With fuss and fanfare, dignitaries and pretty girls, noise and confusion, Montreal’s magnificent metro was officially christened by some 5,000 enthusiastic citizens yesterday afternoon. … Trains filled with hundreds of special guests pulled out of the 19 stations along north-south and east-west lines to converge on the Berri-de Montigny station where the two lines meet. Within minutes, the first rubber-tired train rolled smoothly in and the first official subway travelers were greeted by a broadly smiling Mayor Drapeau. (The Gazette, Saturday, October 15, 1966)
Last weekend, on October 14th, the 57th anniversary of the Montreal metro’s 1966 inauguration came and went like a pizza-munching rat at Berri-UQAM.
Truth is, we love the metro. Always have. Sure, it has its problems—that colour palette of hamburger meal at Guy-Concordia, those bonkers and jury-rigged quick fixes you find at Laurier to stop the leaks coming in from above, the wooden sculpture at Lionel-Groulx that freaked us out on a bad mush trip that one time—but it remains a (reasonably) safe, reliable, and inexpensive way to get all over town.
Finish “The Montreal Metro's inauguration, 57 years later”
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