Montréal Métro and Expo Express

I know there was originally a plan to develop a line #3 métro which would have run from Central Station thru the Mont Royal tunnel out to Cartierville (essentially a portion of what is the Deux-Montagnes AMT line). I've been reviewing some history on Expo 67 and am fascinated by the heavy rail line that was built and operated for the fair and continued only until 1972. This line called Expo Express was 3rd rail and used modified Hawker Sidley cars from the Toronto subway. The line had 3 stops on the expo islands and 2 on Cité du Havre.

My question is was there any ever serious discussions or proposals to bring this line into Central Station (existing tracks are very close to Cité du Havre), or perhaps run it thru the Mont Royal tunnel and make this the métro line #3? The line cost $18 million to build and was only operated for 5 years, this would have seemed a logical thought. It also was completly automated which was a first at the time. Obviously none of this ever happened but my question is was it ever considered? The idea of a line #3 was abandonned at some point in favour of line #4 which served expo and continues to serve Ile Ste Helene and the South Shore. This possibly happened as it would have been impossible for the Expo Express to serve the South Shore because of height restrictions for the St Lawrence Seaway. Any insight or links to articles (French or English) is appreciated.

Pictures of Expo Express:
http://davesrailpix.com/odds/qu/htm/mwf01.htm

Map:
http://www.westland.net/expo67/map-docs ... ainmap.htm

Info:
http://expo67.morenciel.com/an/transpor ... xpress.php

Drewh:

You are correct that the proposed Metro Line 3 would have utilized the former CN route through the Mont-Royal tunnel with steel wheel vehicles, not the rubber tire train sets currently used by STM. There are numerous articles in the electronic world discussing this proposal, I suggest you Google "Expo Express" and "Montreal Metro" for further information.

Be advised that the rail cars used on the line were not modified Toronto subway cars but were built separately based on the TTC design.

Thanks for the response Transit Man. Yes I know the cars were actually a modified design of the TTC cars, bad wording on my original post.

Actually there is some info out on the web about Expo Express but not a lot. I've also found some limited info about the proposed line #3 of the métro, specifically that it did not happen as the city could not reach an agreement with CN (owner of the tunnel). What I'd like to find out is if the Expo Express trains were considered a prototype for what was being proposed for line #3. Also who designed the Expo Express routing and were there alternatives proposed for the routing.

I have a map from 1967 provided by a real estate company that shows both the proposed line #3 and the Expo Express routing. The interesting thing about the Expo Express routing though is that it is shown to also cross from La Ronde back to Montréal with a loop going to Ste Catherines East and Papineau. This last section wasn't built.

Also why was the line automated? If it was never meant to be permanent why was money spent to automate it? Or was this perhaps paid for by a company as a demonstration project?