The first stop of the day was at Angrignon Métro station, where most routes in the extreme southwest of the island terminate, as well as offer connections to services operating by other transit authorities to the western south shore. In 1993, route 114 Norman/St. Patrick was rerouted and renamed as part of an overhaul of transit services in the LaSalle/Verdun/éle-des-Soeurs area, and was now connected to the Métro at Angrignon via the LaSalle industrial area. The route was cancelled in 1996, and most of its service was not replaced, as ridership was low.

From there, it was off to the Dorval Terminus, the transit hub of the south West Island, with bus connections to the rest of the West Island, Montreal International (Dorval) Airport, and downtown, as well as a commuter train stop on the Montreal-Rigaud line. Route 90 St.-Jacques offered direct service from downtown Atwater Métro station to the Dorval Terminus via Ville-St.-Pierre and Lachine until 1992 when all services in the south east West Island were modified, and the 90 was shortened to terminate in eastern Lachine. The old West Island portion of the 90 is still operated by parts of the 191 Broadway/Provost and 195 Sherbrooke/Notre-Dame routes, while the eastern portion of the line remains basically the same.

23-101 poses on St. Charles Boulevard at Lakeshore in Beaconsfield, the former west terminus for the former route 212 "Métrobus", which offered express service from the south West Island via Lakeshore Road and the Dorval Terminus to downtown along Autoroute 20 to Lionel-Groulx Métro station in the morning, and back in the afternoon. The route was replaced in 1996 by route 430 Express St.-Charles, which ran the same express route to and from Lionel-Groulx Métro and the Dorval Terminus, but operated on Highway 20 to St.-Charles instead of Lakeshore Road, and went further north, to Brunswick Boulevard. This route was then replaced by the 221 Métrobus Lionel-Groulx in 1997, which operates the same routing as the 430 to St.-Charles, but does not go up to Brunswick, instead getting back on the highway, and operating to John-Abbott College in Ste.-Anne de Bellevue. All express services are identified on the roll sign on a green background.

Garden City and Demers, across from the Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue commuter train station, is at the western most tip of the island. In 1997, the STCUM removed 40' buses from this part of the island during regular service hours, replacing them with 26' mini buses, and giving them the chance to operate service over a longer local routing on the small streets in the community, while the 40' bus routes were shortened to terminate at nearby John-Abbott College. In the picture, 23-101 poses at the former west end terminus for route 211 Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue, now renamed 'Bord-du-Lac' (Lakeshore), as it no longer serves that area.

Forty foot buses do still enter the area overnight. When overnight service was first introduced in 1988, the south West Island was served by the 354 Lakeshore, which was essentially the overnight 211, operating from downtown to the Dorval Terminus, but with several differences, including serving Dorval Airport, and operating express via Highway 20 (not Lakeshore), stopping at each exit and re-entering the highway until Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, where it operated local, and the 356 Lachine, which was the overnight 90, following an almost identical routing in the West Island and ending at the Dorval Terminus. In 1996, the 354 and 356 were merged as part of an overhaul of night services, and renamed 356 Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue. In the photo, 23-101 poses as the discontinued night route; an unusual sight during daylight hours.

Next stop was the Fairview Terminus in Pointe-Claire, named for the Fairview Shopping Centre, on whose property it sits. Most routes serving the north West Island stop here. The next few photos show 23-101 signed up for several now discontinued routes introduced in early 1992 as part of a largely unsuccessful reorganization of services in the Ville-St.-Laurent industrial area. The first one, shown here, is route 175 Hymus/St.-Franéois, which was connected to Fairview via Hymus Boulevard from late 1992 until early 1996, when the service on Hymus was removed.

From there, it was off to Cavendish and Céte-Vertu, next to the Place Vertu shopping centre in Ville-St.-Laurent, which was picked to be the hub of these new industrial park services. Route 173 Griffith was merged into route 175 in 1996, and renamed 175 Griffith/St.-Franéois, although the current route is more of the old 173 than the 175, and is all that remains of the two.

As part of the upgrade of residential area services in Ville-St.-Laurent that followed the industrial area changes in 1992, route 178 Laurentien was created to provide direct service between Céte-Vertu Métro station, the transit hub for Ville-St.-Laurent, and the industrial area in the north via the residential and commercial communities along Laurentien Boulevard. A later reorganization of services in the area saw the route scaled back to rush hours only, and later merged into route 215 St.-Jean (renamed 215 Henri-Bourassa), which, coincidentally, was also the route that operated this service before the 178 was created. Laurentien Boulevard was later renamed Marcel-Laurin Boulevard in honour of the late long-time mayor of St.-Laurent. 23-101 is posing on Marcel-Laurin Boulevard, south of Thimens.

Route 172 was originally created as a link between Cavendish & Céte-Vertu and the heavy commercial and light industrial areas along Céte-de-Liesse, the Highway 40 service road. 6 months after its introduction, it saw a major overhaul, being turned into an express route and extended west to the Dorval Terminus, and east to du Collége Métro station. It was merged into the largely identical 460 Métropolitaine route in 1997, which operates out to the east end of the island. The photo was taken at du Collége Métro station.

Its routing may have changed over the years, but route 115 Paré has been a familiar sight to the industrial area north of the Blue Bonnets racetrack (Hippodrome de Montréal) for a long time. In the photo, 23-101 poses on Jean-Talon Boulevard, in front of what used to be the STCUM's Namur Garage, which closed in 1995, and has been partially redeveloped for commercial use.

With much fanfare and controversy, the City of Montreal opened reserved bus lanes on Céte-des-Neiges Road, and Park Avenue, connected by ones on René-Lévesque Boulevard in 1992 in an attempt to speed up the busy but very slow bus routes on these streets. Concurrent to this, the STCUM created 2 new "R-Bus" routes; routes that operate largely within reserved lanes, one of which was the rush-hour 545 R-Bus Céte-des-Neiges, which followed the routing of the existing (now off-peak) 165 route, and also operated along René-Lévesque Boulevard to and from the Berri-UQAM Métro station in the eastern part of downtown. Operational difficulties later saw the route shortened to terminate at the Champ-de-Mars Métro station in Old Montreal, and, in 1995, following the closure of the Namur Garage, the route was merged into the 535 R-Bus du Parc, and the portions of the route on René-Lévesque east of Jeanne-Mance removed, as ridership was low and the area over served, and operating the 2 routes together instead of separately made more fiscal sense. In the photo, 23-101 sits on Cote-des-Neiges south of Jean-Talon, opposite Plaza Cote-des-Neiges, while several of its patrons look on.

Prior to being merged into route 54 Charland-Chabanel in the early summer of 2000, route 127 Lebeau operated largely over the same routing in its centre, but saw many changes at its extremities over the past ten years, one of which included operation on de l'Acadie Boulevard and a terminus at Acadie Métro station, which is where 23-101 sits in the photo, with a 1991 MCI Classic behind it on route 179 l'Acadie.

Next stop was downtown, at the Atwater terminus and Métro station, once the hub for transit service to the south and central west end, and although that role has been scaled back significantly since the Métro was expanded to those areas, Atwater still plays a role to all these areas, as well as to the downtown core. As discussed previously, reserved lane service was introduced along Park Avenue in 1992, much to the distaste of the area merchants, who were upset about lost parking and a centre lane that changes directions mid way through the day to match the heaviest traffic flow. Along with the introduction of reserved lanes on Park, the STCUM rerouted the south end of the 80 du Parc route to terminate at René-Lévesque Boulevard, and created the rush hour 535 R-Bus du Parc, which followed the 80's new routing to and from René-Lévesque Blvd., and along René-Lévesque Blvd. to and from Atwater Métro station (the previous south-end loop of the 80 to St.-Antoine St. was switched with route 129 Cote-Ste.-Catherine so that continuous service could be operated down to there). Service on the 535 to Atwater station ended in 1995 when the route was merged with the 545, which now operates in a U shape on the Park Avenue portion, René-Lévesque from Jeanne Mance to St.-Mathieu St., and on the Cote-des-Neiges portion. In the back of the photo is the former Montreal Forum, presently under reconstruction as a shopping and entertainment complex.

A very unsuccessful reorganization of services in the downtown core was implemented in 1992 had almost been completely reverted to previous routings by 1997. One of the new services introduced was route 38 Ville-Marie, a cross-downtown route that twisted and turned its way through Old Montreal, the financial district and the central shopping area. While its east end routing and terminus at Papineau Métro station remained constant throughout its existence, its west end terminus was modified to skip Peel Street and the shopping district in 1995, and to meet up with the services on south Guy St. until the route was abolished in 1997. In the photo, 23-101 poses in the shopping district, at de Maisonneuve and Metcalfe, the first stop after the terminus on the original west end of the 38.

In 1995, following close to 50 years of various levels of service, route name and number 60 Wellington were withdrawn, with the rush hour only route being merged into route 57 Pointe-St.-Charles. Route 60 connected south downtown, the financial district and the port area to the working class neighbourhoods in the south west of the island. In the photo, 23-101 sits on St.-Antoine St. in front of Square-Victoria Métro station, and across the street from the former Craig Terminus, the bus and streetcar hub for the area prior to the Métro's opening in 1966.

Another route that used to connect south downtown to the south west end was route 78 Laurendeau. In its longest incarnation, it ran from Angrignon Métro station in LaSalle all the way to St.-Jacques and St.-Urbain, just south of the Place d'Armes Métro station. As part of the aforementioned 1992 service changes, the 78 was shortened in the east end to only operate east of Lionel-Groulx Métro station during rush hour, and to turn several blocks west, at Square-Victoria Métro station. Another service change in 1997 saw all service east of Lionel-Groulx Métro station abolished. Here, 23-101 sits on St.-Antoine St. west of Jeanne-Mance, in front of the building that was once home to both the Montreal Star (which folded in 1977) and the Montreal Gazette newspapers.

Another new route introduced in the downtown core in 1992 was route 19, connecting Ste.-Catherine Street's shopping district to the financial district and Old Montreal. Ridership south and east of the Ste.-Catherine St. portion of the route was never strong, and many people were confused by why their Ste.-Catherine St. bus was turning short instead of operating through to Papineau Métro station as the 15 Ste.-Catherine route has for decades, so the electronic signs for the route read "19 St.-Antoine/Gosford," the route's south east terminus for many years until riders figured out the difference between the 15 and the 19. Another confusing aspect was that this route initially terminated in the west at Guy-Concordia Métro station, and not Atwater station like the 15 did. This was changed about 6 months into the route's operation. A round of service cuts in 1996 brought the end to the route's operation, and no areas were left unserved as the route didn't operate anywhere where there wasn't other services. In the photo, 23-101 poses on St.-Antoine St. at Bonsecours St., on the opposite block from where the route actually terminated.

Once operating from Place-St.-Henri Métro station in the west end all the way along Notre-Dame St. to Papineau Métro station in the east end, route 35 was also overhauled in 1992, having parts of its route east of Guy St. replaced by the 19 and 38 routes, and all service east of Bonsecours St. permanently removed (and never replaced). The rest of the route west of Guy St. was left the same, and extended onto Guy St. to de Maisonneuve, replacing part of the abolished 79 Guy route. In 1997, the 35 was abolished, replaced on Notre-Dame by part of the now extended 36 Monk route, and on Guy by the 57 Pointe-St.-Charles route, which had already been operating various levels of service on the street, and now permanently reunited the two parts of the 79 that had been cut in half in 1992. In the photo, 23-101 poses in front of the Molson Brewery on Notre-Dame St. west of Papineau, where bus service no longer operates.

Because of unforeseen road closures and traffic, we weren't able to spend as much time in the east end or central west end as I would have liked, so our final photo stop of the day was at the green Métro line's east most stop, Honoré-Beaugrand station, the hub of bus activity to the south east end of the island, and even to parts of the north. 23-101 is signed up for route 20 Chéteauneuf, a rush hour only route that served the residential communities to the north of the station. It was abolished in 1996, as its routing was identical to that of the eastern part of the 85 Hochelaga route, and was no longer needed when extra buses were added to that route.

From there, we had a tour of the STCUM's newest facility, the LaSalle Garage, which opened in 1995, following the closure of two of the system's oldest garages, the Namur Garage on Jean-Talon, and the St.-Henri Garage on St.-Antoine St. The Quebec Public Transit Heritage Foundation was kind enough to make two of their restored New Look buses available for us to see at the garage, the first of which is 14-008, shown here in the livery the old CTCUM used when this bus first entered service in 1972, and was later painted into the current blue and grey livery when it was introduced in 1974. The QPTHF has not only restored this bus, but is in the process of turning it into a mini museum of Montreal transit history.

The other bus they restored was former Gray Line suburban 33-008, which entered service as a sightseeing bus in 1983. Once the STCUM got out of the sightseeing business in the late '80s, these eight buses were available for regular service, but with no back doors, they really weren't of a lot of use on most routes, so they were shipped up to the St.-Laurent Garage in the West Island because that garage operated a lot of express and limited stop routes where the back door situation would not be a problem. These buses made a lot of rush hour appearances up to their retirement in 1998, usually on routes 174 Air Canada or 216 Pointe-Claire, and not on 38 Ville-Marie like the sign says, as this route was not even based out of that garage!