Blainville–Saint-Jérôme Line (AMT)

Blainville–Saint-Jérôme Line
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Agence métropolitaine de transport
Locale	Montreal, Laval, Laurentides
Termini	Lucien-L'Allier railway station Blainville railway station, Saint-Jérôme railway station
Stations	13
Daily ridership	10,300 (2010)
Ridership	2,196,000 (2010)
Operation
Opened	1882
Operator(s)	Canadian Pacific Railway
Technical
Line length	62.8 km (39.0 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) Standard gauge
Route map

Blainville–Saint-Jérôme Line

Legend Lucien-L'AllierLucien-L'Allier metro VendômeVendôme metro Autoroute 15 Montréal-Ouest to Vaudreuil-Hudson and Candiac lines Autoroute 15 ParcParc metro Autoroute 40 Chabanel Bois-de-Boulogne Rivière des Prairies De La ConcordeDe La Concorde metro Saint-Martin (closed) Autoroute 440 Vimont Sainte-Rose Rivière des Mille-Îles Rosemère Autoroute 640 Sainte-Thérèse Blainville Mirabel (future) Saint-Jérôme

The Blainville–Saint-Jérôme line is a commuter railway line in Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is operated by the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT), the umbrella organization that plans, integrates, and coordinates public transport services across this region.

The Blainville–Saint-Jérôme Line was operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) between 1882 and 1981. The line was not active until the AMT resumed passenger service in 1997.

There are 10 inbound and 10 outbound departures each weekday.

Overview

This line links the Lucien-L'Allier station in downtown Montreal with Saint-Jérôme, on Montreal's North Shore. More than 2000 Park and Ride spaces are available for commuters.

The line offers service on weekdays only. The frequency of service is 25–45 minutes during rush hour and every two hours outside of rush hour, of which five trips continue to or begin at Lucien-L'Allier station. All other trips begin or end at Parc metro station. Riders can transfer to the 935 Trainbus service to travel to downtown (in the mornings) or to Parc station (in the afternoons).

Today, more than 9,000 people ride the line daily.

History

CP Service

The line between Montreal and Saint-Jérôme was built in 1876 by the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental railway (QMOO), which was owned by the Government of Quebec. In 1881, it was sold to Canadian Pacific along with the line on the north shore of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, between Quebec City and Ottawa. CP operated Le petit train du nord, the Ottawa train via Lachute, the Quebec train via Trois-Rivières as well as the Sainte-Thérèse RDC train along this route between 1882 and 1979.

AMT Service

The Montreal–Blainville line was originally opened in July 1997 and was supposed to serve commuters during the construction on the Marius-Dufresne bridge. In its early stages of life, the AMT Blainville train was composed of a GP9 locomotive and four Canadian Vickers Gallery Coaches. Although it offered only three departures per day (two peak, one reverse peak), it instantly became very successful. In 1997, there were only four stations: Blainville, Sainte-Thérèse, Saint-Martin, and Jean-Talon (now Parc). The stations were merely wooden platforms with gravel parking lots; not too much money was spent because the line was not supposed to become permanent. Service increased in September 1997 to six departures per day (four peak, two reverse peak) and stations were added at Sainte-Rose and Henri-Bourassa (now Bois-de-Boulogne), the line had become permanent. The Rosemère station at Rosemère was built in 1998.

To make the operation successful, buses were used to carry passengers from areas around the stations in Blainville and Sainte-Thérèse. These buses came from the CIT des Basses-Laurentides (now CIT Laurentides). In Montreal STCUM (now STM) buses were used from the Jean-Talon Station to downtown Montreal (Guy-Concordia) metro station (The 935 Trainbus Blainville / Centreville).

In 1999, the STCUM had problems with a number of buses in their Nova LFS fleet, pulling them off the roads completely. To cope with the situation the AMT decided to extend the service from Parc metro directly downtown to Gare Windsor (now Lucien L'Allier Terminus).

A little while later, a stop was added at the currently existing Vendôme station.

In late 2003, a stop was added at Montréal-Ouest. Trains previously passed through the station without stopping.

Following the collapse of the De la Concorde overpass in Laval in October 2006, the AMT opened the temporary station Vimont on Bellerose Boulevard in anticipation of increased ridership. The AMT also leased 8 bilevel coaches and one F59PH locomotive from GO Transit to allow of additional trains in the short term. In November the highway was re-opened, and the leased train set was returned to GO Transit; however, the Vimont station became a permanent stop on the line.

End of the line at Saint-Jérôme

On January 8, 2007, the line was extended from Blainville to Saint-Jérôme; The new Chabanel station was also opened, and a new schedule was released. As a result, only 10 round trips are made per day instead of 11.

On April 28, 2007, along with the opening of the metro to Laval, the De La Concorde station was opened. On April 27, 2007, the Saint-Martin station was closed due to its proximity to the De La Concorde station.

Future projects

• The Mirabel train station has not yet opened, due to delays in rezoning agricultural land for use as a train station.
• The Vimont train station will be made permanent (paved parking, bus loop, safer infrastructure) once the City of Laval completes its extension of boulevard Dagenais.
• There are also plans to bring the line into Mount Royal Tunnel, joining the Deux-Montagnes Line. The proposed plan would reduce travel time to downtown Montreal by 15 minutes, arriving directly at Central Station, instead of circling Mount Royal to arrive at Lucien-L'Allier station. The AMT plans to purchase dual-powered locomotives, like the ones to be used on the Repentigny–Mascouche Line, so that trains may run electrically when in the tunnel while continuing to operate on diesel on the rest of the line.
• There are also plans to double the track between Saint-Martin Junction and Sainte-Rose train stations to increase the number of daily trips.
• Some have suggested that AMT could serve Mascouche more cheaply, easily, and quickly by using an existing CP line that leaves the Blainville Line at St. Martin Junction in Laval, also serving the eastern part of that city, instead of building the last 12 km of the proposed Repentigny-Mascouche Line.
• The AMT is planning a station in Outremont at the current site of the Outremont Yards. The Université de Montréal purchased the land and plans to convert the rail yards into a second campus to deal with its shortage of classrooms, offices, student residences, and other facilities.

List of stations

The following stations are on the Blainville line:

Station	Location	Connections
Lucien-L'Allier	Ville-Marie, Montreal	Downtown Terminus (Terminus RTL), Lucien-L'Allier metro station, Société de transport de Montréal (STM) 36 (On rue Saint-Antoine), 150, 358, 410, 430, 535 (On René-Lévesque Boulevard), 935 Trainbus Blainville / Centreville (one block away at the corner of René-Lévesque Boulevard and Peel Street).
Vendôme	Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal	(connection to Vendôme metro station) STM 17 (north bound at the corner of Decarie Boulevard and De Maisonneuve Boulevard, south bound at the corner of rue Girouard and chemin Upper Lachine), 37, 90, 102, 104, 105, 124, 371 (same corners as 17) and 24, 63, 356 (these last three one block north on Sherbrooke Street west).
Montréal-Ouest	Montreal West	STM 51, 90 (250 metres south on rue Saint-Jacques), 105, 123, 162.
Parc	Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, Montreal	Parc metro station, STM 16, 80, 92, 93, 365, 372, 535. AMT 935.
Chabanel	Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Montreal	STM 54, 135, 146. Within walking distance of the projected L'Acadie station on the Repentigny-Mascouche Line
Bois-de-Boulogne		STM 135, 164, 171, 180, 380. STL Route 55 .
De La Concorde	Laval-des-Rapides, Laval	De La Concorde metro station, STL 33, 37, 42
Vimont	Vimont, Laval	STL 27, 45
Sainte-Rose	Ste Rose, Laval	STL 63, 65, 73, 151 (1.5 kilometres west on Dufferin Street, provides connection to Cote Vertu metro station).
Rosemère	Rosemère	CIT Laurentides Routes: 12, 17, 19, 20, 22
Sainte-Thérèse	Sainte-Thérèse	CIT Laurentides Routes: 9, 11, 18, 21, 22, 23, 27, 50, 51, 52, 60, 61, 62, 88 (Connection to Deux-Montagnes station). MRC Les Moulins: 23 (Connection to Terminus Terrebonne).
Blainville	Blainville	CIT Laurentides Route 70, 71
Mirabel (future)	Mirabel
Saint-Jérôme	Saint-Jérôme	CIT Laurentides Routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9.

Note

• The Gare Saint-Martin, which was located 1.5 km north of Gare De La Concorde, was closed as of April 27, 2007. De La Concorde Metro was opened on Saturday April 28, 2007 and Gare De La Concorde was opened on Monday April 30, 2007.

Notes

• The Blainville line operates over the following Canadian Pacific Railway subdivisions:
  • Westmount Subdivision (between Lucien L'Allier [0.1] and Montreal West [4.6]
  • North Junction Lead (between Montreal-West [0.0] and St-Luc Jct* [2.1]
  • Adirondack Subdivision (between St-Luc Jct [45.4] and Outremont* [49.1]
  • Parc Subdivision (between Outremont [4.7] and Saint-Jérôme [32.9]
  • Note: The AMT now owns the track from Sainte-Thérèse to Saint-Jérôme
• Saint-Luc Jct and Outremont are not passenger stops.

See also

• List of Agence métropolitaine de transport park and ride lots

External links

• Official AMT website (French)
• STM 2006 system map
• 2008 STM System Map