The Montreal Metro's inauguration, 57 years later

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.