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Perhaps my lifelong dream of driving a train needs to be rethought.

Although the STM is hiring train operators, it’s sadly clear to me that I shouldn’t quit my day job, because it’s much harder than it looks to drive a métro full of passengers through the city’s underground.

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I got to test my mettle this week when the STM let me try its state-of-the-art métro simulator, bought at a cost of $2.5 million to train operators before the arrival of the Azur métro cars. The new trains, which along with the necessary infrastructure improvements cost $2.4 billion, began rolling out in February 2016.

“It was important to get the simulator, because we had to train the drivers on the trains before they arrived in Montreal,” explained Annie Fontaine, a training and development councillor for the Société de transport de Montréal.

Operators go through 26 days of training before they can drive the new trains. Those who already drive the older-models spend only five days to update their skills for the new model.