Return of the streetcar? CAQ ponders an old transit solution

Kelly Greig & Amy Luft CTV Montreal

In 1892, Montreal's first electric streetcar, nicknamed the Rocket, barrelled down what is now St-Antoine Street at the blistering pace – back then – of 30 kilometres per hour.



Montreal Street Railway Company electric streetcar, around 1892. Source: Hydro-Québec archives

Rocket tramway, 1892, STM Archives

Over the next six decades, the network extended across the island of Montreal, with 500 kilometres of track connecting as far north as the amusement park in Cartierville into Cote St-Luc and downtown.

Tramway #1555, on Saint-Laurent Blvd, 1918. Source : STM Archives

The last of Montreal's trams was retired on August 30, 1959.

Last tram in Montreal, 1959, STM Archives

Sixty years later, the CAQ now wants to bring them back to serve Montreal's east end and Taschereau Blvd. in Longueuil. “It's a lot less costly than a metro, a tram. A metro is a fortune, especially the Pink line,” said Premier Francois Legault, referring to Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante suggestion for a new metro line.



Trams need less maintenance than buses, but the initial cost can be very high, said McGill University transportation researcher Jamie Deweese. “One of the reason trams are so incredibly expensive is there's a lot of resources that go into developing the trackways,” he said.

Detroit's QLine, built in 2017, cost $187 million for a five-kilometre network. Toronto rolled out new streetcars in 2014; each one cost $6 million, not including the tracks.

image: QLine Detroit

A new Toronto Transit Commission streetcar rounds a turn in Toronto on Thursday, July 31, 2014. (The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn)

While it's unclear exactly what the new tram would look like, in other cities it runs in the centre of the roadway in its own reserved lane. That means it doesn't have to compete with traffic, as buses do. “When you're talking about a regular bus that shares the road with cars, it's not going to be as efficient,” said Deweese. The CAQ is pushing it as an all-electric solution. Scandinavian cities like Stockholm and Copenhagen have streetcars, proving it can work in winter weather, but installing overhead cables, platforms and rails is a massive undertaking.