Michigan Central Railway Tunnel

Last updated
Michigan Central Railway Tunnel
PostcardDetroitMIEntranceDetroitRiverRRTunnel.jpg
Postcard picture, early 1900s
Overview
Location Detroit River
Coordinates 42°19′07″N83°03′38″W / 42.31849°N 83.06049°W / 42.31849; -83.06049
System CPKC Railway
Start Detroit, Michigan, US
End Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Operation
Work begunOctober 1906
OpenedJuly 26, 1910 (1910-07-26)
Owner CPKC Railway
OperatorDetroit River Tunnel Company
TrafficFreight
Technical
Length1.6 mi (2.6 km)
No. of tracks 2
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+12 in) standard gauge

The Michigan Central Railway Tunnel is a railroad tunnel under the Detroit River connecting Detroit, Michigan, in the United States with Windsor, Ontario, in Canada. The U.S. entrance is south of Porter and Vermont streets near Rosa Parks Boulevard. The Canadian entrance is south of Wyandot Street West between Cameron and Wellington Avenues. It was built by the Detroit River Tunnel Company for the Canada Southern Railway, leased by the Michigan Central Railroad and owned by the New York Central Railroad. The tunnel opened in 1910 and is still in use today by the CPKC Railway.

Contents

History

Background

Postcard, early 1900s PostcardDetroitRiverRailroadTunnel.jpg
Postcard, early 1900s
Postcard, 1911 PostcardDetroitMIElectricMotorEmergingTunnelDetroitRiver1911.jpg
Postcard, 1911

Prior to the construction of the tunnel, the Canada Southern Railway had several connections to Michigan at its west end, all train ferries. The northern one ran across the St. Clair River, connecting to the St. Clair and Western Railroad. The southern connection crossed the Detroit River south of Detroit, connecting to the Canada Southern Bridge Company at Grosse Ile. Additionally a branch (usually considered the main line) split from the line to Grosse Ile at Essex, running to the Detroit River at Windsor.

In 1891, the Grand Trunk Railway opened the St. Clair Tunnel at Port Huron, giving it an advantage over the Canada Southern and its car ferries. The Detroit River Tunnel Company was formed August 15, 1905, as a merger of the Michigan and Canada Bridge and Tunnel Company (in Michigan) and the Canada and Michigan Bridge and Tunnel Company (in Ontario).

Construction

Construction began in October 1906 under the engineering supervision of the New York Central Railway's engineering vice president, William J. Wilgus. Dredging to construct the tunnel was performed in part by Dunbar & Sullivan, who used a steel dredge (Tipperary Boy) to carry out the work. [1] The Michigan Central Railway Tunnel opened for passenger service July 26, 1910. Freight service began September 15 and on October 16 all traffic began running via the tunnel, ending the use of a train car ferry. From opening it was operated by the Michigan Central Railroad under lease of December 19, 1906. It was the first immersed tube tunnel to carry traffic.

On the east (Canadian) side, the tunnel connected to the line that had served a train ferry at Windsor. On the west (U.S.) side, the tunnel connected to the Michigan Central Railroad main line west of downtown (later abandoned east of the junction), and the Michigan Central Station was built west of the junction, opening in 1913.

Ownership changes

In 1968, the tunnel passed from the New York Central Railroad to Penn Central, and in 1976 to Conrail. In 1985, Conrail sold the tunnel to the Canadian National Railway and CPKC Railway, with each getting a half share. [2]

The north tube underwent a $27 million enlargement in 1993 to allow passage of certain types of modern rail cars such as those with stacked containers and auto carriers, which had been previously ferried across the Detroit River. However, the enlarged tunnel can still not accommodate the largest rail cars, such as those with stacked 9 ft 6 in "high-cube" shipping containers. [3]

In early 2000, CN agreed to sell its stake to Borealis Transportation Infrastructure Trust (a venture of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System) and use only the St. Clair Tunnel. [4] CPKC and Borealis vested the tunnel into the new Detroit River Tunnel Partnership, and plans were announced to construct a new railway tunnel and convert the existing railway tunnel to a two-lane free flow truckway for transport trucks to alleviate pressure at the other nearby international border crossings (Ambassador Bridge, Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, and the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry). [5] In June 2009, CPKC announced the sale part of its interest in the partnership, so that Borealis held 83.5% and CP held 16.5%. [6]

In 2010, the Windsor Port Authority, Borealis Infrastructure, and CPKC announced plans to construct a new rail tunnel compatible with double-stacked trains. The initiative, called the Continental Rail Gateway, was scrapped in 2015, upon the approval of the proposed Gordie Howe International Bridge. [7]

CPKC took full ownership of the tunnel in December 2020 [8] following an approximate US$312 million deal with OMERS. [9]

Amidst its merger negotiations with the Kansas City Southern Railway, Canadian Pacific agreed in early 2022 that Amtrak would be allowed to access the tunnel for passenger service as part of the terms of the merger. This followed three years of efforts by Amtrak to restore Detroit–Toronto passenger rail service. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Pacific Railway</span> Class I railroad in Canada and the United States

The Canadian Pacific Railway, also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, known until 2023 as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CSX Transportation</span> Class I railroad system in the US

CSX Transportation, known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track, it is the leading subsidiary of CSX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York Central Railroad</span> American Class I railroad (1853–1968)

The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Rochester and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.

The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago. The company was named after Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soo Line Railroad</span> American class I railroad

The Soo Line Railroad is one of the primary United States railroad subsidiaries for the CPKC Railway, one of six U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM), which was commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault, it was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of that company with two other CPKC subsidiaries: The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway, and the Wisconsin Central Railway. It is also the successor to other Class I railroads, including the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. On the other hand, a large amount of mileage was spun off in 1987 to Wisconsin Central Ltd., now part of the Canadian National Railway. The Soo Line Railroad and the Delaware and Hudson Railway, CPKC's other major subsidiary, presently do business as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). Most equipment has been repainted into the CP scheme, but the U.S. Surface Transportation Board groups all of the company's U.S. subsidiaries under the Soo Line name for reporting purposes. The Minneapolis headquarters are in the Canadian Pacific Plaza building, having moved from the nearby Soo Line Building.

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833, and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana. The line's trackage remains a major rail transportation corridor used by Amtrak passenger trains and several freight lines; in 1998, its ownership was split at Cleveland, Ohio, between CSX Transportation to the east and Norfolk Southern Railway in the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Trunk Western Railroad</span> American railroad

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company was an American subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway, later of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding company, the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western's routes are part of CN's Michigan Division. Its primary mainline between Chicago and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad's extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Branch</span> Railway line in New Jersey

The Northern Branch is a railroad line that runs from Jersey City to Northvale in northeastern New Jersey, and formerly extended further into New York State. The line was constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect the New York and Erie Railroad's Piermont Branch terminus in Piermont, New York, directly to Erie's primary terminal in Jersey City, initially Exchange Place, later Pavonia Terminal. In 1870 the line was extended to Nyack, New York, and continued to provide passenger service until 1966. After the Erie's unsuccessful merger with the Lackawanna Railroad to form the Erie-Lackawanna, ownership of the line passed into the hands of Conrail upon its formation in 1976 from a number of bankrupt railroads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Clair Tunnel</span>

The St. Clair Tunnel is the name for two separate rail tunnels which were built under the St. Clair River between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan. The original, opened in 1891 and used until it was replaced by a new larger tunnel in 1994, was the first full-size subaqueous tunnel built in North America. It is a National Historic Landmark of the United States, and has been designated a civil engineering landmark by both US and Canadian engineering bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Central Railroad</span> US railroad established 1846

The Michigan Central Railroad was originally chartered in 1832 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in the United States and the province of Ontario in Canada. After about 1867 the railroad was controlled by the New York Central Railroad, which later became part of Penn Central and then Conrail. After the 1998 Conrail breakup, Norfolk Southern Railway now owns much of the former Michigan Central trackage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canada Southern Railway</span>

The Canada Southern Railway, also known as CSR, was a railway in southwestern Ontario, Canada, founded on February 28, 1868 as the Erie and Niagara Extension Railway. Its name was changed to Canada Southern Railway on December 24, 1869. The 1868 Act specified that it was to be constructed at a broad gauge of 5 ft 6 in, but that requirement was repealed in the 1869 Act, thus allowing construction at the standard gauge of 4 ft 8+12 in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Central Station</span> Former railroad station in Detroit, Michigan

Michigan Central Station is the historic former main intercity passenger rail station in Detroit, Michigan. Built for the Michigan Central Railroad, it replaced the original depot in downtown Detroit, which had been shuttered after a major fire on December 26, 1913, forcing the still unfinished station into early service. Formally dedicated on January 4, 1914, the station remained open for business until January 6, 1988, when Amtrak service was relocated. The station building consisted of a train depot and a 230-foot office tower with thirteen stories above two mezzanine levels. The tallest rail station in the world at the time of its construction, the Beaux-Arts style architecture was designed by architects who had previously worked on Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brush Street Station</span> Train station in Detroit, Michigan

Brush Street Station was a passenger train station on the eastside of downtown Detroit, Michigan, located at the foot of Brush Street at its intersection with Atwater Street and bordered by the Detroit River to the south.

<i>International</i> (Amtrak train) American named passenger train (1982–2004)

The International was a named passenger train operated between Chicago and Toronto. It was originally an overnight train operated by the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada and its successors the Canadian National Railway and Grand Trunk Western Railroad, running as far as Montreal. The train was cut back to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1970 and discontinued in 1971.

<i>Wolverine</i> (train) Amtrak service between Chicago, Illinois, and Pontiac, Michigan

The Wolverine is a higher-speed passenger train service operated by Amtrak as part of its Michigan Services. The 304-mile (489 km) line provides three daily round-trips between Chicago and Pontiac, Michigan, via Ann Arbor and Detroit. It carries a heritage train name descended from the New York Central Railroad.

The Windsor Subdivision is a rail line owned and operated by the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) in the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of railroads in Michigan</span>

Railroads have been vital in the history of the population and trade of rough and finished goods in the state of Michigan. While some coastal settlements had previously existed, the population, commercial, and industrial growth of the state further bloomed with the establishment of the railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferries in Michigan</span>

Due to its unique geography, being made of two peninsulas surrounded by the Great Lakes, Michigan has depended on many ferries for connections to transport people, vehicles and trade. The most famous modern ferries are those which carry people and goods across the Straits of Mackinac to the car-free Mackinac Island but before the Mackinac Bridge was built, large numbers of ferries carried people and cars between the two peninsulas. Other ferries continue to provide transportation to small islands and across the Detroit River to Canada. Ferries once provided transport to island parks for city dwellers. The state's only national park, Isle Royale cannot be reached by road and is normally accessed by ferry. The largest ferries in Michigan are the car ferries which cross Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. One of these, the SS Badger is one of the last remaining coal steamers on the Great Lakes and serves as a section of US Highway 10 (US 10). The Badger is also the largest ferry in Michigan, capable of carrying 600 passengers and 180 autos.

The Canadian and later, Canadian-Niagara, was the longest running named international train from Chicago to Upper Canada via Detroit, for its first two decades running to Montreal. This overnight train was operated by the Michigan Central Railroad from Chicago to Detroit, and in a pool arrangement, it operated over Canadian Pacific Railway tracks and used the same train number from Detroit eastward. The train would carry a second section, bound, variously for Buffalo or New York City via Buffalo.

References

  1. "Marine Notes". Detroit Free Press. 16 January 1907. p. 10 via Newspapers.com.
  2. Trackside Guide No. 3 - Detroit, Trains, June 2003
  3. Shea, Bill (June 24, 2018). "Ford's Michigan Central Station office workers will still see and hear hundreds of thousands of train cars". Crain's Detroit Business.
  4. "Borealis Transportation to Become CPR Partner in Detroit River Tunnel" (PDF) (Press release). Calgary: Borealis Transportation. PR Newswire. February 27, 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2016.
  5. "Proposed New Rail Tunnel for Detroit". November 10, 2001. Archived from the original on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2012-10-15.
  6. "CPR reduces interest in Detroit River Tunnel Partnership for proceeds of $110 million" (Press release). Fasken Martineau. June 2009. Archived from the original on February 28, 2010.
  7. Shea, Bill (29 June 2015). "Detroit-Windsor rail tunnel project put on hold; 'business case and economics' blamed". Crains Detroit Business. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  8. "CP completes acquisition of Detroit River Rail Tunnel" (Press release). Canadian Pacific Railway. 22 December 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  9. Vantuono, William C. (16 October 2020). "CP: 100% Stake In Detroit River Rail Tunnel". Railway Age . Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  10. Battagello, Dave (7 January 2022). "Cross-border rail tunnel passenger service moves step closer". Windsor Star . Retrieved 11 January 2022.