A long history

...By the time it was opened - 14 October 1966 - a lot of ink had already been spilled on the Montreal metro. Starting in 1910, the Montreal Street Railway Company had studied the possibility of constructing a metro system. Montreal had a population of 500 000 at that time, and the great cities of the world, like New York, Paris, and London, had already installed subway systems. Somewhat later, in 1929, the former president of the Montreal Tramway stated that no real solution to the city's transportation problems would be possible without the construction of a metro system. Even then, it was recognized that having a metro would allow the average speed of traffic to increase and traffic loads to decrease.

Despite a wealth of projects, the development of a rapid transit system remained tabled until the fifties. In 1951, the creation of the Commission de transport de Montréal (CTM) took stock of the Montreal public transit network. On 23 October 1953 the CTM presented the City of Montreal with a report containing four documents, including the plans for a future metro system. This was not followed up on due to a lack of will and of funds.

At the end of the fifties, Montreal underwent a rapid growth. Quebec was experiencing deep changes during the Quiet Revolution. At the time of the 1960 municipal election, the metro project became a political issue. Starting in 1961, a group of engineers and architects formed the Bureau de métro, whose job was to prepare plans, specifications, requests for proposals, and construction supervision. This huge public works operation was begun on 23 May 1962.

At the highest point of the project, which lasted four years, some 5 000 people were working on it. The initial network, with 26 stations over a distance of 25,9 kilometres, was entirely conceived, undertaken, and financed by the City of Montreal at a cost of $213,7 million. On 14 October 1966, twenty of the twenty-six initial stations were open to the public. The routes of the two main lines closely followed rue Sainte-Catherine (line 1) and rue Saint-Denis (line 2), replacing overloaded bus routes. This initial network was composed of the stations between Atwater and Frontenac (1), Henri-Bourassa and Bonaventure (2), and Berri-de-Montigny and Longueuil (4). Line 3 of the metro, which was to include 15 stations and use the CN tracks, including the train tunnel under Mount Royal, was never constructed. Converting the line for use with the metro would have required rolling stock with steel wheels instead of tires, and would have gone outside the limits of the city of Montreal.

Extension of the initial network

After the creation of the Montreal Urban Community (in 1969), responsibility for the development and construction of extensions to the network fell to it, via the Bureau de transport métropolitain. In 1970 it was decided to extend line 1 to the east and west, and line 2 to the northwest. In September 1970, the MUC's executive committee submitted its extension proposal, entitled "Le transport public... un bond en avant", to the community's council. The proposal called for extending line 1 from Frontenac to Honoré-Beaugrand, and from Atwater to Angrignon Park in the west. For line 2, an extension was planned from Bonaventure to rue Paré in Côte-des-Neiges.

A transverse route was also proposed to link the two sections of line 2. Although boul. Rosemont was considered as a site for the line, it was decided instead to build it under rue Jean-Talon, at least for the eastern section. As for traffic on the new line, it was already known even before its construction that line 5 would be underused and that "rush hour traffic barely justifies a metro line."

Work on the extension of line 1 began on 14 October 1971. The eastern section, towards Honoré-Beaugrand, was to begin service in 1976, just before the Olympic Games. As for the western section, it was finished two years later. The first stations added to line 2, west of Bonaventure, were inaugurated in the spring of 1980.

In the meantime, the government of Quebec intervened in the matter. In 1976, it imposed a moratorium on all extensions (on lines 2 and 5). This intervention was based on the provincial government's increasing involvement since 1973 in public transit financing.

Later, in 1979, Quebec City, in its Plan de transport intégré de la région de Montréal, proposed a plan for the eastern part of the island somewhat different from that of the MUC. Disagreement between the two levels of government began to make itself felt. Quebec City's proposal modified line 5's path east of Saint-Michel. Instead of going through Saint Léonard and Montréal-Nord as planned in the MUC's 1973 plans, the extension would go towards Anjou.

After further discussions, in 1981 the MUC ratified an agreement with the Ministry of Transport of Quebec. With this agreement, the MUC accepted the construction of a surface metro serving the east, line 6 on Canadian National tracks; in return, the government of Quebec agreed to pay 100% of the costs of extensions carried out after 1 January 1980. A white paper entitled "Le transport en commun: un choix régional", and presented in June 1982 by the minister Michel Clair, confirmed the differences of opinion as to the metro's path.

While the Ministry of Transport was working on the development of the surface metro through several variations, the Gascon report recommended extending line 5 to Anjou, constructing a north-south line (line 7) under boul. Pie-IX toward Montreal-North, and installing a surface metro line from Radisson metro towards Pointe-aux-Trembles (line 8). To further complicate matters, Quebec insisted on adopting steel wheel technology instead of tires for the metro extensions. A working group made up with representatives of the Ministry of Transport and of the MUC, concluded in October 1984 that the project was technically feasible, but underlined the very low level of traffic foreseen for the line, unconnected to the type of technology chosen.

...Public transit in the Montreal region was studied by two parliamentary commissions in 1987 and 1988. In August 1988, the then-Minister of Transport, Marc-Yvan Côté, submitted his transport plan for 1988-1998, proposing extending the metro eastward with, among others, the extension of line 5 from Saint-Michel to Montréal-Nord. Finally, on 21 September 1989, an agreement for the creation of a regional transit organization provided for the extension of ligne 2 towards Laval, along with the creation of line 7 under Pie-IX and the modernization of the Montreal - Deux-Montagnes commuter train line. This agreement came about a few days before the provincial election and two months before municipal elections in Laval.

Reproduced by kind permission of Transport 2000 Quebec.