Deux-Montagnes Line (AMT)

Deux-Montagnes Line
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Agence métropolitaine de transport
Locale	Montreal, Laval, Laurentides
Termini	Central Station Deux-Montagnes Station
Stations	12
Daily ridership	29,900 (2010)
Ridership	7,347,200 (2010)
Operation
Opened	1918
Operator(s)	CN's Montrain division
Technical
Line length	29.9 km (18.6 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) Standard gauge
Electrification	25 kV AC 60 Hz
Route map

Deux-Montagnes Line
Legend Central StationBonaventure metro Mount Royal Tunnel Canora Mont-Royal to future Repentigny-Mascouche Line Montpellier Du Ruisseau Bois-Franc Sunnybrooke Roxboro-Pierrefonds Rivière des Prairies Île-Bigras Rivière des Prairies Sainte-Dorothée Des Prairies Siding Rivière des Mille-Îles Grand-Moulin Deux-Montagnes

The Deux-Montagnes 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 line was created in 1918 as a Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) service. Canadian National Railway (CN) ran the line starting in 1923 following the merger of CNoR into CN. CN transferred the Deux-Montagnes Line to the Société de transport de la communauté urbaine de Montréal (STCUM) on July 1, 1982. The line was refurbished from 1992 to 1995. It was transferred to the AMT on January 1, 1996.

There are 25 inbound and 24 outbound departures each weekday.

Overview

This line links Central Station in downtown Montreal with Deux-Montagnes to the northwest of the Island of Montreal.

The line offers frequent service during rush hours (10–30 minute intervals) and hourly service outside rush hours on weekdays. There is less frequent service on Saturdays and Sundays.

The trains are owned and managed by the Agence métropolitaine de transport and are operated by Canadian National's Montrain division.

Deux-Montagnes, Roxboro-Pierrefonds, and Central Station are wheelchair-accessible.

Today, more than 31,000 people ride this train daily, having almost as many passengers as Montreal’s four other commuter railway lines combined.

History

Electric Boxcab locomotive used on the Deux-Montagnes from 1918 to 1995.

See Mount Royal Tunnel for additional information.

The Deux-Montagnes line was built by the Canadian Northern Railway. While other railways including Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk Railway already had prime downtown locations for their terminal stations, Canadian Northern did not, having only a station out of the way on Moreau Street in Hochelaga.

In 1910, it was decided that the best way for Canadian Northern to get downtown was to drill their way downtown — through Mont Royal. The construction started at both ends and met half way through with only an inch difference. In 1918 the electrified (2400 V DC catenary), double-track 3.2 mi (5.15 km) tunnel was dubbed Montreal’s first subway. Because the tunnel is inadequately ventilated it was decided from the very beginning that the locomotives would be electric. The ventilation shaft is located SW of the intersection of Édouard-Montpetit Boulevard and Vincent-d'Indy Avenue very close to the Édouard-Montpetit Metro Station.

The structure gauge of the Mount Royal Tunnel limits the height of bilevel cars to 14 ft 6 in or 4.42 m.

In order to finance the project, Canadian Northern built a ‘model city’ north of the tunnel, modeled after Washington, D.C. The Town of Mount-Royal has grown to be an upper-income neighborhood today. Construction began in 1912 and finished in 1918. The first train was pulled by electric locomotive #601 (retired as #6711), which left Tunnel Terminal at 8:30 a.m. on October 21, 1918. The Canadian Northern Railway went bankrupt and was absorbed into what is now Canadian National. Tunnel Terminal was replaced by Central Station in 1943.

In the 1960s, the first plans were announced to renovate the line, whose equipment was 40 years old at the time. First, it was to become metro line 3, but plans were shelved because of the importance to build line 4 for service to Expo 67. With the equipment ageing, and ridership declining, CN wanted to close the line in the 1970s, but their proposals were rejected. The Quebec Ministry of Transport considered using the line for a high-speed connection to Mirabel Airport (Transport rapide régional aéroportuaire Montréal Mirabel, 1974) or as the first line of a BART-style regional metro system (Réseau express de Montréal, 1977; Métro régional, 1979). None of these projects progressed beyond the planning stage.

In 1982, the fares for the trains were integrated with the fares for the Metro and buses. The fare was two bus tickets. This was later reduced to one from Central Station to Val-Royal (now Bois-Franc).

In 1992, the government of Quebec announced a modernisation plan for the line which would include 58 state-of-the-art 25 kV AC MR-90 electric multiple-unit trains built by Bombardier Transportation, new tracks, and centralised traffic control. Service was shut down completely in the summers of 1993, 1994 and 1995 to allow for major work to be done. The last of the old rolling stock left Central Station at 6:30 p.m. on June 2, 1995 – 76 years, 8 months, 11 days, and ten hours after it first went into service. The same locomotive, #6711 (with #6710 (pictured)), hauled the last train through the tunnel.

Future Projects

To ease over-crowding and attract new users on the Deux-Montagnes Line, the AMT plans to:

• Extend the double track from its current end point at the Bois-Franc station to the Roxboro-Pierrefonds station in Pierrefonds-Roxboro.

• Create an overpass for commuter trains to by-pass CN's Saint-Laurent subdivision just south of the Montpellier station, where CN operates a freight line with moderate usage. CN says that it will not allow any more commuter trains without a new overpass. Construction started in Fall of 2010.

• Open two new train stations: one at Autoroute 13 near boulevard Gouin (between Bois-Franc and Sunnybrooke stations), and another in Saint-Eustache, just east of the line's current Deux-Montagnes terminus.

• Purchase the entire Deux-Montagnes subdivision from the CN Railway. This will give AMT complete flexibility for scheduling trains and allow them to save rent money in the long term.

List of stations

The following stations are on the Deux-Montagnes line:

Station	Location	Connections
Central Station	Ville-Marie, Montreal	Via Rail, Amtrak, and Downtown Terminus (Terminus RTL). Bonaventure metro station, Société de transport de Montréal (STM) 150, 358, 410, 430, 515, 535, 935 (within walking distance along René Lévesque Boulevard), 61, 75, 168, 420 (On University Street), 74, 75 (On rue de la Gauchetière).
Canora	Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal	STM 92, 160 (less than 200 metres south at Wilderton Ave. / Bates Rd. east bound & Wilderton Ave. / Barclay St. west bound Map), 372.
Mont-Royal	Mount Royal	STM 16, 119, 165, 535.
Montpellier	Saint-Laurent, Montreal	STM 121, 128, 171, 378, 380.
Du Ruisseau	border of Saint-Laurent and Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Montreal	STM 117, 135. STL (Laval) 55
Bois-Franc	Saint-Laurent, Montreal	STM 64, 126, 164, 170, 215, 382, 468 (TB). STL Routes 55, 144, 151. former AMT, now STL, Express route 902.
Sunnybrooke	Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Montreal	STM 68, 213, 382 on Gouin Boulevard in Pierrefonds-Roxboro, 468 (Train Bus), STM 208 on the other side of the track on rue Cérès in Dollard-des-Ormeaux and STM 356 on Sunnybrooke Boulevard
Roxboro-Pierrefonds	Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Montreal	STM 68, 205, 206, 208, 209, 213 , 265(TB) renamed 407, 382, 468(TB).
Île-Bigras	Île Bigras, Îles Laval, Laval	STL No buses.
Sainte-Dorothée	Sainte-Dorothée, Laval	STL Routes 26, 76, 402, 404, 903.
Grand-Moulin	Deux-Montagnes	CIT Laurentides 93
Deux-Montagnes		CIT Laurentides Routes 80, 89, 90, 92, 93

As of January 9, 2012 many bus line number have changed. "Will your bus line number change ?"

The Deux-Montagnes line uses the CN Deux-Montagnes Subdivision between mile 0.8 (Central Station) and 19.4 (Deux-Montagnes).

See also

• Canadian Northern Railway
• List of Agence métropolitaine de transport park and ride lots
• Line 3 Red (Montreal Metro)

External links

• Official AMT website
• Marc Dufour's website about the Deux Montagnes Line (in French)