Montreals Metro System

I was thinking about how awesome it would be if our metro would go to the west island, maybe more into the east end, south shore perhaps, or even as far as chateauguay... So naturally curiosity got the best of me and I decided to look up the metro system in montreal, and the results surprised me.. Theres alot I didn't know, for example.

• The metro originally consisted of 3 lines with only 26 stations.
• Now the metro has 4 lines with 68 stations.
• The tracks stretch a total of 65.33 km.
• The metro system has transported over 6 billion passengers as of 2006 (thats almost equivalent to the worlds population).
• It serves 289.1 million riders a year.
• Our metro was inspired by theParis Metro, and in turn inspired the metro system in Lyon, France a few years later which used the same rubber wheel car design.

There were also many projects for the metro system that were never persued.

• The first subway proposal, dated 1910, was for a single line running underneath De Bleury street and Park Avenue from Craig street (now St-Antoine) all the way to Mont-Royal avenue. The line was to run underground from Craig to Pine Avenue.
• In 1944, the Montreal Tramways company proposed a 2 line network, running underneath Ste-Catherine street from Cabot Square (Atwater avenue) to Papineau, and a second line under St-Denis (from Jean-Talon to Notre-Dame), then turning westwards under Notre-Dame and St-Jacques all the way to Guy, then turning north and connecting with the other line at Guy street.
• In 1953 the newly formed Montreal Transportation Commission proposed a single line, running under Ste-Catherine street from Atwater avenue towards Peel where the line would have turned south, going underneath Dominion Square all the way down to St-Jacques street, which it followed to St-Denis. Then, it would have gone north all the way to Crémazie.

Between 1967 and 1984 there were even more failed plans for the metro.

• There were 6 lines planned.
• Line 1 - Green
• Line 2 - Orange
• Line 3 - Red
• Line 4 - Yellow
• Line 5 - Blue
• Line 6 - White

• The Red Line was planned to have 15 stations and end at Cartierville using CN tracks, but the idea was scrapped because the the train was supposed to have steel wheels instead of rubber wheels and it would run from underground to above ground. Now those tracks are being used for the commuter rail Deux-Montagnes Line.
• The White Line would have had 10 stations from Pie-IX to Léger running under Pie-IX boulevard, going through Saint-Leonard and going north-east towards Riviere-des-Prairies. For nearly a decade (1980-1990), that line appeared on all official Montréal Métro maps.

• Once the new stations in Laval opened up, the passengers a day increased by 50,000 to a total of 835,000 people riding the metro each day.
• There are 759 vehicles in the metro.
• The average speed the metro goes at is 40 km/h but it can reach a top speed of 72 km/h.
• The MR-63-type cars have been in use since 1966.
•  The new cars will feature full width walkways between the cars which can be occupied by passengers, resulting in higher train capacities. They also suggest that the new rubber tire trains will have to meet very demanding performance requirements: higher speeds (up to 80 km/h), powerful accelerations, high speed gradeability, high performance brakes, good ride comfort, low noise, low maintenance costs, low energy costs and high levels of reliability.
• The new cars are suspected to up and ready between 2010 and 2012.
• The blue line will be extended in two phases: from Saint-Michel up to Pie-IX Boulevard. The second phase will extend past Pie-IX to the boroughs of St-Leonard and Anjou, committing to the line's original design.
• The orange line will also be extended northwest from the Côte-Vertu station, up to the Bois-Franc commuter rail station in Saint-Laurent. The extension will probably include two stations: Poirier and Bois-Franc.
• Angrignon may extend 1 line west into Lasalle.
• And a further extension to Dorval from Snowdon was discussed to improve the connection between downtown Montreal and Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

So I hope that opened your mind to just how awesome the metro could be.

Oh and the deepest metro in Montreal is Charlevoix :]