Conclusions from theinvestigationwill be folded into the larger public inquiry into the condition of Quebec's overpasses, which Premier Jean Charest called for a day after the collapse. He has appointed former Parti Qubcois premier Pierre Marc Johnson to head the inquiry.

Victims mourned

As engineers, road experts and police piece together events that led to the collapse of the de la Concorde overpass, families and neighbours are mourning the untimely deaths ofthe five victims.

The five people diedaftertheir cars were flattened by the rubble that fell from the overpass.

Jean-Pierre Hamel and Sylvie Beaudet were driving in their Honda when it was crushed by falling concrete overhead. Jean-Pierre's older brother, Gilles, was riding in the back seat, and also died.

Hamel and Beaudet were survived by their eight-year-old son, who was at a ball hockey game that afternoon.

Neighbours said the Hamel-Beaudets were a happyfamily. "I would always see them in their backyard, swimming," said Helen Kalopodakis, who lives a few doors away. "They loved life. You could tell they loved life. They were always outside barbecuing."

The two other victims were looking forward to starting a family of their own,said people who knew them.

Vronique Binette and Mathieu Goyette, both 28,lived together and were expecting a baby. A neighbour who knew them said they wereshopping around for a day care. They were driving in the right-hand lane when the overpass collapsed on their car Saturday. Police had to usedental records to identify their bodies.

Six people were injured in the collapse, but they are all conscious and in stable condition, said doctors who are caring for them. They are lucky to be alive, said Dr. Stephan Panic, a trauma surgeon at Sacr-Coeur Hospital, where four of the six victims were rushed on Saturday.

"Everything is going like we like things to go, given the nature of the injuries of each patient," Panic said. One victim remains in serious condition and is on a respirator machine, but he is expected to pull through, he added.

More theories to explain collapse

The collapsed overpass may have been compromised because of salt corrosion, theorizedMcGill University engineer Saeed Mirza, who examined the site Monday.

Corrosion was evident in one area of the overpass, said Mirza, who teaches at the university.

"Like a crevice on a steel bar," he said, after taking a look at the rubble."That is dangerous because the bar that is normally quite ductile or can move a lot and give a lot of warning, that warning is not there, and the bar fails in a brittle manner," he explained.

Only regular maintenance work can prevent corrosion.But engineers who work with Quebec's Ministry of Transport have limited resources, Mirza said. "Between 10 and 15 per centof our bridges are deteriorated, and these are the ones we need to attend to urgently," he said.