Montreal metro
The Montreal Métro is the main form of public transporation for the city of Montreal and was the second metro system to be built in Canada, behind Toronto's TTC. The Metro was inaugurated on October 14, 1966, during the tenure of Mayor Jean Drapeau. Originally consisting of 26 stations on three seperate lines, the Metro now incorporates 65 stations on four lines, serving the centre, east, and west of Montreal Island with a connection to Longueuil via the Yellow Line and, soon, Laval in 2007.
History
To be written
Design
The design of the Metro was heavily influenced by Montreal's winter conditions. Unlike other cities' metros, nearly all station entrances in Montreal are completely enclosed: usually in small, separate buildings with rotating doors designed to prevent heat from escaping. All seperate entrances are set back from the sidewalk, however several stations in Downtown Montreal are directly connected to buildings, and thus have several entrances inside pre-existing buildings as well as street-level entrances, making the Metro an integral part of Montreal's famous Ville souterraine (Underground City).
The Montreal Metro was the first metro in the world to run entirely on rubber tires, which required that the entire metro be built underground as the tires would be damanged by the winter cold. Rubber tires make the Métro exceptionally quiet, and also helps metro cars to go up hill with more ease and less energy consumption than other metal-tired metros.
Montreal's metro is renowned for its architecture and public art. Under the direction of Mayor Drapeau, a competition among Canadian architects was held to decide the design of each station, ensureing that every station was built in a different style by a different architect. Several stations, such as Berri-UQAM are important examples of modernist architecture, and various system-wide design choices were informed by the International Style.
Along with the Stockholm Metro, Montreal pioneered the installation of public art in the metro among capitalist countries, a practice that before hand was mostly found in Socialist and Communist nations. More than fifty stations are decorated with over one hundred works of public art, such as sculpture, stained glass, and murals by noted Québécois artists, including members of the famous art movement, the Automatistes.
Some of the most important works in the Metro include the stained-glass window by Marcelle Ferron at Champ-de-Mars metro and the Guimard entrance, like the famous metro entrances designed for the Paris Metro, which was donated by the RATP to commemorate its cooperation in constructing the metro. It is the only authentic Guimard entrance in use outside Paris.
Operation
Metro service starts at 05:30 and stops at 01:00 on weekdays and Sunday, and 01:30 on Saturday in order to accomodate people coming home later. However, the Orange and Green Lines.
The Metro is operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) which also operates the bus services in Montreal, thus there is free transfer possible between bus and Metro. Fare payment is via a barrier system, including magnetic tickets and passes, punched-card bus transfers, and non-magnetized reduced fare tickets.
Fares are partially integrated with the Agence métropolitaine de transport's commuter rail system, which links the Metro to the outer suburbs via four interchange stations.
Metro Lines
The four current Montreal Metro lines are identified by colour, by number, or by terminus station. The terminus station in the direction of travel is used to differentiate between direction of travel. The longest and busiest line is the Green Line, while the least busy is the Blue Line. The Yellow Line is the shortest line, with just three stations, and was built for the 1967 Montreal World's Fair. For now, it is the only Metro line that leaves the Island of Montreal, however that will change when the Orange Line is extended to Laval, a suburb to the north of Montreal, in 2007. Line 3 was intended to be an above-ground train that would use the CN Rail tracks running under Mount Royal, however this plan was cancelled and Line 3 was never built, however the Montreal Metro continues to be numbered as if Line 3 was built.
- 1 Green Line, Angrignon — Honoré-Beaugrand
- 2 Orange Line, Côte Vertu — Henri-Bourassa (Extension to Laval scheduled for completion by 2007)
- 4 Yellow Line, Berri-UQAM — Longueuil?Université-de-Sherbrooke
- 5 Blue Line, Snowdon — Saint-Michel
See Also
