Saint-Jérôme line


Saint-Jérôme is a commuter railway line in Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is operated by Exo, the organization that operates public transport services across this region.
The Saint-Jérôme line was operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway between 1882 and 1981. The line was not active until Exo's predecessor agency, the Agence Métropolitaine de transport, resumed passenger service in 1997.
There are 15 inbound and 15 outbound departures each weekday. There are six departures on Saturday and Sunday, although these trains terminate at De La Concorde station with connection to De La Concorde Metro station, instead of continuing to Parc or Lucien-L'Allier Station.

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 with limited service to and from de la Concorde Metro on weekends. The frequency of service is 25–45 minutes during rush hour and every one to 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.
Today, more than 14,000 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, 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, it instantly became very successful. In 1997, there were only four stations: Blainville, Sainte-Thérèse, Saint-Martin, and Jean-Talon. 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 and stations were added at Sainte-Rose and Henri-Bourassa, 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. In Montreal, STCUM buses were used from the Jean-Talon Station to downtown Montreal metro station.
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.
A little 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 eight bilevel coaches and one F59PH locomotive from GO Transit to allow for additional trains in the short term. In November the highway was re-opened, and the leased train set was returned to GO Transit, but the Vimont station became a permanent stop on the line.
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. The Saint-Martin station was closed because of its proximity to De La Concorde.
In 2013, work was completed to double the track between Sainte-Rose station and Saint-Martin Junction and install Automatic Train Control between Parc station and the end of the line in Saint-Jérôme. Various upgrading at different stations is ongoing and will be complete by November 2013. The $50-million project allowed for the addition of six weekday departures on August 5, 2013.

RTM service

On June 1, 2017, the AMT was dissolved and replaced by two new governing bodies, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain and the Réseau de transport métropolitain. The RTM took over all former AMT services, including this line, and changed its name to Exo in May 2018.

Future projects

The ARTM is currently considering the following future projects:
There are 13 stations on the Saint-Jérôme Line:
StationLocationConnectionsZones
Lucien-L'AllierVille-Marie, Montreal Lucien-L'Allier Metro station
Downtown Terminus
STM: 36,150, 358, 410, 430, 435, 935 Trainbus Blainville / Centre-Ville 		1
VendômeCôte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal Vendôme Metro station
STM: 17, 37, 90, 102, 104, 105, 124, 371 & 24, 63, 356 		1
Montréal-OuestMontreal West STM: 51, 90, 105, 123, 162, 3561
Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, Montreal Parc Metro station,
STM: 16, 80, 92, 93, 365, 372, 435		1
Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Montreal STM: 19, 54, 135, 146
Less than one kilometre walking distance of the station on the Mascouche line.		1
Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Montreal STM: 135, 164, 171, 180, 3802
Laval-des-Rapides, Laval De La Concorde Metro station,
STL: 2, 33, 37, 42, 63		3
Vimont, Laval STL: 27, 43
Sainte-Rose, Laval STL: 63, 65, 733
Rosemère Exo: 12, 15, 17, 20, 225
Sainte-Thérèse Exo: 9, 11, 22, 23, 27, 51, 60, 61, 73, 885
Blainville Exo: 71, 726
Saint-Jérôme Exo: 9, 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 107
CRTL''': 35

Intercity buses from Groupe Galland, Autobus Maheux and Transport Adapté et Collectif des Laurentides.		7