Blue Line Extension (Line 5)

Alignment

The extension continues Line 5 (Blue) about 6 km east from its current terminus at Saint-Michel, running underground beneath Jean-Talon Street through the Saint-Michel, Saint-Léonard, and Anjou districts. It adds five stations: Vertières (Jean-Talon and Pie-IX), Mary-Two-Axe-Earley (Jean-Talon and Viau), Césira-Parisotto (Jean-Talon and Lacordaire), Madeleine-Parent (Jean-Talon and Langelier), and Anjou, the new terminus near Autoroute 25. The stations were known during planning by their cross-street names and received their permanent names in 2025.

The tunnel boring machine Lisette is digging 4.6 km of the tunnel between Vertières and Anjou, at depths of about 18 to 40 metres. The tunnelling contractor is Mobilité bleu horizon, a partnership of Pomerleau, EBC, and Spie batignolles. The STM leads the project with the Quebec transport ministry, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM), the City of Montréal, and the Société québécoise des infrastructures. All five stations will have elevators.

Updates

2026-11 — Tunnel boring machine reaches the second station

The STM reported that Lisette had bored about 850 metres and reached the future Mary-Two-Axe-Earley station at Viau. It averages 10 to 15 metres a day. Excavation of the platforms at Mary-Two-Axe-Earley, Césira-Parisotto, and Madeleine-Parent was completed in fall 2026, and work on the two access buildings at Anjou is under way.

2026-08 — STM reaffirms 2031 opening on budget

The STM said the extension will still open in 2031 within the budget set for it. The tunnel boring machine is expected to finish excavating toward Anjou in 2028.

2026-05 — Tunnel boring begins

Lisette began mass excavation from the Vertières site at Pie-IX and Jean-Talon. Over the 4.6 km drive it will remove about 300,000 cubic metres of rock and install 14,300 precast concrete tunnel segments, and it is expected to break through at Anjou in early 2028. The excavated rock goes to the City of Montréal’s Saint-Michel quarry site for reuse.

2025-10 — Tunnel boring machine arrives

The 9.7-metre-diameter machine, built to order in Germany, arrived in pieces at the Port of Montréal and was moved to the Vertières site for assembly. It is more than 135 metres long and weighs over 2,000 tonnes.

2025-09 — Station names announced

The STM and the City of Montréal named the five future stations. Vertières refers to the 1803 battle that won Haiti’s independence. Mary Two-Axe Earley was a Mohawk women’s rights activist from Kahnawake, Césira Parisotto a nun from Montréal’s Italian community who founded schools and a hospital, and Madeleine Parent a trade unionist and feminist.

2024-08 — Cost rises to C$7.6 billion and opening slips to 2031

The STM raised the estimate to C$7.6 billion from C$6.4 billion and set 2031 as the new target for opening. The extension, first approved in 1979, had been shelved in the early 1990s and has been delayed repeatedly since it was revived.

2023-08 — Project launched at C$6.4 billion

The project officially moved ahead at an estimated C$6.4 billion, with the five stations then expected to open by 2029. Preparatory work began on relocating underground utilities, and the main tunnelling contract went to tender.