The Montreal metro network now has 23 universally accessible stations, with the addition of elevators at Villa-Maria on the orange line and Pie-IX on the green line. More than 100 million have been invested to transform the interior of these two busy stations.
“With each lift installed, we change the daily lives of all of our customers. It is essential for us to continue our efforts, ”said the president of the Board of Directors of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), Éric Alan Caldwell, on Friday.
It was at the Pie-IX station that the work was the most imposing. Beyond the installation of elevators, the project, launched in the fall of 2020, also involved enlarging the station’s main and secondary entrances, widening the underground corridor, reviewing several electronic systems and even add a natural ventilation shaft.
In total, the operation will have cost more than 81 million dollars alone. “Municipal infrastructure” works, such as the redevelopment of Pierre-De Coubertin Avenue and Pie-IX Boulevard to accommodate the Pie-IX Bus Rapid Service (SRB), were carried out simultaneously, notes the STM.
It specifies that this was its “very first multi-partner project since the adoption of Law 16 in December 2019”, making it possible to “limit the duplication of construction sites, to impact citizens as little as possible and manage public funds effectively.
45 more to go
Further west, in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Villa-Maria station also benefited from a facelift, in addition to the installation of three new elevators. The project will have cost almost 25 million, including the expansion of the boarding platforms and the entrance on the west facade.
A new auxiliary building used for ventilation has also been installed on the west facade. The bus terminal has also been “upgraded” to provide a smoother experience, and the station doors have been motorized.
Four stations will therefore have been made accessible to everyone this year in the Montreal metro. However, there are still 45 stations that are not. Eight other projects are underway at Angrignon, Berri-UQAM (yellow line), Édouard-Montpetit, D’Iberville, Jolicœur, McGill, Outremont, and Place-Saint-Henri stations.
Mr. Caldwell assures us “to want to maintain the pace so as to make accessible, gradually but surely, the forty remaining stations”. The STM says it is “to establish the next steps of this program taking into consideration the feasibility of the projects, the need to maintain the assets as well as the financing available”.