DCHP-3

metro

DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)

Spelling variants:
Metro

n. & adj. — Montreal, Transportation

the underground rapid transit system in Montreal.

Type: 1. Origin — Montreal inaugurated its rapid transit system in 1966, calling it, in analogy to the Paris underground system, metro. Toronto refers to its rapid transit system, inaugurated in 1954, as the subway. According to Boberg (2010: 497), the official use of the term metro predisposes English-speaking Quebecers to adopt the term instead of the originally American English term subway that was adopted in Toronto. The term is unrelated to meanings already existing in Canadian English (see, e.g. Metro meaning 2), which means that the term is a new loan word from French that is homograph, i.e. only coincidentally written the same way, to already present forms such as Metro (meaning 2); their transition paths are not related. The present term and meaning is, therefore, Type 1 - Origin (rather than Type 3 - Semantic Change).
In the Rest of Canada, metro is understood to mean subway in certain cases, but is frequently used to refer to the metropolitan area of a city, e.g. Greater Vancouver is now called Metro Vancouver, or the Metro area, as in the Halifax region (see Metro, meaning 2). In Montreal English, the term has undergone semantic change to denote rapid transit.
See also Gage-5, s.v. "metro" (3), which is described as "the subway train system in Montréal".
See: Metromeaning 2,Rest of Canada,vendu

Quotations

1965
He said the three-line, 16-mile Montreal Metro - due to open in 1966 - is being planned so that its entrances will be incorporated into private or public buildings along the subway route.
1967
He was in Montreal a few days ago to have an advance look at Expo. He wound up his column with a few kind words about the Montreal subway system: Best show in city is Montreal Metro; best subway in world, runs on rubber tires on cement tracks... 75 degrees F. below ground and minus 40 above.
1975
Just minutes from downtown Montreal by the Metro, and all this exciting city has to offer. Leave your car. We've even got a Metro station outside our door.
1985
The Superior Court ruling overturned a municipal court verdict rendered Dec. 17, 1983, by Judge Andre Masse, who convicted Ottawa student Sylvie Gagne of resisting arrest after a Metro security officer stopped her for smoking. A Montreal Urban Community (MUC) bylaw forbids selling goods without a licence in Metro corridors, playing music in non-designated areas, smoking in the Metro or loitering.
1993
With Place Ville-Marie, as part of a plan to revitalize the downtown area, Montreal built the Metro underground transit system and Place des Arts, a major cultural complex with several concert halls, theatres and exhibition spaces.
2003
In this solution, you could park your car anywhere and get to other hospitals by a fast, free shuttle-bus that would leave every five minutes. People using public transport would board a "hospital express" bus at a metro stop. They would get off at the door of the Montreal General emergency unit and walk only a few steps on the level, not up a hill, to get in.
2013
When we get stranded in the metro, boil our water or get stuck in road repair, we may feel personally frustrated.
2016
For $10 the 747 express (pdf) will take you to downtown officially in 45 minutes but likely more and sometimes less depending on traffic; the bus is equipped with WiFi and has tourist/transit maps available. You can buy the pass at the international arrivals level STM ticket machine which accepts cash, debit, and credit cards although some report that their American cards do not work; you can buy a ticket on the bus itself with exact change in coins only (no bills).The fare gives you a 24h pass good for the métro (subway) and on-island busses run by the STM, Montéal's transit authority; off-island busses and trains are run by other transit authorities and have separate fare structures. ).

References

  • Boberg (2010)
  • Gage-5