Square-Victoria–OACI station

Square-Victoria–OACI station is a Montreal Metro station in the borough of Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[4] It is operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and serves the Orange Line. It is located in Victoria Square near the Quartier international de Montréal district. The station opened on February 6, 1967, four months after most of the initial network, and was briefly the terminus of the Orange Line until Bonaventure station was opened a week later.

Square-Victoria–OACI
General information
LocationSquare Victoria
Montreal, Quebec H3C 1E8
Canada
Coordinates45°30′07″N 73°33′47″W
Operated bySociété de transport de Montréal
Connections
Construction
Depth16.2 metres (53 feet 2 inches), 31st deepest
AccessibleNo
ArchitectIrving Sager
Other information
Fare zoneARTM: A[1]
History
Opened6 February 1967
Previous namesSquare-Victoria (1967–2014)
Passengers
2022[2][3]3,064,263 Increase 81.22%
Rank22 of 68
Services
Preceding station Montreal Metro Following station
Bonaventure
toward Côte-Vertu
 Orange Line Place-d'Armes
toward Montmorency

Overview

The station is a normal side platform station; its central mezzanine is connected to a very long tunnel running along Beaver Hall Hill and under Victoria Square, giving access to its various exits.

Each of the station's exits is connected to another building or buildings via the underground city. The Belmont exit is connected to and located in the 1080 Beaver Hall Hill building; the Viger exit is likewise connected to and located in the Bell Tower/National Bank complex. The Saint Antoine exit is a link in the main part of the underground city, linking the ICAO building with the Centre CDP Capital, while the rotunda at the south end of the tunnel, leading to the Saint Jacques exit, links the Tour de la Bourse with the Centre de commerce mondial.

The station was designed by Irving Sager. Two steel murals by Robert Savoie, entitled Kawari Kabuto, grace the walls of the great volume over the tunnel vaults, and a mural in the pedestrian tunnel to the northern entrances is by Jean-Paul Mousseau. The southern rotunda formerly contained a multimedia installation entitled Ars Natura, promoting Montreal's science museums.

Hector Guimard's entrance portico

The most famous artwork, however, is one of Hector Guimard's art nouveau entrance porticos from the Paris Métro. One of the few authentic installations on a rapid transit station outside Paris, it was given in 1967 by the RATP (Régie autonome des transports parisiens) to commemorate the collaboration of French and Canadian engineers in building the Metro. It is located within Victoria Square on the Saint Antoine entrance, one of only four open-air entrances on the network (the others are located at Place-Saint-Henri and Bonaventure stations). It was recently removed, completely restored, and reinstalled.

The station is equipped with the MétroVision information screens which displays news, commercials, and the time till the next train.

The station has 4 entrances:

605, Belmont Street (Montreal)
601, Viger Avenue
601 Saint Antoine Street W
605, Saint Jacques Street W

Origin of the name

This station is named for Victoria Square, which has existed since 1813; it was renamed for Queen Victoria on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) to Montreal in 1860.

Until the spring of 2014, the station was named Square-Victoria. In June 2014, the station was renamed Square-Victoria–OACI, referring to the nearby headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (French: Organisation de l'aviation civile internationale, OACI). This was done to celebrate the 70th anniversary of ICAO's presence in Montreal.[5]

Connecting bus routes
Société de transport de Montréal
Route
35 Griffintown
36 Monk
61 Wellington
74 Bridge
75 de la Commune
168 Cité-du-Havre
420 Express Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
CIT du Sud-Ouest
Route
28 Châteauguay - Downtown Montréal

Nearby points of interest

Connected via the underground city

Other

Film and television appearances

Square-Victoria–OACI as well as the portions of the station connecting to the Underground City appeared on the eighth season of the American reality TV competition The Amazing Race. It was part of the final leg of the race that season, which involved locations in Montana, Montreal and Toronto before ending in Upstate New York.[6] It also made an appearance during the second season of the Canadian version of the show.

The station appeared in the 2014 movie X-Men: Days of Future Past, starring Hugh Jackman, where it was redressed to stand in for a Parisian metro station.[7]

References
  1. "Fare Zones". Metropolitan Regional Transportation Authority. 1 July 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  2. Société de transport de Montréal (2023-05-25). 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 (2022-09-27). Entrants de toutes les stations de métro en 2021 (Report) – via Access to Information Act request, reference no. 0308.2022.182.
  4. Square-Victoria Metro Station
  5. Métro de Montréal: la station Square-Victoria change de nom, at the Huffington Post; published April 3, 2014; retrieved July 4, 2014
  6. "The Amazing Race 8 @ Reality TV World". Reality TV World. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
  7. "Filming Locations for Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014), around Montreal". The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. Retrieved 2022-01-13.

Media related to Square-Victoria–OACI (Montreal Metro) at Wikimedia Commons

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