St-Laurent Bus Garage

The Centre de Transport Saint-Laurent is situated at 5825 Boulevard Thimens in an industrial sector of Ville Saint Laurent. It is bordered at the rear by rue Guénette and at the sides by rue Cousens and chemin Bois-Franc. Built in 1984 and opened in 1985 it replaced the older Charlevoix and Saint-Paul divisions. In 1984 dollars, the estimated cost of construction was $16.3 million. This CTCUM-era garage is practically identical in exterior style to the Anjou (1982) and Legendre (1973) divisions. The capacity of the garage is 260 buses, matched only by Anjou and likely exceeded by LaSalle garage (1995).

Saint-Laurent's territory extends over all of the West Island, including Ile-Bizard, as well as Town of Mount Royal, and obviously Ville Saint Laurent itself. Some Saint-Laurent buses can be seen as far away as Place-Saint-Henri (17) and Saint-Michel Boulevard (121).

Since the garage was constructed in the hitherto undeveloped western part of Saint Laurent, the CTCUM took advantage of the opportunity to create a sprawling complex on a relatively large plot of land. In comparison, many of the inner city garages do not have many of the space luxuries that Saint Laurent takes for granted.

The Saint Laurent bus garage is easily accessible by buses 164, 177, 215, 225, and 371. It is almost always possible to see buses parked outside, whether they are ready to be dispatched, merely on break, or waiting for the inevitable tow to the overhaul shops at the Plateau Youville.

This garage has a dedicated bus lane entrance from Thimens Boulevard southbound, crossing the Hydro-Quebec right-of-way and then crossing Thimens Boulevard northbound with a traffic signal giving access to the exterior yard. This does not exist at any other STM property. For a while it was the only bus reserved lane in Saint-Laurent (the Cote-de-Liesse lane being in Town of Mount Royal).

The flagship bus route of Garage Saint-Laurent is the 121 Sauv�/Cote-Vertu. The 64 and 171 are also important routes served from this division. This garage has a healthy assortment of Classics and LFS. Saint-Laurent saw GM New Look activity up until the last days. Most of these "Fishbowls" were assigned to rush hour service for the last years of their long lives.

Thanks to Shanake Mario Seneviratne for providing the basis of this page


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Photo Copyright 2003 Shanake Mario Seneviratne