Repentigny-Mascouche Line (AMT)
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Repentigny-Mascouche Line
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| Overview | |||
| Type | Commuter rail | ||
| System | Agence métropolitaine de transport | ||
| Locale | Montreal, Montérégie | ||
| Termini | Central Station Mascouche railway station |
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| Stations | 14 | ||
| Daily ridership | 5,500 (estimated) | ||
| Operation | |||
| Opened | 1946 (re-opening 2013) | ||
| Operator(s) | CN's Montrain Division | ||
| Technical | |||
| Line length | 52 km (32 mi) | ||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) Standard gauge | ||
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The Repentigny-Mascouche Line is a commuter rail line under construction in Greater Montreal Quebec, Canada. It will be operated the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT), the umbrella organization that plans, integrates, and coordinates public transportation services across this region.
The line was originally operated by the Canadian National Railway from 1946 until 1968. The AMT is expected to resume passenger service on the line in 2013.
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[edit] Overview
This line was announced in a press conference on March 17, 2006, and follows a major campaign by the residents of Repentigny, Quebec to obtain commuter rail to their area.
The 51-kilometre (32 mi) line would use the existing Mount Royal Tunnel and Canadian National track from Le Gardeur Montreal's Central Station to Repentigny, near the Via Rail station at Le Gardeur. New track will be built from Repentigny to Terrebonne along the Quebec Autoroute 640, then the former Canadian Pacific (now the Chemins de Fer Québec-Gatineau) line to Mascouche. The total journey to/from Masouche and Montreal would be 61 minutes.
At an estimated cost of $390 million (CAD), the line will have 14 stops (11 new, three existing) and offer five departures per weekday rush-hour. The line was originally scheduled to be operational in 2008, but has now been pushed back to 2013.
[edit] Locomotives
On May 14, 2007, the AMT and New Jersey Transit put out a joint call for tenders to purchase dual-powered locomotives. In Montreal, the locomotives will run on diesel for most of the trip and switch to electrical power to enter Mount Royal Tunnel before ending at Central Station. This international project is the first of its kind in North America.[1] Twenty locomotives of type ALP-45DP are now on order from Bombardier Transportation for delivery between 2010 and 2012.
[edit] History
Two previous commuter train lines ran a course along part of the proposed route of the new line.
[edit] Métropolitrain
A temporary commuter train service, dubbed the "Métropolitrain" was organized by the STCUM in 1990, while Autoroute 40, the boulevard Métropolitain, was being rebuilt. It ran on Canadian National railway track from a temporary station near the Du Collège metro station to a temporary station in Repentigny with an intermediate temporary station near the Sauvé metro station. As there was no existing regional transit coordinator at the time, the line was never very successful.
Stations:
- Ste-Croix and St-Louis (Du College metro)
- Ahuntsic railway station (Sauve metro)
- Saint-leonard
- Anjou
- le Gardeur (Bout-de-l'Île)
- Repentigny
[edit] CN Montreal North commuter line
Even earlier, CN operated a commuter service that ran from Central Station to Montreal North, from 1946 until November 8, 1968. An electric locomotive and several coaches ran one round trip a day in each direction, in rush hours only. Stations, going east along the CN St. Laurent Subdivision from Eastern Junction where it meets the Deux-Montagnes line, were:
- Boulevard, at boulevard St. Laurent, which divides Montreal into East and West
- Ahuntsic, site of current Via Rail station
- Sault-au-Récollet, near rue d'Iberville
- St. Vital, at boulevard St. Michel
- Pie-IX, at boulevard Pie-IX
- Ste. Gertrude, at boulevard Ste. Gertrude
- Montreal North, at boulevard Lacordaire
The line's ridership was never very high; what was left near the end fell victim to the Orange Line of the Montreal Metro opened October 14, 1966. Congestion on that line is one of the major reasons the Train de l'Est is now under construction.
[edit] List of stations
The following is the list of proposed stations:
| Station | Location | Connections |
|---|---|---|
| Central Station | Borough of Ville-Marie | Via Rail, Amtrak, Downtown Terminus, buses and public transit connections. |
| Canora | Border between the town of Mount-Royal and the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce | STM buses . |
| Mount-Royal | Town of Mount-Royal | STM buses. |
| Ahuntsic[2][3] | Borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville | STM buses and within stiff walking distance of the Chabanel station |
| Sauvé[4] | Sauvé metro station, Via Rail (See Ahuntsic railway station), STM buses | |
| Montréal-Nord[3][5] | Boroughs of Montréal-Nord and Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension | STM 39, 139, 143 MB |
| Saint-Leonard[3][6] | Boroughs of Montréal-Nord and Saint-Léonard | STM 32, 33, 199 (MB) |
| Anjou[7] | Borough of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles | STM 28, 40, 44, 77, 148, 194. STL 925 & MRC Les Moulins |
| Rivière-des-Prairies[8] | STM 49. | |
| Pointe-aux-Trembles[9] | Via Rail, (See Pointe-aux-Trembles railway station), STM 184, 186, 410, 430. | |
| Charlemagne, eliminated[3] | Charlemagne | |
| Repentigny[10] | Repentigny | Via Rail (Le Gardeur railway station)???? |
| Terrebonne[11] | Terrebonne | |
| Mascouche[12] | Mascouche |
This list may be updated as more information is released.[3]
AMT has announced that de l'Acadie, Pie-IX, and Lacordaire stations will be renamed, respectively, Ahuntsic, Montréal-Nord, and St. Léonard, to avoid confusion with the Métro stations bearing the same names. The renaming has taken place.[3]
[edit] Criticism of Route
Most observers agree that the proposed route from Montreal to Repentigny makes sense, for several reasons, including the use of existing infrastructure. The route beyond Repentigny has been criticized for several reasons, including:
- The need to build (some say unnecessarily) 12 km of new track from Repentigny to Mascouche.
- In the Le Gardeur sector of Repentigny, the new track will pass very close to a large General Dynamics munitions plant, raising safety and security issues[citation needed]. AMT plans to address those by building a large berm between tracks and plant.
- The proposed route will not serve cities further east of Repentigny, particularly L'Assomption and Joliette. Those cities will have bus service to Repentigny.
- Some say that AMT could serve Mascouche more cheaply, easily, and quickly by using another existing route: a CP line that leaves the existing Blainville-St.Jerome Line at St. Martin Junction in Laval, also serving the eastern part of that city. AMT plans to reroute the Blainville line to Central Station by 2012.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/montreal/story.html?id=72d1c06d-927b-4cd0-b94a-17163fa5e95e&k=2320
- ^ Ahuntsic Station
- ^ a b c d e f List
- ^ Sauvé
- ^ Montreal North
- ^ Saint-Leonard
- ^ Anjou
- ^ Rivière-des-Prairies
- ^ Pointe-aux-Trembles
- ^ Repenigny
- ^ Terrebonne
- ^ Mascouche
[edit] External links
- AMT train de l'est Project page, with map.
- Communiqué from the city of Repentigny (In French)
- All Aboard for Montreal Nord
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