Bonaventure (Montreal Metro) - Overview

Overview

Designed by Victor Prus, the metro station is a normal side platform station, built Cut-and-cover in order to provide a large space for the heavily trafficked mezzanine. As a key part of the underground city, the mezzanine has ticket barriers on either side, in order to allow pedestrians to pass from one end of the station to the other. Bridges over the tracks below the mezzanine level allow passengers to cross from one platform to the other.

Until 1992, the station had only one outdoor entrance, in front of Windsor Station; two additional accesses led directly to Place Bonaventure and Gare Centrale (Central Station) on one end, and the Château Champlain and Place du Canada on the other. When 1000 de La Gauchetière was built directly above the station, additional accesses were added to the office tower and the Downtown Terminus (metropolitan bus terminal for Réseau de transport de Longueuil and South Shore buses) within it, as well as a street entrance on the western side of the building on Cathédrale Street and improved access to Central Station and Place Bonaventure.

The station is intermodal with the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT)'s commuter train lines, through its underground access to Central Station, a station on the Montreal/Deux-Montagnes and Montreal/Mont-Saint-Hilaire lines. There is also underground access to the Lucien-L'Allier train station as well as the Lucien-L'Allier metro station.

Elevators were added between the mezzanine and the platforms in November 2009, making the station more accessible to people with reduced mobility. However, there is currently no step-free access to the surface, nor do the elevators allow passengers to change platforms without exiting the ticket barriers. An existing elevator connecting the station to Place du Canada and the Château Champlain, formerly the only elevator in the system, is separated from the mezzanine level by steps. An elevator link between the station and the AMT bus terminus and thence to the surface is planned.

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