Montrealer (train)

History

Previous service

The original Montrealer entered service on June 15, 1924. The train provided overnight service from Washington, D.C., to New York City and Montreal on a route that passed through New England. The Washingtonian operated over the same route in the southbound direction.

Both trains ran over five railroads: the Pennsylvania Railroad, the New Haven Railroad, the Boston & Maine Railroad, the Central Vermont Railway, and the Canadian National Railway, which worked together to provide the equipment and crews to operate the train.

When it was inaugurated, the Montrealer also provided through service to Ottawa and Quebec City. During the summer months the Quebec car originated a few days a week in Murray Bay, a resort area 86 mi northeast of Quebec City.

North of the U.S.-Canadian border, in early years the train traveled east of Missisquoi Bay and through Iberville on the route north to Montreal. By the 1950s the route was rerouted through Alburg, Vermont, and in Quebec made stops at Cantic, St. Johns and St. Lambert before reaching Montreal.

The Montrealer and the Washingtonian first ran during the days of Prohibition in the United States. The Washingtonian became known unofficially as "The Bootlegger" or simply "The Boot" because passengers often carried well-hidden bottles of liquor on the southbound train. During the Prohibition years the Washingtonian was a favorite target of U.S. federal agents who would board in St. Albans and search the train looking for illegal liquor. During the 1940s extra sections of the train were added for skiers on weekends in the winter months from New York to Waterbury, Vermont.

By the 1960s, service consisted of two daily round trips: the Washington–Montreal Montrealer/Washingtonian, and the New York City–Montrealer section of the Ambassador. On September 6, 1966, the trains were unceremoniously discontinued between Montreal and Springfield, Massachusetts. Previously, the Ambassador had been an entirely separate day train counterpart to the Montrealer. The New Haven Railroad continued to operate its portion of the train between Springfield and New York City until December 31, 1968, when most passenger service on the New Haven–Springfield Line was discontinued, upon the implementation of the merger of the New Haven Railroad into the Penn Central.

Amtrak era

In 1972, Congress passed a spending provision that required Amtrak to restore service to Canada, specifying the new route had to connect Montreal to Washington, DC. The law set off a competition between officials in New York State and Vermont as both vied to host the new route. New York officials cited better track conditions on the Delaware & Hudson Railroad route and that fact that it was 59 miles shorter. It also required less expensive infrastructure work to host passenger trains, just $1.6 million compared to $3.4 million in Vermont. However, Vermont won out as the train would have been able to serve Pennsylvania Station and points south such as Philadelphia and Washington. The New York route would have required a transfer from Grand Central Terminal. New York state funded its own * Adirondack* service in 1974, its day-time service complimenting the Montrealer’s overnight schedule.

Amtrak began operation of a New York train, called the Montrealer northbound and Washingtonian southbound, on September 30, 1972. St. Lambert was the only intermediate station in Quebec retained from the previous iteration. It was the first train for which Amtrak hired its own staff, rather than contracting with the host railroad. The train was named Montrealer in both directions on May 19, 1974.

Derailments

Amtrak's Montrealer suffered numerous derailments during its years of operation:

• On January 5, 1973, the train derailed in Randolph, Vermont, due to a wrongly set switch.
• On September 5, 1981, nine cars of the southbound train derailed in Hatfield, Massachusetts. No serious injuries were reported among the 328 passengers.
• On February 14, 1982, the train derailed in Holyoke, Massachusetts, near the Smith's Ferry section of the city. Four people were treated for minor injuries. An investigation found that the cause of the derailment was a spreading of the tracks.
• On February 14, 1984, the train derailed in Vernon, Vermont.
• On June 29, 1990, the train derailed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on a curve just west of the Philadelphia Zoo. Two passengers were injured.

1984 wreck

On the morning of July 7, 1984, the northbound Montrealer (carrying 262 passengers and 16 crew) was derailed by a washed-out culvert between Williston and Essex, Vermont. Heavy rains over the previous night had broken beaver dams upstream, resulting in a 50 ft washout in the 20 ft embankment. Five of the train's thirteen cars fell into the stream, with one sleeper car buried under several other cars. Three passengers, one Amtrak attendant, and one Central Vermont Railway crew member were killed; 29 others were seriously injured. The train included four private chartered passenger cars, doubling the usual passenger load and increasing the number of injured; the resulting rescue operation involved extricating dozens of trapped passengers and was then the largest in Vermont history.

Despite the severity of the wreck, the death toll was low due to circumstances permitting quick rescue: area hospitals were at shift changes with doubled staff levels, a 2,400-person Vermont National Guard detachment with helicopters and a tank retriever was nearby preparing for training, and a large mobile crane was at a construction site in nearby Georgia, Vermont. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation faulted Amtrak for the lack of a proper cab radio and recommended changes in locomotive battery placement, improvements in baggage rack and seat cushion retention, and the use of shatterproof mirrors in passenger cars.

Suspension and return

The Montrealer was suspended north of Springfield, Massachusetts, on April 6, 1987, because of deteriorating track conditions between Brattleboro and Windsor, Vermont. During the suspension, Amtrak offered bus service (operated by Peter Pan Bus Lines) between Burlington, Vermont, and Springfield, with connecting Amtrak service in Springfield.

This situation precipitated the only instance of Amtrak seizing another railroad by eminent domain, followed by the re-sale of the track by Amtrak to the Central Vermont Railway. The matter went all the way to the Supreme Court in National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. Boston & Maine Corp., which upheld Amtrak's action. Led by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Representative Silvio Conte of Massachusetts, Congress appropriated $5 million to rebuild the track. Only the section between Windsor and Brattleboro, Vermont, was transferred, however, leaving the Connecticut River Line between East Northfield and Springfield, Massachusetts, as an obstacle.

The Montrealer was reinstated in July 1989 with a longer routing to avoid the Connecticut River Line. The train used the Central Vermont Railway between East Northfield and New London, Connecticut (with a stop at to replace the former stop) and the Northeast Corridor between New London and New Haven. Although slightly slower than the old route, this allowed for safe and reliable service.

Montrealer service ended on March 31, 1995, amid a budget crisis. It was replaced with the Vermonter, a daytime train sponsored by the state of Vermont, the next day. The Vermonter terminated at St. Albans rather than Montreal; it was routed over the New Haven-Springfield Line plus a section of the Boston Subdivision to reach the Central Vermont at Palmer.

Planned extension of the ''Vermonter'' to Montreal

Efforts have been underway for many years to extend the Vermonter to Montreal. In 2012 the Federal Railroad Administration awarded $7.9 million to allow for the upgrade of the existing freight rail line between St. Albans and the Canada–US border. Work on this project was completed in late 2014.

On March 16, 2015, the United States and Canada signed an agreement that would allow for the establishment of a pre-clearance customs and immigration facility within Central Station in Montreal. Before the Vermonter can be extended to Montreal the agreement must first be approved by Congress and the Parliament of Canada, and a preclearance facility must be constructed within Central Station.

On December 8, 2016, US President Barack Obama signed bipartisan legislation enabling US-Canada preclearance. On December 12, 2017, Canada's Governor General gave a royal assent to Bill C-23 enacted by Canada's House and Senate. The remaining hurdles to implementing the preclearance regime are an Order in Council in Canada, and a joint agreement between the two countries on construction of the facilities in Montreal and the service operating procedures.

References

References

1. (Winter 2017). "The Montrealer/ The Washingtonian". The Keystone.
2. ''Official Guide of the Railways'', August 1936, Central Vermont section, Table 3
3. ''Official Guide of the Railways'', December 1954, Central Vermont section, Table 5
4. Borders, William. (October 1, 1972). "New York to Montreal Trains Are Running Again After 18 Months". [[The New York Times]].
5. (September 6, 1966). "Passenger Service Ended". The Gazette.
6. Thompson, Mary. (October 2022). "Vermont, New York became rivals over rail link". Hill Country Observer.
7. Amtrak timetable, October 29, 1972, p. 42
8. {{All Aboard Amtrak
9. Angus, Fred F.. (July 2017}} Amtrak equipped the train with its own dedicated [[lounge car]], outfitted with an electric piano, dubbed ''Le Pub''.{{cite magazine). "Twenty-Five Years of Amtrak in Canada".
10. (July 8, 1984). "Montrealer has history of Accidents on River Route". Boston Globe.
11. Tilove, Jonathan. (September 6, 1981). "Amtrak Wreckage Cleared". The Sunday Republican.
12. Hamilton, Walter. (February 15, 1982). "Montrealer Jumps Track in Holyoke". The Morning Union.
13. (June 30, 1990). "Amtrak Train Derails on Bend Near the Zoo; Two Are Slightly Hurt". The Inquirer.
14. (December 10, 1985). "Derailment of Amtrak Passenger Train No. 60, the Montrealer, on the Central Vermont Railway, near Essex Junction, Vermont, July 7, 1984". National Transportation Safety Board.
15. McCutcheon, Shaw. (1985). "Flood Derails Train outside Williston, Vermont". Yankee Magazine.
16. Fein, Esther B.. (July 8, 1984). "3 Killed as Train Falls into Ravine in Vermont Hills". New York Times.
17. Burnett, Jim. (January 15, 1986). "Safety Recommendation(s) R-85-125 through -128". National Transportation Safety Board.
18. (May 7, 1987). "Amtrak Suspends a Montreal Train". [[The New York Times]].
19. (May 15, 1988). "Amtrak National Train Timetables". Amtrak.
20. Lavin, Carl. (July 24, 1989). "Amtrak Journal; In New England, an Old Friend Is Back on Track". [[The New York Times]].
21. Gram, David. (August 10, 1990). "Ruling sidetracks Amtrak victory". The Telegraph.
22. Wenger, Scott. (November 2, 1991). "Amtrak Returns to Willimantic". Hartford Courant.
23. Bowen, Douglas John. (June 21, 2012). "Grant aids Montrealer's return, advocates say". Railway Age.
24. Bowen, Douglas John. (March 16, 2015). "Pact bodes well for restored Amtrak Montrealer". Railway Age.
25. (March 16, 2015). "United States and Canada Sign Preclearance Agreement". Department of Homeland Security.
26. Anderson, Eric. (August 21, 2019). "New pact seen speeding cross-border train service".
27. {{Solomon-Amtrak