Line 5: Saint-Michel

Opened in June 1986, and designed by the architectural firm of Lemoyne and Associates, the station of Saint-Michel was not initially intended to be the eastern terminus of the blue line. However, as explained in the introduction to this tour, various practical and financial reasons conspired against the full realisation of the line, leaving it unlikely to ever operate at the capacity it was capable of handing. The hopefully temporary operation of this station as a terminus is, however, quite successful.

As with other stations on the line, inbound trains stop on the southern of the two platforms. At off-peak hours, the shortened three carriage trains stop immediately adjacent to the steps up to the bridge. After all passengers have disembarked, the train continues into the dead end tunnel (where you’ll usually see spare trains parked). The train passes over a switching junction, the driver moves to the other end of the train, before returning on the other track.

The platforms of Saint-Michel are unusual on this line for one particular reason. As mentioned in the introduction, trains never run at more than six carriages length, and more often than not run with only three. However, unlike other stations which have been built and finished for nine car trains, with glass barriers to close off the unused parts of the platform, the western (outbound) end of Saint-Michel’s platforms has been left unfinished. Look beyond the end of the platforms at the western end and you’ll see the bare concrete from the initial construction works. A control room and staff room has been built in this part of the outbound platform. If the line is ever extended, and trains ever run at their full length, this section of the station will be finished and opened to passengers. Note also the signals above the end of the Snowdon end of the platform. The LED display indicates the current time, the train number in red, and the countdown to the scheduled departure.

The station uses a consistent and bright palette of materials from the platforms up the street level. The square bricks of the walls have been partnered with a lighter mortar to emphasise the pattern that they make, and the platform itself has been finished with an attractive mosaic of light grey, dark grey, blue and yellow tiles. You’ll see that shade of blue (albeit less faded) in other parts of the station.

There are just two steps from the platform to the bridge and mezzanine level: these are made of a tough granite, and it’s behind the stainless steel handrail here that we see the rough poured concrete of the structural columns that support the roof of the subterranean atrium over the tracks and escalators. Note also the glass bricks, which are used on the platforms in front of the station’s four platform murals, and which appear here between the two columns. You’ll see more of them the closer you get to ground level.

The steps from the platform to the bridge and mezzanine level have are in two flights. Pause at the mid-point of these steps and notice the attractive way in which the bricks have been laid to form curved corners to the atrium space. On the inbound platform you’ll see a stainless steel panel in the middle of this corner just below eye level. Want to know what it is?

Turn round and look the same spot on the steps of the other platform. You’ll see the standard white on black metro line summary to indicate the order of stations from that platform. Since this is the terminus platform, there are no more stations. However, the station was designed ready for an eastwards extension of the line: perhaps one day this blank panel will be replaced with a line diagram that lists the names of new stations east of this point.

If you move onto the bridge over the tracks, you can begin to appreciate this station’s finest feature – the remarkably simple arrangement of the escalators which rise at ninety degrees to and directly above the tracks. Two escalators and a stair descend from street level to the ticket hall, and then the same arrangement is reversed alongside the first, bringing passengers down to the bridge. Note how the escalators are arranged to bring passengers down directly to the westbound Snowdon platform, and that inbound passengers from Snowdon must first cross the bridge to reach the escalators. This is an intelligent decision that allows a steady flow of descending passengers to be able to reach their Snowdon train more quickly, and to give the more sudden influx of exiting passengers more space on the bridge between the platform and the escalator. Even with the un-built extension to the east, this would still be the most logical arrangement of the space, since it will always be the Snowdon (and therefore downtown) direction trains that receive more passengers entering the station from the street.

While we’re on the platform, have a look up. The ticket hall above is supported by deep poured concrete beams – certainly not the most expressive or chunkiest on the network, but nonetheless an attractive and legible expression of how the level above is supported. But the real eye-catchers here are the astonishing pseudo-industrial light features that illuminate the steps from the bridge down the platforms. To be honest, I think they’re totally unsuited to this station, with it’s elegant combination of brick and concrete. The design is hard to grasp, and they appear to me to be visually too heavy for the space. A more minimalist approach to the lighting of the station would have probably created a much more spatially coherent geel. We don’t see that blue grill motif elsewhere until some of the wall mounted light fittings in the ticket hall, but even so it doesn’t feel as they belong here.

There’s an attractive curve in the wall opposite the bottom of the escalators up to the ticket hall: the occasional touches of blue that we first see in the platform tiles re-appears here on these doors to service spaces.

Before ascending to the ticket hall, have a look at the underside of the escalators above and to the right. The real strength of this space is the way in which the escalators and stairs are so cleanly expressed as they rise at right angles to the tracks. Such a simple arrangement of the station’s key circulatory elements makes for an exceptionally easy to navigate space.

Take the escalators up to the ticket hall. The same materials are used here as in the rest of the station, and the curve in the wall on the bridge level is taken even further here, with the curve in the windows of the kiosk turning into a gently undulating wall that continues along the tunnel to the further of the two station exits. Notice here how two types of lighting are used to good effect – on the left hand wall we see a small version of the blue grilled light features at the top of granite strips in the wall. Opposite, downward facing lights in the ceiling illuminate the sinuous curves of the wall.

There are two pavilions providing access to the street. The larger of the two is above the ticket hall, and is constructed principally in concrete up to about three metres, and brick above that. The glass blocks we first saw on the platform are used extensively both at street level and in the clerestory that brings light into the foyer. The integration of seating into this space has been handled attractively, and the triangular form of the corner site has been used to create a saw tooth façade. Go outside and peer through the glass blocks, and you can occasionally glimpse distant figures on the escalators or bridge far below.

Across the street, the second pavilion repeats the language of the larger one, but uses the stepped façade to form raised flower beds.

As your return to the platforms, take a look at the four murals behind the walls of glass blocks on the platforms. The inbound platform feature two by Lauréat Marois and Normand Moffat, the Snowdon platform features works by Charles Lemay and Marcelin Cardinal. The abstract murals of Marois and Moffat seem less successful than the figurative ones opposites, possibly because it’s easier for the eye to recognise the human and animal figures through the glass blocks on the Snowdon murals.

Overall, Snowdon is an attractive station, although I can’t bring myself to like the lighting in the main void over the escalators. Elsewhere, however, the palette of materials and the way in which they’ve been used is consistent and attractive, bringing passengers from the solid heavy materials of the platform level to the lighter and more open translucent space of the street level pavilions.