City politician "Honest" Abe Limonchuk told me just before he died a decade ago that the "greatest tourist attraction that Montreal ever had" was the little train that ran up to the top of Mount Royal.The Mount Royal Elevator was launched in 1884 and closed up in 1918 when the company that ran it went broke and couldn't afford the repairs.
The ride headed up to the chalet-area from where around the fire administration buildings currently sits.
The little train was a staple for tourists and the mayor would bring visiting dignitairies (what's a dignitary? - Chimples) for a ride to the top.
The idea for its creation lay in the fact that Mount Royal was deemed inaccessible and would never attract people from poorer neighbourhoods, who'd have to take quite a hike to get up there.
And they had a point. Concentrating a massive percentage of our green space resources into one spot on the mountain, rather than a series of local parks isn't exactly a blessing for the poor, so the rich folk who are obsessed with Mount Royal need to toss them a bone.
Of course Camielien Houde Road was built later, so you can take a bus or a car up to the top quite easily now.
But a new train would be a delight, considering that technology exists to do it in an unimposing and ecologically-positive way.
We should get 'er back by 2018, to represent 100 years of its disappearance.
Well, we can dream. But Les Amis de la Montagne would never allow it. And, as you said, the 11 bus serves the same purpose.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the hundreds of millions this would cost are better spent on fixing the laundry list of broken stuff we already have.
I have also often thought it would be nice to have a funicular railway going up in that area again.
ReplyDeleteThe original was a two-stage affair. You can see the less inclined section in the postcard. The photographer is standing on it in the left photo. Then you transferred to the more inclined part. The transfer station is the building in the bottom third of the same photo on the left.
The idea that Mount Royal should be more accessible to the general population was also the justification for building the later streetcar lines up the mountain.
The first streetcar line was built in 1924 from Cote des Neiges up to near where the loop connecting Remembrance Road and Camillien Houde Parkway is today. The line wasn't very successful because there were few residents near the western side of the mountain at the time.
Between the Fall of 1929 and the Spring of 1930, another line was built that came up from Park Ave. and Blvd. Mont Royal on the east side to connect with the 1924 line at Summit Loop.
There was a great outcry against construction that would deface the mountain park in any way. For this reason both routes were kept as close as possible to the boundary between the cemeteries and Mount Royal park itself. The city paid for the clearing and grading of the line (including a 337 foot tunnel near the summit) while the private Montreal Tramways Company paid for the laying of rails and stringing of overhead trolley wire.
Today's Remembrance Road (the westbound lanes) follow the original 1924 streetcar route while the Camillien Houde Parkway follows the later 1930 streetcar route. The remains of the tunnel are clearly seen where the roadway narrows between cliffs just above the present day east side lookout.
There is a certain irony in the name of the road. Camillien Houde, Montreal's longtime mayor, repeatedly voiced his very strong opposition to any kind of road on the mountain. Allegedly he used the phrase "over my dead body." Considering he is buried in the cemetery next door, his wish was close to being granted.
To add to my earlier coments, I should have mentioned the mountain streetcars didn't operate in the winter. Some Montrealers may remember hiking up the east side of the mountain along the tracks in the winter.
ReplyDeleteRemembrance Road (formerly Shakespeare Road) had already been there for a number of years with the tracks in the pavement but road access from the east wouldn't come until the very late 1950s.
There was talk at one time of closing the road over the mountain. Whatever became of that?
Such funicular railways have had their problems; very recently in Quebec City. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Quebec_Funicular
As for reinstating the one for Mount Royal, I have never heard any public outcry for more access to the mountain than already exists.
Politicians will have their pet projects which they'll tout to the media (such as streetcar lines!), but most of them fall to the wayside because they drag on too long and administrations change before anything is ever done.
As mentioned in an earlier part of the blog, there was controversy in the building of the route 11 tramline, and even further controversy when it was demolished in favour of Camilien Houde Road so that busses and cars could replace the trams.
Accessibility is no problem. Unless they want to reconsider allowing caleches back up on the mountain, I say leave well-enough alone.
If you can't walk up, you can't go. There is no economic disparity in that.
ReplyDeleteGreat Idea!!
ReplyDeleteBut, INSTEAD, lets make it a whole NEW Metro Line! The BLACK/NOIRE Line in deference to all the cemeteries on the Mountain!!
Five-minute headway with 8-car trains 24/7/365!
AND, a Fountain! Top and Bottom stations. 24/7/365.
The fountains could become ice sculptures in winter.
Coloured lights, dyed water and all.
Blue and White, of course!
Meanwhile, the rest of the infrastructure down below in the City is falling apart, or getting washed away in the McTavish Flood of '13.
The lowing wind thru the trees at the summit, the sound of rushing potable water, the thud of falling concrete, road cones in profusion, down in the City.
Hmmm.
Going up ( and down ) the Mountain by streetcar from CdN or Park Avenue and thru the tunnel, the car lights were on, was wonderful.
http://www.taylornoakes.com/wp-content/galleries/2011/07/4458860300_29fa8309a7_b.jpg
Mais, I digress.
Thank You.
If you look at Mont Royal in the winter (i.e., now) you can see a distinctive straight line of pine trees going up the east face of the mountain. I could never confirm it but it looks obvious that this is where the funicular tracks once lay.
ReplyDeleteAre caleches no longer allowed on the mountain? Or is it simply because there is no money to be made there?
ReplyDeleteI drove a caleche many decades ago. At that time, all the business was at Dominion Square. There were many more hotels near the square back then. (Think of all the ones now gone: the Queens, the Laurentian, the Windsor, the Mount Royal). There was a lot of competition from other tour guides. All the tour buses left from Dominion Square. There were also taxi drivers there who would give tours for a set fare.
There was practically nothing in Old Montreal at the time. The older caleche drivers who didn't like working in the ever increasing traffic of downtown stayed on the mountain. They were based near the loop that connects Remembrance Road and the Camillien Houde Parkway. There was always good business from there to the chalet or an extended loop around the cross. Many of those same drivers drove the sleighs on the mountain in the winter.
Those of us who worked downtown would occasionally get a mountain trip, by far the most lucrative. We took Peel, Sherbrooke, McTavish, McGregor (Wilder Penfield) around the reservoir, then west on Pine. To start our climb into the park, we would use the serpentine dirt road that opened from Pine just west of Peel and trhe Allan Memorial Institute. That road (Olmsted Road) was closed to motorized vehicles.
We worked our way to the chalet and if the customers wanted, we would make the extra loop around the cross. The passengers usually got a few minutes to stretch their legs and take photos at the lookout while the horse rested. On the return trip, we came back partially on the same route but then continued behind the Royal Victoria Hospital, coming out at the Sir George Etienne Cartier monument on Park Avenue. We returned south on Park through the spaghetti interchange, onto Hutchison, Sherbrooke, and Metcalfe back to the square.
Older Montrealers might still recall the "Tally-ho" wagons on the mountain -- a team of horses pulling a roofed but open-sided wagon carrying about 20 passengers. They operated between the loop and the chalet. As late as the 1950s, you could still go horseback riding on rental horses on the mountain's many bridle trails. Although at the edge of the park, the building of the Camillien Houde Parkway very much changed the bucolic nature of Mount Royal.
ReplyDeleteForget tourism on the mountain. Its a real estate gold mine. Time to forget all these tree-huggers and their mountain and pseudo-fitness walkers in lululemon pants. Sell the whole damn mountain off to developers and build super luxury villas and mansions. With the view they would go for easily 10 million+. I'm heading for my first million and over by the time I'm 30 I hope and would gladly develop this wasted green space. Time to let out the dogs of capitalism, let them run free. run free and build real real estate with high return value. This is my dream.
The city and the slovenly middle class will benefit from tax base it will create. I'm gonna be in the 1% and i'd gladly pay to hire armed security detail to beat away the lazy dirty hairy stoner hippies at the tam-tams who would surely be comin for hand outs at the door of us hard working rich overlooking the city. God they disgust me like the homeless. (Scott - motivated entrepreneur)
My folks used to joke that mayor Houde was very much opposed to a road over the mountain, claiming it was for a park, not a parkway, and if people wanted to get to the top, they could either walk, or rebuild the funicular. He said "They'll only build a road over my dead body."
ReplyDeleteSo of course when he died, they buried him on the mountain, built a road right past his grave, and named the thing after him.
Okay, it may be apocryphal, but it's a cute enough story to be pure Montreal.
Let us hope that "Scott Anonymous...soon to be in the 1%" (who likely only exists in an alternate universe) will fly to Rio, build his armed-guarded mausoleum on former favela territory, and lose his return ticket.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Mount-Royal tunnel was dug, there were talks to put a station in the middle that would have let people get off and take elevators to about where the chalet is located.
ReplyDeleteYou also talk of a similar project: http://coolopolis.blogspot.ca/2012/12/two-wacky-plans-for-mount-royal-that.html.
You can still see, to this day, remains of the upper station of the cable car: photo.
If you want to make a killing redevelopping land, the place to go is Dorval, after closing the airport and moving all flights to Mirabel, and extending the Deux-Montagnes line all the way there.
Dorval has been obsolete for 40 years, and no amount of lipstick will ever change that.
urban legend Scott here... ummm ...alternate universe? bcause i present enthusiasm for free market possibilities. i have a business degree work in finance an investments and got my eye on the ball wich is wealth, i get criticised. great. you should read the writer Ayn Rand and study economics like i have the market is strangled by communist ideals hidden as fair mixed economies. A prof told a class i was in canada would be so much richer now if we had governments who listened to Milton Friedman instead of Trudeau in the 1960s. and favala territory what the hell is that? Why would i move to a third world place like brazil full unemployed black people as i white person.
ReplyDeleteWho the hell cares what Ayn Rand thinks?
ReplyDeleteHere is what Mount Royal would look like if the robber barons and socio-misfits with their deep pockets had their way...the hills above Rio:
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.insightguides.com/docs/halo-asset-manager/images/BLOG/Favela1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.insightguides.com/inspire-me/blog/rios-favelas&h=640&w=900&sz=764&tbnid=nXFwq6UNXgAX1M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=127&zoom=1&usg=__H0hMKwNJ1GJdoArSXJvJ0oHSJ0g=&docid=9ISFKi_hNilpZM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mMIXUZDwB4fe8ATE24CwDg&sqi=2&ved=0CD8Q9QEwAw&dur=120
Read the Montreal Gazette of April 17, 1952, page 3, article heading "Scenic Railway Proposed..." (link below) where it had been suggested that a European-type "aerial tramway" (cable-cars) replace the then-existing route 11 surface tramway over Mount Royal.
ReplyDeleteThe article gives us excellent insight into the mentality of the day regarding what were considered to be potential "improvements" to our parks.
When we were kids, I remember walking with a friend around Mount Royal soon after the closure of the tramline and feeling the dynamite blasts of the cliff walls being re-configured for road-bed widening for the subsequent Camillien-Houde Parkway.
As we know, as of 2018 the current Plante administration recently decided to close the road to through-traffic (except STM busses) while still allowing vehicular to gain access to and from either side.
https://news.google.ca/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19520417&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
So, it looks like the mayor caved in to those who demanded the short-cut over the mountain. Too bad. We shall see what happens when another cyclist gets killed. :-(
ReplyDeleteIn any event, there is new and a very handy bus route 711 over Camilien-Houde.