Michigan Central Railway Tunnel
The Michigan Central Railway Tunnel is a rail tunnel under the Detroit River which connects Detroit with Windsor, Ontario. Built by the Detroit River Tunnel Company for the Canada Southern Railway then leased by the Michigan Central Railroad and finally owned by the New York Central Railroad. The tunnel was opened July 26th, 1910 and is still in use by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Before the tunnel, the Canada Southern Railway had connections to Michigan at its west end, all were car ferries. The Northern spanned across the St. Clair River which connected the St. Clair and Western Railroad. The Southern one crossed the Detroit River just south of Detroit, and connected to the Canada Southern Bridge Company in Grosse Ile. Additionally a line, which was usually considered the main line, split from the one in Grosse Ile in Essex, then ran to the Detroit River in Windsor.
The Grand Trunk Railway opened up the St. Clair Tunnel in Port Huron on July 26th, 1910 which gave it an advantage on the Canada Southern’s car ferries. The Detroit River Tunnel Company formed on August 15th, 1905 being a merger between Michigan and Canada Bridge and Tunnel Company in Michigan and the Canada and Michigan Bridge and Tunnel Company in Canada. Construction of the tunnel began October 1906 under the supervision of The New York Central Railways engineering VP, William Wilgus. The tunnel opened for passengers on July 26th, 1910. Freight services began on September 15th and on October 16th all of the traffic began running via the tunnel which ended the need for the former car ferry.
On the Canadian side, the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel connected to a line that had served a car ferry in Windsor. On the U.S. side, the tunnel connected to the Michigan Central Railroad main line just west of downtown and the Michigan Central Station was built just west of the junction which opened in 1913.
In 1968 the tunnel changed hands, from New York Central Railroad to Penn Central and then in 1976 to went to Conrail. Conrail sold the tunnel in 1985 to the Canadian National Railway and to the Canadian Pacific Railway. Each got half share. In 2000 Canadian National agreed to sell its part to Borealis Transportation and to only use the St. Clair Tunnel. Just recently plans were announcec by the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership to construct a new railway tunnel and convert the existing one to a two-lane vehicle tunnel for transport trucks which would lighten the load on the other international border crossings which are close by, namely the Ambassador Bridge, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, and the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry). The plans have been put on hold while Canada and the U.S. figure out the exact location of a future border crossing.
