Yesterday, we attempted a longer walk, from the Orange line’s “eastern” terminus (the eastern part of the U shape). First we took the orange line up to Montmorency. I’d only been there once before, for a Laval Rocket game in 2017. Unfortunately, it looks like I was too quick to move my phone after I pressed the shutter button, so a lot of my pictures came out like this:
Or like this:
Oh well. I learned my lesson. Next time I’ll be a little slower.
Montmorency
The terminus of the orange line. There was a lot around it compared to 2017, and even more buildings being built. There’s the Place Bell hockey arena; a campus for UQAM, another one for Université de Montréal, and finally the Collège Montmorency. That’s a lot of higher education clustered around this station! There’s also several shopping centers nearby. This must be a busy station during the school year and on weekdays!
On our walk to De la Concorde, there really wasn’t much to see. A 6-lane boulevard (Boul. de la Concorde), and residential buildings and houses on the other side. The only landmark of note was the Maison des arts de Laval.
De la Concorde
This station was interesting from the outside, and is connected to the De la Concorde station on the exo2 St-Jerôme commuter rail line. As I said, there wasn’t much to see on the walk there.
Cartier
Not much to see on the way to Cartier, either. We left Boul. de la Concorde and headed into a residential neighbourhood. Houses, a few apartment blocks. I didn’t take many pictures. Some bike paths, which was nice. Speaking of bike paths: I didn’t take a picture of it, but on the Boulevard, at one point cyclists were supposed to SHARE a turning lane with cars. The bike path which had been separate (at least, separated by a painted line!) merged into the turning lane. Not safe!!
And here we are, arriving at Cartier station and its bus terminal:
I’m always confused by the pricing for the metro in Laval. I guess this is as clear as it gets!
Onwards to Henri-Bourassa!
Henri-Bourassa
The former terminus of the Orange line until the Laval extension opened in 2007, and the first stop that is on the island of Montreal! It felt good to be “back home”; Laval really feels like a different place entirely! We crossed the Pont Viau to get across the Rivière des Prairies into Montreal. At Henri-Bourassa, there used to be a major bus terminus for buses going to Laval and municipalities on the North Shore, but it looked like that’s gone now, and is replaced by condo buildings that are either completed or in the process of being built, since those buses don’t have to cross a bridge anymore and can go to one of the Laval stations instead. I used to go to this station often; either I would take the 48 or 49 to visit a friend, or I would take a bus to go to my mom’s place in Terrebonne.
Right behind the station, there is the Ahuntsic Park (Henri-Bourassa is in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville bourough). We stopped there to eat the lunch we’d brought with us. Then we continued south, passing in front of the Bibliothèque d’Ahuntsic. I wanted to go in (I have a goal of visiting every one of Montreal’s 45 public libraries; I’m almost at 50%!) but there was a lineup for some reason, so we decided not to. Another time!
Sauvé
Sauvé station is well-known to me. I took the 140 (or the defunct 143 which is now the 440) to and from here when I lived in Montreal-North while I went to Dawson. The station is pretty boring, both inside and out, but it connects to the 121, one of the most-used bus lines in Montreal (I believe it’s in 2nd place after the 80?). There’s not much to see around here except for a couple of Jewish cemeteries) and the Sauvé commuter station on the exo5 Mascouche commuter rail line, which was opened in 2015. However, one notable thing that is visible here (and in fact, was visible once we crossed the bridge into Montreal) is the St-Denis part of the REV (Réseau express vélo), the express bike lanes being built across the city. It’s impressive, with more and more people on it, the further south we got.
Here are a couple pictures of the REV:
Crémazie
Next stop: Crémazie. On the way there, we took a short detour to Parc Henri-Julien and had a snack. There wasn’t much of interest on the route, but when we got to Crémazie, we saw the ugly Metropolitan elevated highway. One of several mistakes of the past that are too complicated and expensive to undo. Crémazie station is located under the FTQ headquarters.
Jarry
Not much to see along the way to Jarry, but there was this nice mural, and a sign said it was 63 degrees.. It wasn’t that hot!
Jean-Talon
The end of the journey. By the time we were approaching Jean-Talon, we were tired and hungry, and it was too late to go to the market as it had just closed. We’ll have another chance to visit it when we do the Blue line. We did see more bike infrastructure, though, including a little island with a tree in it, as well as one of several pedestrianized streets (at least for the summer).
This was a long walk! A total of 12.68 kms (including our little detours in parks). Phew! The Blue line and the western part of the Orange line will be just as long if not longer, so maybe we’ll cut those in half. We were beat by the time we got home! I don’t know if we’ll finish the whole network by the end of the summer, but if we are able to do it before winter, that’ll be fine! Maybe we’ll save the Yellow for the fall so we can see the leaves on Ile Ste-Hélène, we’ll see!
Walking the Metro 