Montreal's metro is its underground rail (subway) mass transit system, one of the most important modes of transportation in Montreal.

The French term for "subway" is métro, which is short for chemin de fer métropolitain (metropolitan railway) and was first applied to the metro in Paris. It originated from the Metropolitan Line in London, now part of the London Underground, the world's first metro. "Metro" is also the most international term, having been borrowed by many other languages. As Montreal is a largely French city, even the English-speaking residents refer to it as the metro. This usage was made official by Mayor Jean Drapeau, who decided that the metro would be so called in both official languages.

Montreal is not the only city whose English-speaking residents refer to the subway as the metro. The systems in Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Birmingham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England are all called the metro.

Montreal's metro currently has 68 stations on four lines.

Montreal's metro has three main differences from other subway systems:

• It was the first subway system in the world to run entirely on rubber tires rather than steel wheels. This permits a quieter ride for both the passengers and for buildings above the tracks; it also makes it easier for trains to climb slopes.
• Therefore, unlike most subway systems, it is built entirely underground due to Montreal's winter conditions, which would make rubber tire technology impractical.
• Every station has a different style, layout, and decoration. This helps passengers with visual and other disabilities to find their stops, and makes for a much more aesthetically pleasing system.

Metro stations are listed on all city maps. Also, if a bus route stops at a metro station, the station is identified on the bus-stop sign.

You can consult the station maps in the STM website linked to at the bottom of the "General" section in each of this site's station pages, or contact the STM for further help at (514) 786-4636 (STM-INFO).

For example, suppose you are at metro McGill and you want to go to metro Pie-IX. If you find those stations on the map, you will see that if you go from McGill to Pie-IX, the station at the end of that direction is Honoré-Beaugrand. You therefore need to find the Honoré-Beaugrand platform and take that train.

STM buses have the same fares as metros, and the same tickets and passes can be used on either one. In order to transfer between the metro and the bus, it is necessary to have a transfer (correspondance). These are supplied by the automatic machines just beyond the turnstiles in each metro station; aboard buses, they are given out on request by the driver. They are good for ninety minutes. The time printed on the transfer is the time at which it expires.

If you mean to transfer from the metro to the bus, you must take a transfer when you enter the metro, at the station where you start your journey. Transfers are not honoured at the bus stops serving the station at which they are issued. Once you arrive at your destination station, follow the directional signs for the bus number you wish to take. When you get on the bus, give your transfer to the driver, or retain it if you need to change buses again. Metro transfers cannot be used to reembark on the metro.

If you mean to transfer from the bus to the metro, the bus driver will give you a transfer. When you arrive at the metro station, put the transfer into the slot in the turnstile according to the arrows on it, and go through the turnstile. The machine will keep your transfer. If you need to transfer to another bus after leaving the metro, take a transfer and proceed as above. Bus transfers can be used to get onto another bus line, but they cannot be used to get back onto the same line.

If you have a monthly, weekly, or tourist pass, you do not need a transfer, as the passes are good for an unlimited number of trips.

Unlike the metro, the commuter trains (trains de banlieue) are run by the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT). Here are the commuter train lines that are accessible from the metro:

Train line	Intermodal station	Transfer available (See below)		New ticket required (Zones 3, 5, 6)
		Zone 1	Zone 2
Montreal/ Dorion–Rigaud	Lucien-L'Allier	Vendôme Montréal-Ouest Lachine	Dorval Pine Beach Valois Pointe-Claire Cedar Park	Zone 3: Beaconsfield Beaurepaire Baie-d'Urfé Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Zone 4: Île-Perrot Pincourt–Terrasse-Vaudreuil Zone 5: Dorion Vaudreuil Zone 6: (Hudson) (Rigaud)
	Vendôme
Montreal/ Deux-Montagnes	Gare Centrale Bonaventure	Canora Mont-Royal Montpellier	Du Ruisseau Bois-Franc Sunnybrooke Roxboro–Pierrefonds	Zone 3: Île-Bigras Sainte-Dorothée Zone 5: Grand-Moulin Deux-Montagnes
Montreal/ Blainville–Saint-Jérôme	Lucien-L'Allier rush hour only	(Vendôme) (Montréal-Ouest) Parc	Bois-de-Boulogne	Zone 3: De La Concorde Sainte-Rose Zone 5: Rosemère Sainte-Thérèse Zone 6: Blainville
	Vendôme rush hour only
	Parc all trains
	De La Concorde all trains
Montreal/ Mont-Saint-Hilaire	Gare Centrale Bonaventure	—	—	Zone 3: Saint-Lambert Saint-Hubert Zone 5: Saint-Bruno Saint-Basile-le-Grand Zone 6: McMasterville Mont-Saint-Hilaire
Montreal/ Delson-Candiac	Lucien-L'Allier	Vendôme Montréal-Ouest LaSalle	—	Zone 5: Sainte-Catherine Saint-Constant Delson Candiac
	Vendôme

To transfer, get off at the appropriate station and follow the directional signs for the train.

Each train station is assigned to a zone by the AMT. You must have a fare for the farthest zone through which you travel; i.e. if you are travelling to Montreal, the zone of your departure station; if you are travelling away from Montreal, the zone of your destination station. (The STM's metro and buses are all in Zone 1.)

The rules for using STM bus and metro transfers aboard the trains have recently changed. STM metro and bus transfers are valid for trips within zones 1, 2, and 3. However, you must buy a combined fare ticket (tarif combiné) from the distribution machines at the train station.

Combined Fare Ticket Price (effective 1 January 2004)
	Regular fare	Reduced fare
Zone 1	$0.75	$0.50
Zone 2	$1.50	$0.75
Zone 2	$2.50	$1.50

For the reduced fare, STM under-18 student and senior citizen IDs are accepted, but the Carte Privilège (student 18-25) is not. The CAM, CAM Hebdo, and metro tickets are not honoured aboard AMT commuter trains.

If you are travelling beyond Zone 3, STM transfers are not honoured. You will need to buy a full train ticket.

If you are transferring to the metro from the commuter train, you can use your Zone 1, 2, or 3 train ticket as a transfer (present it to the ticket taker). Train tickets of zone 4 or above are not honoured on the STM bus or metro. The AMT's TRAM card is accepted on the STM bus and metro; its TRAIN card is not.

Please note that fare payment for commuter trains is enforced by random inspection; you must have your tickets with you at all times. No tickets are sold aboard the train. Being aboard a train without a ticket is illegal and may result in fines.

Here are some rules of thumb:

• On the green, orange, and yellow lines:
  • The first trains of the morning leave the terminuses at 5:30 AM.
  • The last trains of the night all leave Berri-UQAM metro at 1:00 AM to allow for transfers. 10 minutes later on the yellow line.
  • The last trains on the Montmorency and Honoré-Beaugrand lines pass through Lionel-Groulx at the same time (12:46 AM), as do the last trains on the Côte-Vertu and Angrignon lines (1:07 AM), again to allow for transfers.
  • The last trains of the night come 30 minutes later on Saturday night.

• On the blue line:
  • The first trains of the morning leave the terminuses at 6:00 AM.
  • The last trains of the night leave the terminuses at 12:15 AM every night.

Schedules of the first and last trains at each station are available on this website, in the General Information section of each station's page.

There are many reasons why public transportation is preferable to private cars.

• Environmental reasons. Every day, thousands of automobiles choke the streets of Montreal with traffic and the air with smog. The burning of fossil fuels is one of the hugest environmental catastrophes on our troubled planet, leading to the greenhouse effect and its attendant climate change disasters. Using public transit is a more environmentally sound choice, both because the power source (hydroelectric power) is cleaner than fossil fuels and because sharing resources reduces individual consumption.

• Economic reasons. Montreal is one of the most expensive cities in North America to operate a car and one of the least expensive cities for public transit. For the amount you'd spend on a car here in a year, you could get twelve months of metro passes, plus a $10 round-trip taxi ride per day, with enough left over for a European vacation. To run a car is to throw money down the drain; public transit is the sensible choice for your pocketbook.

• Traffic. When you ride the metro, there isn't any. Nor do you need to fight for a parking space.

• Safety. A metro train is in the control of a professional driver. A car is often in the control of a drunken idiot. And of course, when you are under the influence yourself, you should not be driving anyway.

• Enjoyment. A car does nothing for the enjoyment of your urban experience. In the metro, on the other hand, you can relax, stretch your legs, listen to music, read, study, balance your chequebook, or just watch the people and look at the architecture around you. Isn't that better than sitting in traffic?