Here's the deal. Remember Expo 67?
Montreal's World Fair of 1967 relied on a custom-made $18 million train to ferry visitors around from the sites on the islands.
The Expo Express was an automated train that rolled 5.7 kilometers. Each train could hold 1,000 passengers and rolled by every five minutes.
The drivers did nothing and were there only to reassure passengers who might have worried about being on an automated vehicle.
The train was instrumental to the fantastic Expo 67 event.
But when it ended, the train wasn't needed much.
The fair continued for several years as Man and His World but only half of the train line was in use.
A private company called SUTRI bid $1,880,000 for 48 cars of the underused train in 1968.
Their plan was to modify the cars to fit on a monorail that would link Laval to the Henri Bourassa metro.Newspaper articles do not identify who was behind SUTRI (Societe des Transports Rapides Incorporated) or where exactly in Laval the train would stop.
Laval Mayor Jacques Tetreault was a vigorous supporter of the plan, as he anxiously sought a way for Laval to be linked to the Montreal metro system.
SUTRI's offer was accepted by the Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition.
However the deal outraged Montrealers and the Gazette launched a Save the Express campaign, which solicited opposition letters from readers. Over 30,000 letters poured into the Gazette opposing the sale of the beloved train line.
Letter writers included out-of-towners, the provincial premier, as well as Frank Hanley, a veteran politician who had opposed the Expo World's Fair from the start.
On 29 October 1968 Gazette columnist Al Palmer handed the huge pile of letters over to city bigwig Lucien Saulnier.
The city committed to keeping the train where it was.
SUTRI was irritated and in a strangely emotional corporate statement they denounced the "dirt-slinging campaign launched by the City of Montreal."
Montreal soon committed to dealing half of the 48 train cars to Edmonton for the same $1.8 million fee but that never happened either.
The train kept running at the Man and His World fair site for two months a year until in October 1972.
Much of the train tracks were pulled up in 1974 and the cars were stored in a variety of places until being scrapped in 1995.Laval had to wait a long time before getting linked to the Montreal metro system.
On 28 April 2007 three stations opened in the suburban municipality, finally fulfilling a dream that came close to happening 38 years earlier.
Al Palmer died in March 1971 and Saulnier died June 1989. Tetrault died in 2018.
Interesting story. I remember riding the Expo Express a couple of times during Expo67.
ReplyDeleteAs an alternative to the monorail plan, another trial balloon idea was to eventually run the remaining rolling stock on the CN commuter line through the Mount Royal tunnel and perhaps onward into Laval but that likewise never occurred, possibly due to equipment incompatibility.
In any event, because Expo67 ran from May through October, I don't recall if a heating system was even included inside the Expo Express passenger cars, thus rendering them unsuitable for winter use, barring a subsequent retro-fit. As a matter of fact, the majority of Expo67's pavilions were not winterized either--indeed were never intended to be--which is one reason why they were demolished afterwards although re-purposed for future use were the remnants of the U.S. pavilion (the biosphere), the French pavilion (our casino), the Expo Theatre on Cite du Havre, the Port of Montreal Building, etc.
Not sure if any remaining Expo Express rolling stock exists on display or in storage somewhere. You would think that Exporail in Delson would have made a bid to obtain at least one carriage, but apparently not.
Sadly, the history of rail networks in Canada is laced with grandiose schemes that went nowhere due to politics, poor planning, and/or half-measures. Witness the proposed but doomed high-speed rail line between Montreal and Mirabel Airport, not to mention how Highway 13 never got extended north beyond Route 440 to service the airport which itself was eventually scrapped due to political interference: the competition with Dorval, etc.
See the hype, hoopla, and map in the Gazette of March 27, 1974, page 1: "Rapid rail system may link city, Mirabel by 1980":
https://news.google.ca/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19740327&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
Note where it says, "...if all levels of government agree to share costs..." and "A definite decision will require consultation with the federal government, local municipalities, and transportation companies.". Ha ha! Yeah, right!
With the clear view of hindsight, reading about such bungled proposals would be laughable if they weren't so pathetic and considering how those concerned STILL haven't reached an agreement to complete Cavendish Boulevard, what hope is there that someday wiser individuals will prevail and agree to make it all happen?
It is a wonder--indeed a miracle (!)--that the REM "Sky Train" network is actually being built, but we can safely suspect that the current lack-of-interest in Quebec separatism and referendums has played the major role in our recent infrastructure building boom.
Oh...and not to forget: remember our "Great Canadian Rail Fiasco--The Turbo Train". See:
https://twitter.com/torailwaymuseum/status/1072260593703358471
http://spacing.ca/toronto/2015/12/09/53711/
(Note that Google newspaper archives is missing the Montreal Gazette for entire month of December 1968!)
A definitive article about the Expo Express can be found in Canadian Rail Magazine Issue No. 159 - October 1964, published three years before Expo67 opened. The closing paragraph states:
ReplyDelete"Unfortunately, the Expo Express will be removed completely immediately after the 1967 Exposition closes, as agreed between the Expo 67 Corporation and the City of Montreal, in order to exclude any possibility of competition with the new rubber-tyred Metro line which is being constucted between Montreal, St. Helen's Island, and the South Shore".
Evidently, the city wasn't keen on allowing an upstart Expo Express to "compete" with the Metro, despite the fact that it would not have been a true "parallel service".
Regarding the proposed plan to run the Expo Express trains as a part of a future replacement for the existing rolling stock currently used on the Montreal-Deux Montagnes line through the Mount Royal Tunnel, this new rail project was to be known as the Rapide. The Rapide was likewise to be non-compatible with the Metro. As we know, the Rapide plan never came to fruition but has subsequently been replaced by the more comprehensive REM slated to begin service in 2024 or sooner if the usual teething delays are avoided.
A download source for Canadian Rail Magazine is here:
https://railwaypages.com/canadian-rail-crha-links-to-issues