Lionel-Groulx station

The Tree of Life by Joseph Rifesser stands in the Lionel-Groulx Metro Station

Arrangement of the platforms at Lionel-Groulx Metro Station

Lionel-Groulx is a station of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM). It is located in the Saint-Henri area of the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is a transfer station between the Green Line and Orange Line.

The station served 3.9 million passengers in 2006 without including transfers. If they were included, it would be ranked among the top four busiest in the network with about 15 million passengers.

The station was inaugurated on September 3, 1978 as part of the extension of the Green Line to Angrignon, with service on the Green Line only, though the Orange Line platforms were built at the same time. They did not enter service until the extension to Place-Saint-Henri was opened on April 28, 1980. It was therefore the first transfer station to be opened after Berri-UQAM, in the original network.

In 2009 it became the first existing station to be retrofitted to be fully wheelchair-accessible through the addition of elevators. Berri-UQAM station had elevators added at the same time, but only between the mezzanine and orange line platforms. (The three stations in Laval, opened in 2007, already had elevators.) Three elevators connect the entrance to the mezzanine, the mezzanine to the upper platform, and the upper platform to the lower platform, respectively.

Architecture and art

The station, built in open cut, features stacked platforms with central platforms between the lines; the orange line is to the south and the green line to the north. The platforms are arranged in an anti-directional cross-platform interchange, with the two inbound lines (Montmorency and Honoré-Beaugrand) on the upper level, and the two outbound lines (Côte-Vertu and Angrignon) on the lower level. This allows the majority of passengers to transfer by simply walking across the platform, without having to go up or down stairs. The station's mezzanine, suspended on beams, is located above the upper platform, and gives access to the single entrance.

The station was designed by Yves Roy. It contains two artworks: a pair of stainless steel mural sculptures by the architect over the mezzanine, and in the mezzanine itself, a sculpture called The Tree of Life by Italian artist Joseph Rifesser. Representing the races of humanity growing from a common root, it was carved from the entire trunk of a walnut tree, it was originally located at Man and His World and was given to the Montreal metro by the United Nations.

Origin of the name

This station is named for rue Lionel-Groulx, which had its name changed to allow the station to commemorate Lionel Groulx. Groulx, one of the most influential of Quebec historians, founded the Franco-American History Institute in 1946 and edited the Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française from 1947 to 1967.

In November 1996, the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada officially requested that the Executive Committee of the Montreal Urban Community (M.U.C.) recommend a name change to the Lionel Groulx metro station in Montreal, due to anti-semitic statements made by Lionel Groulx.

Likewise, there has been a recent movement to rename the Lionel-Groulx Metro station in honour of Oscar Peterson. Although this movement started on the website Facebook, the story has recently been picked up by the media. The issue has become quite controversial and political.

Connecting bus routes

Société de transport de Montréal (STM)

Main article: Société de transport de Montréal

Regular STM routes
No.	Route Name	Route Map	Schedule
78	Laurendeau	Map	Schedule
108	Bannantyne	Map	Schedule
173	Métrobus Victoria	Map	Schedule
190	Métrobus Lachine	Map	Schedule
191	Broadway/Provost	Map	Schedule
211	Bord-du-Lac	Map	Schedule
221	Métrobus Lionel-Groulx	Map	Schedule
STM night routes
No.	Route Name	Route Map	Schedule
350	Verdun/LaSalle	Map	Schedule
371	Décarie	Map	Schedule

Nearby points of interest

• Atwater Market
• Église Saint-Irénée
• Union United Church
• Parc du Canal de Lachine
• CÉDA (Comité d'éducation aux adultes)
• Solin Hall (Off-Campus Residence of McGill University)
• With bus #211 or #221, with transfer to bus #204 or #209: Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport

Trivia

• Scenes of the Bruce Willis-Richard Gere film The Jackal were shot in this station, redressed to stand in for the Metro Center station on the Washington Metro.
• Scenes from the Marvel Comics film Punisher: War Zone were shot in this station, as the entrance to the Punisher's lair.

External links

• Lionel-Groulx Station — official web page
• Lionel-Groulx metro station geo location
• Montreal by Metro, metrodemontreal.com — Photos, information, and trivia
• 2008 STM System Map
• 2008 Downtown System Map
• Metro Map