Montreal & Southern Railway : Transit Service to the South Shore

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Montreal & Southern Railway : Transit Service to the South Shore
Abstract
The Montreal & Southern Counties Railway, which began operation in 1909, was Canada's first electric trolley line, running between Youville Square in Old Montreal, across the Victoria Bridge, to the South Shore suburb of St. Lambert. St. Lambert had become the first off-island suburban gateway community into Montreal when the Victoria Bridge was opened in 1859, and the site of the extended roots of the English-speaking community on the South Shore. The author points out that, thanks to the trolley service, the population of the South Shore doubled between 1911 and 1921, mostly because of the influx of new English-speaking settlers, many of whom were immigrants from the British Isles. By the 1930s, a majority of the population of the communities of St. Lambert, Montreal South, Greenfield Park, Mackayville, Croydon, East Greenfield, Brookline and Pinehurst were English-speaking. Factory workers, high school students and housewives took the Montreal & Southern Railway into Montreal for their jobs, schools, and to do their shopping. The trolley service ceased operations in 1956 following improvements to roads and more suburbanites taking the bus or their own cars into the city.
Publication
Quebec Heritage News
Volume
Vol. 13 (sic)
Issue
no. 1
Date
Winter 2020
Pages
26-27
Language
en
URL
Citation
Erskine-Henry, Kevin. “Montreal & Southern Railway : Transit Service to the South Shore.” Quebec Heritage News, Winter 2020. http://qahn.org/files/quebecanglophoneheritagenetwork/documents/qhn_winter_2020_final.pdf.
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