Station Stories: Radisson

Welcome to “Station Stories”, a series where we visit stations, just for fun. Most of the stations we see will be in Greater Montreal simply due to the fact that’s my proximity, but don’t count out a few surprising stations from further afield!

Radisson is a deep level station with magnificent brutalist architecture. Designed by Papineau, Gérin-Lajoie, LeBlanc and Edwards, it opened in 1976 and takes its name from Pierre-Esprit Radisson, founder of the Hudson Bay Company.

Likely the most famous fact about this stations is that It was one of two Montreal Metro stations used as a filming location of the 1997 action film “The Jackal” starring Bruce Willis and Richard Gere (the other being Lionel-Groulx), but more on that later.

Let’s start with the station’s architecture. I often opine how great the Montreal Metro’s architecture is, considering it some of the best metro architecture in the world.

In general, I’ve found the real gems are at either ends of the Green Line in the sections which were constructed during the late 70s, spurred by the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Each station on the Metro has its own very distinct design, a principle frowned upon these days in efforts to keep the costs of transit construction low by creating stations which are built from the same components.

Think of stations on the brand new REM which are going to look similar to each other with just minor differences such as the colour scheme. Or, the Elizabeth Line in London where at platform level each station along the core looks almost identical. An exception to this trend is the expansion to the Sydney Metro where they seem to be following in the footsteps of Montreal by creating impressive stations each with its own flare.

And so, in Montreal every station was allowed to have its own architectural vision, limited only by the constraints of geology and the designer’s imagination. And nowhere on the system does that imagination run as freely as Radisson.

Reminiscent of a brutalist space station from your favourite sci-fi series or B movie, the photos in this post don’t do justice to the sheer size of the space in which this deep level station resides.

Cavernous walls curve towards the ceiling and the escalator floats freely as a diagonal bringing passengers down from the ticket hall to the mezzanine suspended above the tracks.

From there stairs arch downward on each side to land on the platforms, creating delightful alcoves underneath where passengers can attend for their trains.

The lighting perfectly complements the angled concrete on the walls and ceiling with the pale tiling on the floor to create a space which feels futuristic, even some 50 years after its inauguration, and the new Azur trains only complement that modern feeling. It delights every time I visit and honestly has to be seen in person to truly be appreciated.

I could wax on about how great this station looks, but we also need to contrast the design with a number of non-architectural issues which let the station down.

Let’s talk about safety. This station isn’t a great place to hang around, and I say that visiting in the middle of the day. I saw one man was camped out at the end of the platform walking around with his trousers down – police were having a chat with him when I left. Whenever I stood still to take photos, I’d be approached, mostly by people begging for money. In fact, it was quite hard to be left alone here to take photos.

Accessibility is a serious issue as well. Getting down to platform level requires traversing stairs, then an escalator, then more stairs. There aren’t any lifts installed here.

This is a general issue with the Metro system as a whole. Much of Montreal’s system neglected accessibility when it was being built built, despite its construction happening in an era when other systems were taking accessibility seriously. As a result, it’s left to retrofit accessible access into these stations, a project which is now in jeopardy thanks to a transit-averse provincial government.

Above ground there’s not much of note. The station lies at the intersection of a highway and busy Sherbooke street.

Nearby is Place Versailles, an older shopping mall which benefits from its vicinity to the Metro, but otherwise is really showing its age. Plans are currently afoot to turn it into much needed housing, and it’s not as if Greater Montreal suffers from a lack of shopping malls. There’s even a new one being built in the west near De la Savane station on the Orange Line.

The only thing I’d recommend which is worth seeing in Place Versailles is this curious water feature, which beforehand I’d thought only existed in Japan.

Where Radisson shines however is as a transit interchange. To go beyond here you’re going to be taking buses, and Radisson has bountiful connections to such exotic places as L’Assomption, Repentigny and Terrebonne. You could call it the transit gateway to Lanaudière.

There are also STM connections towards the east of the island of Montreal, which stretches on for some considerable distance beyond the end of the Green Line. Add on top of this buses to places along the South Shore. It’s extremely well connected for onward travel.

But buses aren’t enough here. Let’s take a moment to lament the lack of onward rapid transit as for most people travelling through Radisson, they’re only part of the way through their journey. Recently there have been several plans to extend transit towards the East End of Montreal, but resisting the temptation to get onto this controversial topic, nothing so far has come to fruition.

If Radisson were a restaurant it would deserve a Michelin 2 star rating, meaning it’s worth the detour for a visit if you’re in Montreal.

If you’re a transit fan, someone who appreciates brutalism or a devotee of great architecture, you owe it to yourself to take a trip out to the end of the Green Line to see it.

The Ratings

It’s time to rate this station, and it’s a broad church across the different categories. Ratings go from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest):

• Layout: 4️⃣ – Solid layout bringing passengers from the bus interchange and various ground level entrances into the central ticket hall and then down to platform level.
• Services: 4️⃣ – The Green Line is frequent and you won’t have to wait long for a train to take you into the city.
• Destinations: 4️⃣ – Lots of bus routes heading into the East of the city and many places beyond. The Metro’s Green Line heads downtown with all the connections that brings. Pretty good!
• Architecture: 5️⃣ – What else is there to say? The architecture in this station is simply incredible. The lighting is the cherry on the cake, as the illumination is perfectly balanced to enhance the space-age tunnels and interesting colours of this cavernous space. Marvellous.
• Amenities: 3️⃣ There’s the usual station dépanneur, and the nearby shopping mall provides lavatories as well as lots of eating options. However, that does require going outside and crossing over the car park.
• Accessibility: 1️⃣ This station has no accessibility features. All entrances involve stairs and then an escalator brings passengers down to a mezzanine level which then has more stairs to platform level. Very poor.
• Safety & Cleanliness: 2️⃣ – As amazing as the architecture is, you may find you don’t want to stay long to enjoy it. Although the station is relatively clean, most people won’t experience a sense of safety and will want to move on quickly.
• Locality: 2️⃣ – Besides the unimpressive Place Versailles shopping mall, there’s little above ground beyond a highway intersection, car parks and endless amounts of traffic.

Tier List

Based on architecture and design alone, Radisson could have achieved “S” tier. But beauty is only platform level deep as we find a lack of accessibility and a feeling of safety bring this station leviathan down a peg to an “A”. But in spite of its shortcomings this station is so probably my favourite on the entire Montreal Metro, so how could I rate it anything less?

If you want to learn more about Radisson station:

• Wikipedia
• Rail Fans Canada

You can also read more episodes of Station Stories here.

Bonus: Mini Review of “The Jackal”

“The Jackal” is a globetrotting action thriller with Bruce Willis playing the titular character, an enigmatic assassin hired by a Moscow crime boss on a mission of revenge against the FBI! Sounds amazing, right?

The film is set all over the place. From Moscow to London. From Washington D.C. to… Montreal? Indeed, our fair city is not only one of the major filming locations, but also a setting in this crazy action packed thriller.

A lot of Hollywood movies get filmed in Canada of course, and often star Canadian actors. So it’s refreshing to see one of those films unabashedly show off the fact it was filmed in a Canadian city instead of trying to do something like… I don’t know… dress up the streets of NDG to look like New York City.

But back to the film. You can sense this movie had high aspirations as a cat-and-mouse chase between the FBI and Willis’ assassin, but despite the ambition the film it fails to deliver. The script is sub-par consisting of wooden dialogue and uninteresting characters. As much as I appreciate Bruce Willis, his acting abilities could be compared to a bock of wood at the best of times, so to provide him with a script which enables his acting to be even more wooden than usual is a really special achievement.

And of course, Radisson was used as one of the settings for the film’s climax, which is why we’re talking about it on a blog which usually doesn’t give opinions on 90s action films.

Standing in as Capital Heights on the D.C. Metro, Radisson is the location of the movie’s apex as Richard Gere’s deeply uninteresting character catches up with Bruce Willis’ graceless and cumbersome assassin.

Although I’ve never been at Radisson in rush hour, the platforms in the film look more crowded than they would be in real life, packed as they are with extras.

It’s perhaps not a coincidence they chose Montreal’s Metro here, as many of the stations share the same impressive Brutalist design ideals with D.C.

And so we get Richard Gere sliding down the divide between the two escalators, Bruce Willis jumping across the tacks to narrowly miss an MR-63 and an exciting chase through the tunnels with several more near misses with trains, only to somehow end up at Lionel-Groulx. If nothing else, it’s definitely a special moment on film in that it captures the Montreal Metro as it was in the 90s.

So, should you watch “The Jackal”? Maybe not. The reviews were pretty damning when it came out, and you’ve probably got better things to do with your time. That said, its on-location filming in Montreal does make it a curiosity which might be of interest to those of us who live here, and for that reason alone this film holds on to a tiny little place in my heart. Just don’t expect it to be up there with the likes of “Die Hard” or “Fifth Element”.

Film rating: 3/10

And if you want to learn more about filming locations in Montreal, check out this extensive post from BRB Travel Blog