Snowdon (Montreal Metro)

Montreal Metro Station
Orange Line Platform Blue Line Platform
Borough	Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
City	Montreal
Opened	7 September 1981 (Orange Line) 4 January 1988 (Blue Line)
Line	Orange Line Blue Line
Architect	Jean-Louis Beaulieu
Artist	Claude Guité, Jean-Louis Beaulieu
Platform Depth	19.5 metres (upper platform) 24.6 metres (lower platform)
Rank	6th deepest
Traffic	3,163,288 entrances in 2006
Rank	29th of 68 (excluding transfers)
Interstation Distance	Orange Line: 693.00 metres to Côte-Sainte-Catherine 884.41 metres to Villa-Maria Blue Line: 959.60 metres to Côte-des-Neiges
Address of Entrances	5111, Queen Mary Road
Nearby Main Intersections	Queen Mary Road / Westbury Avenue Queen Mary Road / Decarie Boulevard

Snowdon is a station on the Montreal Metro rapid transit system, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM). It is located in the Snowdon neighbourhood of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is a transfer station between the Orange Line and Blue Line, and is the western terminus of the Blue Line.

The station opened on September 7, 1981 with service on the orange line only, though the blue line platforms were built at the same time. At the time it was the western terminus of the Orange Line, taking over from Place-Saint-Henri; it is thus the only station to have been the terminus of two different lines. Service on the Blue Line began on January 4, 1988.

Overview

Arrangement of platforms at Snowdon station

The station was constructed as an anti-directional cross-platform interchange, with three lateral tunnels containing two stories each, joined by four cross-tunnels; both lines therefore have stacked platforms. This layout was intended to allow rapid transfer between a future extension into Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and service to downtown; unfortunately, this service never opened, and the station's layout means that most people who transfer between the blue and orange lines must go down stairs.

The station's central access tunnel is connected at its western end to the station's single entrance, which is integrated into an STM control centre and contains a small sunken garden.

Architecture and art

A portion of the "Winter" mural on the platform

The station was designed by Jean-Louis Beaulieu, who also provided sculptural grilles for the station's main staircase and the rear of the control building. The station's main artwork, a group of four murals by Claude Guité running the full length of the platform and entitled Les quatre saisons (the four seasons). The murals are painted on 500 panels of asbestos cement stretching the entire length of the platforms, they portray semi-abstract scenes of the foliage and weather associated with each of the four seasons. The seasons go in order, counterclockwise around the platforms, with winter on the Côte-Vertu platform, spring on Montmorency, summer on the Saint-Michel departure platform, and autumn on the Snowdon arrival platform.

Soon after the station opened the murals were victims of graffiti that badly damaged the artwork. Attempts of removing the graffiti destroyed large sections of the paintings. In 2004 the murals were all removed for a restoration plan by the STM to have the artist repaint the murals and slowly have them reinstalled in the station. As of June 2010 all the murals have been repainted, and are partially reinstalled on all four platforms of the station with a protective sheet of glass to prevent any future vandalism.

Origin of the name

This station is named for the Snowdon neighbourhood. This area took its name from Snowdon Street, which in turn took its name from the owner of the farm on which it was built.

Connecting bus routes

Main articles: Société de transport de Montréal and List of Montreal Bus Routes

Société de transport de Montréal
Route	Service Times	Map	Schedule
17 Décarie	All-day	Map	Schedule
51 Boulevard Édouard-Montpetit	All-day	Map	Schedule
166 Queen Mary	All-day	Map	Schedule
371 Décarie	Overnight	Map	Schedule

Nearby points of interest

• Décarie Autoroute
• Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough hall
• Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Library
• Collège International Marie-de-France
• University of Montreal Geriatrics Institute

External links

• Snowdon Station - official web page
• Snowdon metro station geo location
• Montreal by Metro, metrodemontreal.com
• 2008 STM System Map
• Metro Map