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Montreal Tramway becomes election hot-button
Posted by Montreal Environment in Montreal, Transport, Urbanism
Montrealers are getting a serious election overdose. Only 7 weeks ago they cast their federal ballots. This Monday, December 8, they will choose the next provincial leadership, and on December 14 the City is holding its by-election. At the heart of the debate between the current Tremblay team and the Projet Montréal, headed by urban planner Richard Bergeron, is the city’s Transportation Plan. One of the most debated issue is the implementation of the Tramway line. Bergeron first made headlines in 2004 when he proposed an overhaul of the public transport including a tramway system that would give priority to public transport and pedestrians. Three years later, in February 2007, he unveiled an impressive 250km track system that would criss-cross the island and would have been built over 20 years at a $20 billion price tag. The 2008 City of Montreal Transport Master Plan envisions the return of the Tram, but on a smaller scale than envisioned by Bergeron: 20km loop linking the downtown business sector, Old Montreal, the entertainment district and the future University of Montreal Hospital Center (CHUM).
Horsecar cca. 1887 [STM Archives]Montreal is no stranger to the Tram. At the beginning of the 20th Century the city’s public transportation was exclusively serviced by Trams which first hit the streets in 1861. The horsecar system serviced 118,000 montrealers between 1861 and 1894 under the Montreal City Passenger Railway Company, which managed 6 miles of railway, one stable, one shed, 8 vehicles and 14 horses. In 1892 the first electric car, nicknamed the Rocket, starts running and by 1894 the entire system is powered by electricity. The last horsecar was retired in October the same year. By 1910 Montreal had 225km of railway and 600 cars transporting over 1.4 million passengers for 5 cents a fare. Successive waves of immigrants significantly increased the city’s population, putting pressure on the transportation system. Two new boroughs, Victoriatown and Griffintown, sprung up near the Lachine canal, becoming the most important industrial sectors. The concentration of commercial railways linking the city to the national railway system on Bridge Street posed a problem for the tramway system whose 1893 rails had to be replaced. 1919 marks the begging of the end for the Tram in Montreal when the first two buses start running on Bridge Street. By 1925 regular bus service is available and in 1937 the first modern trolley bus in Canada starts operating on Beaubien Street. By 1939 Montreal public transportation included 929 streetcars, 7 trolley buses, and 224 buses, carrying over 200 million passengers per year.
Notre-Dame and Peel, 1956 [STM Archives]Rapid urbanization and economic development after WWII lead to an increase of the personal car and Montreal begins to suffer serious traffic jams and transportation problems. Beginning in 1951 the newly created Montreal Transportation Commission puts forward a plan that will substitute the tramway by buses and trolley buses within an 8 year period. On August 30, 1959 the last tram is pulled off the streets of Montreal.
Almost half a century later the Tram is making a comeback in Montreal. Projet Montréal released its first detailed tramway system plan earlier this week that it hopes will propel its appeal in the upcoming by-elections. Bergeron takes issue with Tremblay’s plan which gives priority to cars. Projet Montréal maintains that the city transportation policy is worrisome as it plans “to implement the streetcar in affecting vehicular traffic as little as possible. This fixation on traffic flow is the polar opposite of what the past twenty years has been all over the world [that of reducing traffic]”. Bergeron, with years of experience in urban planning at home and abroad, maintains that the tramway introduction should be harmonious and adequate and should give priority to reducing the number of cars in the city core and give priority to pedestrians, cyclists and public spaces. The current plan proposes to implement the tram at the center of the street, on average reducing sidewalks from 3.65m to 2.40m. The plan proposed by Bergeron while varying with the existing street planning, will extend the pedestrian space by placing the tramways on each side of the street. It is argued that such a placement will also regulate traffic and would discourage jaywalking. The City of Montreal has reserved a $5 million budget for the tramway implementation studies. Bergeron has pledged $1 billion investment between now and 2012 if he is elected mayor on December 14.
Project Montreal tramway plans. Left: Rene-Levesque. Right: Mont Royal
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