Jean-Drapeau station

Jean-Drapeau station is a Montreal Metro station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and serves the Yellow Line. It is situated on the Saint Helen's Island in the Saint Lawrence River.[4]

Jean-Drapeau
General information
Location170 rue Ste-Hélène
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Coordinates45°30′45″N 73°31′59″W
Operated bySociété de transport de Montréal
Connections
  Société de transport de Montréal
Construction
Depth4.6 metres (15 feet 1 inch), 60th deepest
AccessibleYes
ArchitectJean Dumontier
Other information
Fare zoneARTM: A[1]
History
Opened1 April 1967
Passengers
2022[2][3]1,253,908 Increase 181.56%
Rank55 of 68
Services
Preceding station Montreal Metro Following station
Berri-UQAM
toward Berri–UQAM
 Yellow Line Longueuil
Terminus
Location

Overview

The station was constructed in open cut as part of the enlargement of Saint Helen's Island to host Expo 67. The official opening of the station took place on April 1, 1967.[5] In the first four weeks, it served only the construction workers of the Expo site.[6] Île Sainte-Hélène station finally opened to the public on April 28, 1967, the day after the official opening of Expo 67.[6][7]

The station was designed to handle large crowds, with a side platform design and large staircases to a ground level concourse. During Expo 67, the station handled over 60,000 passengers an hour.[8]

The station now serves the various attractions on Saint Helen's Island and Notre Dame Island - including Jean-Drapeau Park, the La Ronde amusement park and the Montreal Casino, as well as events like the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. This station was the least busy in the network in 2020 and 2021, with the COVID-19 pandemic closing and later reducing the capacity of most of these points of interest.

In May 2001,[lower-alpha 1] the station was renamed Jean-Drapeau after Jean Drapeau, mayor of Montreal from 1954 to 1957 and 1960 to 1986, who is often given credit for the construction of the Metro, and for securing both Expo 67 and the 1976 Summer Olympics.[9][10] The park in which the station sits had been renamed Parc Jean-Drapeau in 1999.

Accessibility

The station was made accessible in November 2019 with the construction of two elevators. Despite being of one the lesser used stations on the network, elevators were installed due to low technical complexity and low cost of installation.[11] As of 2022, none of the other stations on the Yellow line are accessible.[12] This effectively negates the elevator’s purpose. However, construction work is currently underway at Berri-UQAM to allow accessible access to the Yellow line platforms,[13] and in turn, the rest of the system.

Artwork
Mural by Jean Dumontier

Painted concrete murals by the station architect Jean Dumontier depict the mythological Titan Atlas holding up the roof of the station.[8] Dumontier was the first architect of the metro to create his own artworks for stations of his own design.[14]

In 1997, the operator of the Lisbon Metro gifted a granite sculpture by Portuguese artist João Charters de Almeida to the STM, to commemorate 30 years since the opening of the Montreal Metro and Expo 67, as well as the Portuguese community in the city.[15][16] However, the 19 m (62 ft 4 in) high artwork was too large for any metro station. The artwork was installed instead in Parc Jean-Drapeau, located close to the station on Île Sainte-Hélène.[17]

Connecting bus routes
Société de transport de Montréal
Route
767 La Ronde / Station Jean-Drapeau
768 Plage Jean Doré / Station Jean-Drapeau
777 Le Casino / Station Bonaventure

Nearby points of interest

Notes
  1. The decision to rename the station was taken in May 2000, the station name was changed in May 2001.

References
  1. "Fare Zones". Metropolitan Regional Transportation Authority. July 1, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  2. Société de transport de Montréal (May 25, 2023). Entrants de toutes les stations de métro en 2022 (Report) – via Access to Information Act request, reference no. 0308.2023.134.
  3. Société de transport de Montréal (September 27, 2022). Entrants de toutes les stations de métro en 2021 (Report) – via Access to Information Act request, reference no. 0308.2022.182.
  4. Jean-Drapeau Metro Station
  5. Daigneault, Malcolm (April 1, 1967). "Longueuil Opens Latest Subway Station". Montreal Gazette. p. 1.
  6. Hayes, Bob (April 28, 1967). "Montreal's New Metro - A Trouble-Free Way". Montreal Gazette. pp. A4.
  7. "Au printemps 1967, on inaugurait la nouvelle ligne jaune du métro de Montréal | Radio-Canada.ca". Radio-Canada (in Canadian French). March 30, 2022. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
  8. "Jean-Drapeau (Jean Dumontier)". Société de transport de Montréal. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  9. "Montréal, le 10 mai 2000 - Les membres du Conseil d;administration ont adopté ce soir une résolution visant à changer le nom de la". Société de transport de Montréal (in French). May 10, 2000. Retrieved June 20, 2023. Les membres du Conseil d administration ont adopté ce soir une résolution visant à changer le nom de la station Ile Sainte-Hélène par celui de Jean-Drapeau.
  10. "La station de métro Île-Sainte-Hélène devient officiellement la station Jean-Drapeau". TVA Nouvelles (in Canadian French). May 17, 2001. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  11. "First accessible station on the Yellow line". Société de transport de Montréal. November 22, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  12. "First accessible station on the Yellow line". Société de transport de Montréal. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  13. "Berri-UQAM". Société de transport de Montréal. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  14. "Jean Dumontier, architect of Montreal métro stations, dead at 83". The Gazette. Montreal. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
  15. "La ville imaginaire". Bureau d'Art Public – Ville de Montréal. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  16. "Jean-Drapeau (Charters de Almeida)". Société de transport de Montréal. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  17. "La Ville imaginaire". Parc Jean-Drapeau. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
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