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montreal blue line

Montreal Could Get A New Transit Line To Laval & The North Shore

Political will is aligning behind a transit project that would link Montreal and its northern suburbs. The mayors of Laval, Montréal-Est and the North Shore municipalities of Terrebonne, Mascouche and Repentigny are now calling for a new line connecting their cities to Montreal's East End, including direct connections to the blue and green lines of the Montreal metro.

Officials are already studying the possibility of a so-called "eastern structural project" that could bring new rapid transit to the northeastern part of Montreal Island and beyond. This project follows in the footsteps of the defunct REM de l'Est, a plan to install a new light-rail line between Montréal-Nord, Pointe-aux-Trembles and downtown Montreal.

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The STM Is Closing 6 Blue Line Montreal Metro Stations This Weekend

Montreal metro riders who take the blue line should plan for travel disruptions on Sunday, April 30. The Société des Transports de Montréal (STM) will close six stations for accessibility work at Édouard-Montpetit station between 5:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.

The temporary closure will affect Snowdon (blue line), Côte-des-Neiges, Université-de-Montreal, Edouard-Montpetit, Outremont and Acadie. The blue line closures are part of major accessibility upgrades at Édouard-Montpetit.

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The New Montreal Metro Blue Line Stations Might Not (All) Be Named After Dead White Dudes

Pie-IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was a 19th-century pope. Charles-Théodore Viau was a moustached businessman and landowner. Jean-Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire was a fervent Catholic preacher. And François Charles Stanislas Langelier was a career politician. All of them are dead. All of them were men. And all of them are namesakes for the provisional labels attached to future Montreal metro stations on the blue line extension: Pie-IX, Viau, Lacordaire and Langelier.

But these monikers likely won't be as tenacious as the white patriarchy these men represent. An STM spokesperson told MTL Blog that the transit company plans to unveil the official names for blue line extension stations in 2023. The organization has also recommitted to including the names of women and nods to "multicultural and Indigenous realities" in its considerations.

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Everything We Know About The Montreal Metro's Blue Line Extension

The Montreal metro's blue line extension is coming — more slowly than the 24 bus during rush hour, but it's coming! For years, Montrealers have suffered the slow drip of information about the transformative project. The first metro extension in decades, it's set to reshape transportation along a huge swath of the city.

Now, finally, it appears the final pieces of the extension-planning puzzle are falling into place.

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The STM Has Unveiled The Artists For Each New Blue Line Extension Metro Station

Montreal will have five new metro stations upon the completion of the blue line extension in the late 2020s. The hope is that they'll expand not only transit service, but also the spirit of what STM General Manager Marie-Claude Léonard calls the "underground art museum" — the monumental installations and bold architecture that characterize the Montreal metro. To that end, the STM has unveiled the Quebec artists whose works will one day anchor the new stations in Montreal's East End.

Jocelyne Alloucherie. Right: Ludovic Boney.Jocelyne Alloucherie. Right: Ludovic Boney.Courtesy of the STM

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These 3 Massive Montreal Construction Projects Will Reshape The City

Real estate broker Luciano D'Iorio was stuck in traffic when I called him to talk about the future of Montreal's real estate market and transportation. "When you say the word transportation," he said over the phone, people tend to wonder, "what does that have to do with real estate? And my answer is, it's got everything to do with real estate."

Travelling between built environments, accessing areas around new developments and bringing people from populated areas to commercial centres are all key points where real estate and transit overlap, and these three projects are nothing if not transit-centred.

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This Map Shows The Montreal Metro Network Of The Future

2022 was a big year for Montreal transit. 2023 could be even bigger. With a Montreal metro extension charging ahead, the opening of the first branch of the highly anticipated Réseau express métropolitain (REM) and several other projects either already under construction, in the planning stages or otherwise on the table, Montrealers could see some monumental changes in the next decade. Some could fundamentally reshape the city.

This map shows what the network could look like when construction is done — and if some projects in the works actually come to fruition.

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Construction For Montreal's Blue Line Extension Will Cause Traffic Headaches For 10 Months

The STM is charging ahead with the extension of the blue line, which will eventually bring the Montreal metro to the east end boroughs of Saint-Léonard and Anjou.

Beginning the week of August 29, the transit company is moving into the next phase of work, turning parts of rue Jean-Talon and boulevard Viau into an eight-metre-deep pit so crews can reroute sewer, water and electrical lines to make way for the eventual construction of a new station.

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The Montreal Metro Blue Line Extension Is Happening — Here's Everything You Need To Know

It seems like we report on this every year, but once again, there are definitive plans to extend the Montreal Metro Blue line further east. Minister for Transport and Minister Responsible for the Montreal Region Chantal Rouleau announced a revised plan for five additional metro stations on March 18.

"The blue line will go to Anjou," Rouleau said. "The project has been enhanced to open up an entire population who will now have access to a public transit system worthy of the name."

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Canada's Deepest Metro Station Is Being Built Under Montreal In This Man-Made Cave (VIDEO)

Journey to the centre of the Earth in a new video of the Montreal REM's future stop at Édouard-Montpetit station. Late last year, members of the media got to tour the site, which, at 72 metres below the surface, will become Canada's deepest subway station when it opens in 2023.

Narcity and MTL Blog's own Alex Melki was among the visitors. Narcity's video of the tour shows the scale of the project to link the Mount Royal Tunnel to the STM's blue metro line station.

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Montreal's Outremont Metro Station Is Now Closed For 7 Months

Montreal's Outremont station has closed for seven months as part of a major renovation. From January 10 to August 19, 2022 passengers will not be able to enter or exit the metro at the blue line station.

The STM says the planned closure will make way for crews to fast-track a renovation project that began in January 2021. The project includes the installation of elevators, a new waterproof membrane, better lighting and motorized butterfly doors, according to the transit company.

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The STM Explained Why Wind Smacks You In The Face When You Enter A Montreal Metro Station

Montreal pro tip: don't do your hair until after you're off the metro. Montrealers know the struggle of using all their body weight to force open their metro station's doors only to get smacked in the face by a blinding gust of wind that smells like the city's stale, dusty bowels.

So why does entering an STM metro station feel like an amusement park ride? The transit company took to Instagram to share the answer in an eye-opening explainer video on its ventilation system and methods.

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