In March, I went to Montreal, then took Via Rail to Toronto, transferring trains in Ottawa. Here are photos from Montreal & Ottawa. Toronto will come later.
The day we flew into Montreal, it snowed two feet. The next day, naturally, we bundled up and walked to the top of Mont-Royal.
Click for full-size version
This was my third trip to Montreal, but first in the winter. On previous trips, I never understood what the building at the top of the mountain was supposed to be for, or why it was called a "chalet."
Now I get it. Once you reach the top in winter, you reeeeallly want a warm room to cozy up in for awhile.
And who doesn't love squirrel architecture?
It's neat to have this kind of wildlife so close to downtown.
Speaking of downtown, let's head down the mountain and see it.
Slowly.
The neighborhoods to the north of Mont-Royal are Montreal's densest, and are a case study in great urbanism.
We started at Jean Talon Market, west beyond Mile End, and worked our way east towards the Saint Lawrence River.
Near the river, the old city is one North America's most European-like places.
I don't exactly know what the story is with the White Tree of Gondor here, but it's pretty.
Elsewhere in the city, you get the feeling St Joseph's Oratory exists so Montreal can have a Sacré-Cœur equivalent.
RIP les Expos, long live the Nats!
Let's talk transportation. Montreal's per capita transit ridership rivals New York's, and in the summer it's arguably North America's best cycling city.
In the summer. In the winter, cycling is more challenging. The bikeshare network (North America's first major system) shuts down, and many of the bike lanes are impassible.
But imagine the summer.
The Metro carries over a million riders per day, more than any US city except New York. It's also a showcase in mid-century design. It looks dated and maybe ugly today, but at the time it was pretty revolutionary.
Bikes get a stair channel. Nice.
But don't bother looking for elevators. Most stations don't have them.
I appreciate the clear, platform-specific wayfinding.
Older railcars look like this inside:
But they've started to replace those with nice new trainsets.
The inside of the new railcars, like most new subways outside the United States, is one long interior hall. This increases capacity by about 10%, and allows riders to find the least crowded part of the train, and reduces platform crowding by letting people walk to the part of the train closest to their ultimate exit.
Montreal also has a commuter train network, called AMT. It carries about 80,000 passengers per day on
6 total lines, making it a relatively small part of the overall transit network. This was the only look I got:
The bus network is quite good, carrying about 1.4 million riders a day. Some of the bigger lines have bus lanes.
Gare Centrale, the intercity train station, is
horrifically ugly from the outside, but looks OK on the inside, with its unusual combination of art deco and mid-century brutal architecture.
We took Via Rail (ie Canadian Amtrak) from Montreal to Toronto. The more expensive trains go directly between them, but for half the price you can switch trains in Ottawa. I'm cheap, so that's what we did.
Leaving Montreal we got some nice views. I spent the time teaching my baby to appreciate trains and cities.
Ottawa train station:
We had just enough time between trains to step outside and breathe the Ottawa air.
Bad news: The train station isn't downtown, so there's not much to see.
Good news: There is a stop on Ottawa's BRT system out front, so yay!
One of the BRT lines parallels the train tracks, so we got some decent views of it as the train pulled out.
And one sort of decentish skyline shot:
Here we are, disembarking at Toronto Union Station.
That's it! Watch for a Toronto thread!
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