World War II and the war effort in Montreal resurrected trams crowding. In 1944, the MTC proposed a two-line network, one line running underneath Saint Catherine Street, the other under Saint Denis and Notre-Dame and Saint Jacques Streets. In 1953 the newly formed public Montreal Transportation Commission replaced streetcars by buses and proposed a single subway line reusing the 1944 plans and extending it all the way to Boulevard Crémazie, right by the D'Youville maintenance shops. By this point, construction was already well underway on Canada's first subway line in Toronto under Yonge Street, which would be opened in 1954. Still, Montreal councillors remained cautious and no work was initiated. For some of them, including Jean Drapeau during its first municipal term, public transit was a thing of the past.