2009

12 November 2009 Next Stop, Windsor Station Artist's rendering of a proposed new downtown Montreal transportation hub which would welcome trains, buses, and tramways. The hub, at Peel and St. Antoine St., would be connected to the historic Windsor Station by a passageway over St. Antoine Street.     Montreal Quebec - Historic Windsor Station may be reborn as a major transportation hub, welcoming trains, buses, and tramways, The Gazette has learned.   The Agence metropolitaine de transport has presented its $520-million proposal to senior Quebec ministers in recent months and hopes to get the green light for the project by next summer, said AMT chief executive Joel Gauthier.   "We're talking about a brand-new intermodal station", Gauthier said. "It's the renaissance of Windsor Station. We think this is a tremendously strategic site."   The hub would be part of a major redevelopment of the area being planned by real-estate developer Cadillac Fairview, which bought Windsor Station this summer for $86 million.   The company also owns a big piece of land at Peel and St. Antoine Sts. now used as a parking lot.   The Cadillac Fairview project is to include a hotel, condominiums, and office space.   The new transportation hub, connected via pedestrian tunnel to the Bonaventure and Lucien L'Allier metro stations, would be used by: Commuter trains now using Lucien L'Allier as their terminus, including the West Island/Dorion/Rigaud line, the AMT's second busiest; Buses of the Societe de transport de Montreal and South Shore transit agencies; Montreal's planned new tramway network, part of which is to run on Peel; Amtrak's Montreal-New York City train, if Amtrak decides to move its Adirondack service to CP tracks, a move it has said it is studying. The AMT is a provincial body that coordinates public transit in the Montreal region and operates commuter trains.   Windsor Station was built between 1887 and 1889 to serve as a station and the head office for CP Rail.   When it was built, it dominated Montreal's skyline, but its main concourse has not been used as a passenger terminal since the mid-1980s.   Dreams of reviving the grand station seemed dashed by 1996 construction of the Bell Centre, which sits between CP tracks and Windsor Station.   But AMT planners have found a way around the obstacle, Gauthier said. Trains would circumvent the Bell Centre using elevated tracks over St. Antoine.   Trains would arrive and leave from platforms in a new building on Peel and St. Antoine, Gauthier said.   Passengers would enter via Windsor Station's la Gauchetiere St. entrance, where they would find ticket counters and commercial space, Gauthier said.   To reach train, bus, and tramway platforms, passengers would then use an aerial passageway over St. Antoine.   Gauthier said the AMT has been working on the plan for almost a year.   The impetus was a request from transit authorities for a downtown bus terminal, he said.   The South Shore bus terminal at 1000 la Gauchetiere is overcrowded and there is no room to expand, he said.   Meanwhile, the STM has been pushing for a downtown bus terminal.   The new hub would be used by both STM and South Shore buses.   Integrating the airport train into the project would have many benefits, he said. "It could mean that someone from the South Shore could take the bus with his luggage, go to the new intermodal station and connect to the airport shuttle," Gauthier said.   The AMT's plan would be feasible even if authorities opt to use Canadian National tracks and Central Station for the airport shuttle, he said.   But he said the CP tracks might make more sense for the airport shuttle, because growing commuter and VIA Rail use of Central Station will make it difficult to put the airport shuttle there.   The AMT and the airport authority are still studying the airport shuttle route.   They are to make public their recommendations at the end of this year or early next year.   Gauthier said he has presented the proposal to Transport Minister Julie Boulet and Finance Minister Raymond Bachand, who is also the minister responsible for Montreal, as well as to city of Montreal officials.   "The reception has been very good," Gauthier said. "Especially since they see the economic development potential of the Cadillac Fairview project and of our hub. It's a "tremendous project for the city and for the commuter, and so far the feeling that we get when we make presentations is great."   Gauthier said the AMT is "still at the planning stage and we'll need to get the green light from Quebec and the city of Montreal."   The Quebec government would pay for the hub, but the city would have to approve the project.   The green light could come as early as next spring or summer, Gauthier said.   It would take at least two or three years to build the hub.   To ensure there are "no cost overruns," Gauthier said, the $520-million price tag includes cost contingency and takes inflation into account.   Windsor Station is an iconic Montreal landmark that was saved from the wrecker's ball in the 1970s when CP wanted to raze it to make way for a redevelopment.   "Windsor Station looks like a bank, or even the cloisters of a medieval church," according to the McCord Museum.   "The interior of the station was filled with arches and marble pillars; the effect on the public of this majestic architecture was intentional.   In the 19th century the railway was one of the most important civil institutions in Canada."   Andy Riga.

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