How many Detroit River tunnels connect Detroit and Canada? If you said one, you’re wrong.
In addition to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, there’s the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel, the lesser-known of the two. However, the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel is the older tunnel, and it handles freight train traffic.
Construction on the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel began in October 1906, and the tunnel opened for trains in July 1910, 20 years before the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel opened.
Both tunnels were built using the immersed tube method, meaning that sections of steel tube were floated into place in the river and then sunk into a trench in the river bottom to form the tunnel.
the tubes that would become the tunnel before being sunk.
The tunnel is approximately 1.6 miles long and it cost over $8 million to build. The New York Central Railway’s engineering vice president, William J. Wilgus oversaw the construction. In 1906, the tunnel was operated by the Michigan Central Railroad. It has since changed hands many times throughout the years. Currently, the tunnel is owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway and Borealis Transportation.
The Michigan Central Railway Tunnel was the first immersed tube tunnel to carry traffic, namely passenger cars and freight trains from Detroit to Windsor. Before the tunnel was opened, rail cars were shipped between Detroit and Windsor by ferry. The tunnel’s opening allowed for a more convenient and faster way to get goods and rail cars from one city to the other. Today, the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel sees about 400,000 railcars pass through it annually.
current view of the tunnel as its in use.
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 Canadian Pacific Railway, with each getting a half share. 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. CP 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.
Some of the challenges faced by rail stakeholders in the Windsor area are caused by the design of the existing rail tunnel. The rail tunnel is a double-track tunnel with a maximum freight train speed of 40 mph for both tracks. The North tube of the tunnel was enlarged in the mid-1990s to allow for the smaller automotive rail cars and double-stack 8’6” container rail cars. However, further enlargement to accommodate double-stack 9’6” container rail cars or the new generation automotive rail cars is not possible without improving the structural integrity of the tunnel. The South tube was not enlarged and is still at its original size, which can only accommodate single stack container rail cars.