The public address system will soon sound much better inside all métro stations

Several years ago, the STM undertook to improve the quality of its public address system inside métro stations so that more messages could be broadcast and information could be more clearly understood by passengers.

One must understand that a station’s public address system is basically made up of loudspeakers and acoustic sensors. The latter serve to adjust the loudness of messages, thanks to their ability to detect ambient noise levels. Indeed, the level of noise on a platform as the train arrives is quite different from the noise level at the station’s entrance.

As each métro station in Montréal is different from the next, each station requires a different number of loudspeakers, and each one’s location must be carefully mapped out, based on the station’s architecture and building materials.

In 2013, the new public address system was installed inside six more stations, namely Monk, Verdun, Lasalle, Charlevoix, Saint-Laurent and Beaudry.

In the first three months of 2014, the STM will undertake similar work inside Jolicoeur, Préfontaine, Champ-de-Mars and Lucien-L’Allier stations. Once the new public address system is installed there, information will be clearly heard throughout all 68 stations, for the benefit of all transit users!