Canadian Railroads > Montreal Update

The main beams of the bridge for Montreal’s REM light-rail system are now in place across the Lachine Canal at the site of CN’s former Wellington Tower. You can see the support pier for this bridge is on the old swing bridge’s island, sandwiched in between the long-unused swing bridge and the active VIA bridge. The base of this pier is already graffiti covered.

While the north side of the canal is still filled in for the construction project (Picture #1), the south side is now open for the start of the summer boating season (which starts next weekend; Picture #2).

I have to say that this REM bridge pretty much kills views of rail activity from the Wellington Street road bridge and any other points to the south and west of the rail line.

Picture #3 is probably one of my last sunlit afternoon shots from this site. It shows VIA #637 (which originated in Quebec) backing out of Central Station for wyeing and continuing on to Ottawa.

Ray  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/19 16:12 by Ray_Murphy.

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Is Wellington Tower prevented from demolition ?

I understand it's supposed to be converted to a community center, and that seemed to be in progress before this whole REM light rail thing started.

Ray 

Too bad - a nice scene ruined forever.  Strange how they jammed it in there - looks pretty hideous.

Highway architecture.
I notice headed into Montreal last summer (on a bustituted Adirondack that got disabled by the loco's pilot getting torn off by grade crossing pavement), the new Champlain Bridge is quite something. MASSIVE concrete pillars. Not your grandfather's bridge.