Gare windsor in Montreal

[febus]

Hello,
I visited for the first time Montreal last may and was impressed by
the huge size of this station.I went inside, was all empty, kind
of ghostly athmosphere and didn't dare to go downstairs
(was a saturday) i know there is a subway station.;Is there any
traffic left (commuting trains?) what about the trackage and
platforms? is it still there? Who was the tenant during its heyday?
thanks

[drewh]

Windsor station was used by CP Rail. Central station was for CN.

AMT commuter trains used to use Windsor until the new Lucien l'Allier station was built.

VIA uses Central station, so I don't think there are trains running out of Windsor anymore.

Check out these links:
http://www.arthistoryclub.com/art_histo ... _(Montreal)

http://www.amt.qc.ca/tc/train/plans/index.asp

[Ken V]

Gare Windsor (or Windsor Station for the anglophiles) hasn't seen passenger trains in over ten years when the terminus was moved a few blocks west from Rue Peel (Peel St) to a spartan facility at Rue de la Montagne (Mountain St) to make room for the new Montréal Forum (Centre Molson, later Centre Bell). The relocated terminus was still referred to as Gare Windsor for quite a while until being renamed Gare Lucien L'Allier for the nearby Métro (subway) station.

Even before VIA Rail's take over from Canadian Pacific of the long distance passenger trains in 1978 and the later assumption of the commuter services by Société Transport Communauté Urbaine de Montréal (later on by the Agence Métropolitaine de Transport), Gare Windsor was also somewhat ghostly outside of peak hours. The station's heydays were long past by this time.

[Ken V]

In VIA Rail

VIA continued to use Windsor Station for several years after they assumed operations from CP Rail.

The Canadian was the first intercity train to be transferred to Central Station in October 1978.

Next was the Atlantic Limited when it was extended to Halifax and rerouted on CN between Montreal Central Station and Lennoxville, Que (Sherbrooke) in October 1979.

The weekend trains to Labelle and Mont Laurier were never transferred but stayed at Windsor until they were discontinued in October 1981.

The Montreal to Quebec City RDCs via Trois Riviere stayed at Windsor Station until April 1984 when they too were moved to Central and rerouted through the Mount Royal Tunnel to Jacque Cartier Jct (in north Montreal) where they accessed CP’s line to Quebec City. (ancient CN boxcab electrics hauled the RDCs out through the tunnel to Eastern Jct)

The last intercity train to use Windsor Station was actually Amtrak’s Adirondack until January 1986 when it was also transferred to Central Station. Amtrak started using Windsor in August 1984 when the Adirondack was inaugurated. It originally used Delaware & Hudson equipment including the famous ALCO PAs (and also CP Skyline Domes) Amtrak equipment eventually took over including the Turboliners.

Concerning the relocation of Windsor’s tracks:

In 1971 new platforms and tracks were built just to the west of original train shed on a slight angle to allow for the Ville-Marie Expressway construction. Passengers continued to walk out from the original concourse, under the old covered platforms to access the new track alignment. In the early 1990s, the tracks were further cut back to their current location for the construction of the Molson/Bell Centre.

[CPRTim]

In VIA Rail

......... Amtrak started using Windsor in August 1984 when the Adirondack was inaugurated.........

Just to correct my previous post: The Adirondack was inaugrated in August 1974. And another VIA train that continued to use Gare Windsor was a Montreal to Ottawa RDC service via Lachute until October 1981.