Before you visit a new semi-detached home near Mount Royal, it helps to know what lies between your street and Geoffrion Street in Sainte-Julie. Any trip from Mount Royal to Sainte-Julie crosses the St. Lawrence: through the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel, over the Jacques Cartier Bridge, or on the REM to Brossard followed by a bus.

By Mount Royal, we mean the Town of Mount Royal (TMR), the reconstituted town in the middle of the island, northwest of the mountain, not Mount Royal Park or the Plateau-Mont-Royal. Our road figures come from the OSRM routing engine, which runs on OpenStreetMap data, with city hall at 90 Avenue Roosevelt as the starting point. They assume clear roads: at rush hour, and while the bridge-tunnel work goes on, the drive takes longer.

By car: Highway 40 and the bridge-tunnel

The shortest route covers 38.1 km, in about 40 minutes without traffic.

From Boulevard Laird, take Avenue Brittany, then Boulevard Crémazie West.
Get on Highway 40 East (the Metropolitan) for about 9 km to the Anjou interchange, and take exit 80-S, "25 Sud, 20: Pont-Tunnel Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine".
Follow Highway 25 South for about 8 km: the bridge-tunnel, Île Charron, then Boucherville.
Continue on Highway 20 East for some fifteen kilometres, to exit 105 (Route 229).
Montée des Quarante-Deux and Avenue des Bâtisseurs bring you to Geoffrion Street.

From Centre Rockland, in the north end of town, the same drive is 36.0 km and about 36 minutes, joining Boulevard Crémazie directly.

The bridge-tunnel under repair, and the Jacques Cartier detour

The Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel is undergoing major repairs. According to Quebec's Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable, the project is scheduled to wrap up in 2027; until then, the number of lanes open in each direction changes with each phase of the work, including toward the South Shore, the direction you'll drive to get here. Check the ministry's closures page on quebec.ca before you set out.

The other route uses the Jacques Cartier Bridge: Chemin Dunkirk, Jean-Talon Street West, Avenue du Parc, Boulevard Rosemont, Avenue Christophe-Colomb and Avenue Papineau, then the bridge, Boulevard Taschereau in Longueuil and Highway 20 East to the same exit 105. It's 37.6 km, but takes about 47 minutes without traffic because of the city streets. Depending on the time of day and the state of the tunnel, it pays to compare both before setting out.

Can you get from Mount Royal to Sainte-Julie by REM, then by bus?

Here the town has an edge of its own: both of its REM stations, Canora and Ville-de-Mont-Royal, are served by trains that run all the way to Brossard with no transfer. According to the REM, they come every 3 min 30 s at rush hour and every 7 minutes off-peak on this stretch. On weekdays, the first train toward Brossard leaves Ville-de-Mont-Royal station at 5:57 a.m.

From there, the trip has three legs, Monday to Friday:

REM from Ville-de-Mont-Royal to Brossard: about 27 to 28 minutes, by our calculation from the published departure times;
exo route 600 "Sainte-Julie – Terminus Brossard", whose platform is about 200 m from the REM station: 26 departures toward Sainte-Julie, from 6:20 a.m. to 10:08 p.m., and 22 to 29 minutes to the Sainte-Julie terminus;
T34 taxibus, on reservation, to the Des Pionniers / Des Bâtisseurs stop, about 90 m from Geoffrion Street, in 11 minutes.

Between the Brossard terminus and the Des Pionniers stop, connections included, exo's schedules show 43 to 63 minutes. All told, that's at least 70 minutes spent in vehicles, or roughly 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 40 minutes once walking and waiting are added. As for fares, TMR is in zone A and Sainte-Julie in zone C: you need an ARTM All Modes ABC fare.

On weekends, driving is a must

Neither route 600 nor the T34 taxibus runs on Saturday or Sunday, so no bus goes all the way to Geoffrion Street then. Other entry points exist, such as the metro to Longueuil and exo route 350, which also runs on weekends, but it stops at the Sainte-Julie terminus. For a Saturday or Sunday visit, plan on driving, and on booking an appointment.

What the trip from Mount Royal to Sainte-Julie changes day to day

The 2021 Census paints a picture of very island-based routines. Among Town of Mount Royal residents with a usual place of work, 19.7% worked in the town itself and 70.1% elsewhere on the Island of Montreal; only 9.9% left the island. Two commuters in three (67.9%) took under 30 minutes to get to work, and 15.4% used public transit.

Living in Sainte-Julie while keeping a job on the island therefore means taking one of the trips described above. Two things can soften it: the reserved lane for vehicles carrying three or more people on Highway 20 toward Montreal, between Chemin du Fer-à-Cheval in Sainte-Julie and Route 132 in Boucherville; and working from home, which cuts the number of round trips. Keep in mind that these figures date from May 2021, in the middle of the pandemic.

Time on the road is also worth weighing against the time a house demands. If looking after a large, tree-filled yard is wearing you down, read our article on the maintenance-free home near Mount Royal; if you're still torn between renovating and buying new, see the one on the turnkey new home near Mount Royal.

Visiting the sales office from Mount Royal

BÉAcité's sales office is at 435 Geoffrion Street. From Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., you can stop in during opening hours; in the evening and on Saturday and Sunday, visits are by appointment, at 514-812-9633 (call or text) or ventes@beacite.com.

On a weekday, a visit can be combined with the REM and the bus if you have time to spare; on weekends, the car is the only practical option. Once there, Eddy Guessous, sales director, will show you the turnkey homes at 405, 408, 423 and 435 and give you the plans for the bungalow, the Duo cottage and the Urbain model. From Highway 20, take exit 105, follow the signs for the Vallée-du-Richelieu golf club, then the BÉAcité project signs.

Conclusion

From Mount Royal to Sainte-Julie, the simplest route is still the car: some forty kilometres and about 40 minutes without traffic via Highway 40, the bridge-tunnel and Highway 20, a little longer over the Jacques Cartier Bridge. The REM, leaving from your two stations and running through to Brossard, adds a weekday option, at the cost of connections and a trip of roughly 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 40 minutes. To judge for yourself on site, plan a weekday visit, or book an appointment for an evening or the weekend.

From Mount Royal to Sainte-Julie: REM, bus or car