Édouard-Montpetit and McGill stations represent two defining infrastructures of the Réseau express métropolitain, each rooted in a distinct urban condition yet united by a shared ambition: to advance Montréal’s socio-ecological transition through exemplary collective mobility.

Located 72 metres beneath Mount Royal, at the heart of the Université de Montréal campus, Édouard-Montpetit Station is the deepest in Canada. Its exceptional depth required rigorous technical mastery, transforming a highly complex underground infrastructure into a fluid, secure, and clearly legible mobility experience closely tied to its geographic context. The station plays a structuring role in the evolution of urban travel patterns through its intermodal connection with the Blue Line, facilitating transfers, reducing travel times, and strengthening campus accessibility. Inserted within a sensitive environment—at the convergence of the mountain, the university, and surrounding residential neighbourhoods—its presence at street level remains deliberately restrained. Technical volumes are consolidated to preserve open space and landscape quality. Exposed bedrock affirms that the station has been carved directly from the mountain, while Manuel Mathieu’s artwork Le mont habité, inspired by gabbro, offers a poetic interpretation of place and memory.

In contrast, McGill Station anchors the REM within Montréal’s dense downtown core. Strategically positioned beneath McGill College Avenue—an emblematic axis linking river and mountain—it ensures continuity between the REM, the Green Line, the historic Underground City, and major commercial and business complexes. Designed to accommodate high passenger volumes, its rigorous spatial organization prioritizes circulation hierarchy and clarifies transfers within an exceptionally constrained site located between the underground foundations of two high-rise towers. Gradients of blue and green subtly reference the Saint Lawrence River and Mount Royal, reinforcing intuitive wayfinding and users’ sense of comfort and safety.

Together, these stations demonstrate how technical excellence, spatial clarity, and cultural sensitivity can shape resilient metropolitan infrastructure aligned with Greater Montréal’s evolving urban landscape.