Design
A Look Back at Montreal's First Subway Cars
The modest-looking MR-63s ushered in the city’s rapid transit system 50 years ago. Starting this year, they’re being phased out for sleek new models.
The “Tube Jean Built” is getting new rail cars. Montreal’s metro system saw the first of its sleek, new Azur cars pick up passengers last month. By 2018, STM, the city’s transit authority, expects to have its original fleet of MR-63s taken completely out of service. They’ll retire with a lot of history behind them.
The fleet’s look is inspired by the rubber-tired cars that debuted in Paris’s metro in the 1950s. Designed by Quebec native Jacques Guillon, the blue and white cars were purchased in 1963 and made their inaugural run with the system’s grand opening in 1966.