The Expo-Express
With a forecast of 30 million visits (which was to become a reality of over 50 million visits), Expo 67 needed efficient on-site transportation.While the Minirail gave visitors a slower, panoramic view of Expo, the Expo-Express quickly moved large crowds to the different exhibition areas. There were 4 Expo-Express stations: Cité du Havre, Île Sainte-Hélène, Île Notre-Dame, and La Ronde.
Unlike the Metro which ran entirely underground using rubber-tire technology, the Expo-Express operated above ground and on steel wheels. The train's route was 5.7 kilometres long, and waiting time was 5 minutes on average. There were 48 cars in total, 8 sets of 6 cars each. Each train had a capacity of 1000 passengers.
The Expo-Express was the first fully automated transit system in North America. To ease the fears of certain passengers that would not want to embark on a driverless train, personnel was hired and outfitted in nice uniforms, to sit in the front cabin and do nothing at all...!
images: (1) alamedainfo.com(2) emdx.org
(3-4) library and archives Canada
Labels: expo life, expo-express, trippy transportation
posted by Jason Stockl @ 10:17 am
3 Comments:
How come Montreal was so efficient and good at planning back in 1967 and the city seems so hopeless today? What has been lost?
I had to really think about this...
I think the 60's were a very special time. Call it innocence, call it naïvete, there was a certain faith in politicians and an optimism in what the future held.
Jean Drapeau was a very charismatic mayor, and a lot of big projects in Montreal got off the ground because of his perserverance.
Though Expo 67 was a great feat of organization, the 1976 Olympics were a total financial disaster, and by that time, people were becoming more cynical...
Oh how many times my cousin and I after walking around expo would jump on the "Expo Express" just to rest.
It was FREE, can't beat that ehh...
We would just ride for a while and then we would start all over.
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