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An
underground railway project in 1910! |
When Montreal got its metro in
1966, London had had its own for over a century (1863). This panacea to urban traffic
congestion next appeared in Boston in 1898, Paris in 1900, New York in 1904 and in
Philadelphia — a late bloomer — in 1907. It was no surprise that the
implementation of electric tramways in Montreal in 1892 was followed by the first metro
plans at the turn of the century. Every financier and gentlemen of the Canadian and Quebec
English establishment would hustle and bustle to try to win this project and realize what
one of them called ‘the foremost human and financial project of all time in
Montreal.’ |
A usual rush-hour scene on St-James Street in 1910
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On May 15, 1902, a Federal Act incorporated the Montreal Subway Co.,
whose mission was ‘to open up, build and operate a subway or subways, both for
railways and roadways, under the river and facing the Island of Montreal ... with streets
and underground passages on each side of the St. Lawrence river.’ In 1910, three
business groups introduced as many projects to the Quebec Legislature with the hope to be
awarded the right to build and operate an underground railway in Montreal. Thomas W. Peel
and his associates failed in their bid to set up The Montreal Underground and Elevated
Railway Co., their private bill being voted down on its third reading. The Suburban
Tramway and Power Co., which was already operating a tramway system in Montreal, was
granted the right to change its charter and name to the Public Service Corporation, but
the amending bill that would have given this corporation even greater power was turned
down also on a third reading. But the Montreal Street Railway Co., the largest transit
provider in Montreal at that time, won approval by Quebec lawmakers and a four-year time
limit was set for work to begin.
What appears to be the first well-documented underground railway project in Montreal
dates back to 1910. In that year, the Montreal Central Terminal Co. (MCTC), established in
1890 as the Montreal Bridge Co., was awarded by the federal government the right to build
not only a bridge over the St. Lawrence but also a tunnel under it connecting Montreal to
the South Shore. The MCTC drew up plans to realize this project and, in 1910, carried out
numerous steps to this effect. On December 31, 1910, MCTC president Mr. Armstrong
presented to the representatives of the City of Montreal a gigantic project of a
double-track tunnel under the St. Lawrence leading to a downtown station from which would
radiate an underground railway network going east, west and north. Armstrong was not
asking for any direct funding from the City, but had an understanding that the MCTC would
be given some free reins in taxation and related matters in exchange. Having failed
earlier in its project to build a bridge across the St. Lawrence River, the MCTC would
invest lots of energy to try to carry this project through. Looking at the exchange of
letters kept in the archives of the City of Montreal, it seems that some railway companies
solidly established in Montreal fought vigorously against the project. And the project was
to fall through a few years later.
In conclusion to his letter of December 31, 1910, Armstrong said, ‘this project is
of such a magnitude that a lot of time is required to analyze it through and
through.’ This advice was taken quite literally, as numerous other projects would
come and go before work began on May 23, 1962
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