Lisette begins Blue Line's eastward dig
A three-story tunnel-boring machine named after Montréal's first woman métro operator starts carving 4.6 km of the Blue Line extension.
The future of the Blue Line just got a lot more real. On Tuesday, the Société de transport de Montréal announced that Lisette—a three-story-tall tunnel-boring machine—has begun its journey east, burrowing through bedrock to extend one of the city's most crucial transit arteries.
The machine, christened after Lisette St Onge, who operated the first-ever métro train on opening day in 1966, will carve 4.6 kilometres of the six kilometres of tunnel required to complete the extension. Over the next year-plus, it'll chew through the earth with the kind of mechanical patience only a specialized piece of engineering can muster—roughly 400 metres per month, grinding forward at a steady clip.
This isn't just infrastructure noise. The Blue Line extension represents the biggest transit expansion the city has undertaken in decades. When finished, it'll connect the airport to downtown and push service eastward into neighborhoods that have been transit-starved for generations. The machine itself is a feat: moving 80 metres of tunnel shield, equipped with a cutting wheel that can handle everything from clay to solid rock, and capable of operating around the clock if needed.
Construction timelines in Montréal have a reputation, but this one's been remarkably on track. The extension was first approved in 2019. Now, with Lisette in the ground and boring away, commuters and planners alike have something concrete to watch—literally.