A significant step is underway to increase Montreal’s metro blue line east to Anjou, with excavation now formally in progress.
An enormous tunnel-boring machine has begun drilling eastbound, launching what shall be a two-year effort to carve out roughly 5 kilometres of tunnel and make method for 5 new stations.
The machine itself is a placing piece of engineering, spanning three storeys in diameter and weighing about 2,000 tonnes. In-built Montreal over the previous three months after arriving in February, the German-made drill is designed to interrupt by way of rock and particles whereas concurrently developing the tunnel lining.
Media personnel are seen on the positioning of the deliberate Vertieres Metro station on the blue line of the Montreal subway throughout a media tour in Montreal on Tuesday, September 9, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
Officers say the undertaking has been a long time within the making.
“At this time is a superb day for the east finish of Montreal,” mentioned Chantal Rouleau on Tuesday, MNA for Pointe-aux-Trembles. “We had been ready for that undertaking for a lot of, many, a few years.”
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Mission leaders say the specialised machine will permit crews to work effectively, dealing with each excavation and ending of the tunnel in a single steady course of.
The tunneller has been named after Lisette St-Onge, who grew to become Montreal’s first girl métro operator in 1981. The identify was chosen by way of a public vote.
“I really feel nice, I really feel nervous, I really feel comfortable,” St-Onge mentioned on the ceremony.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada says the funding goes past this undertaking, pointing to future improvement alternatives within the metropolis’s east finish.
“We have to hold this tunnel machine as a result of we have now so many different initiatives we have to do,” she informed reporters.
Excavation is anticipated to proceed till 2028. Officers say the undertaking stays on schedule and on price range, with a focused opening date of 2031.
As soon as full, the 5 new stations are anticipated to carry tens of hundreds of further customers into the STM’s metro community.
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