Saint-Jérôme line

Saint-Jérôme (also designated exo2, formerly known as Blainville–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.

Saint-Jérôme
Inbound train at Parc station
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Exo
Locale	Greater Montreal
Termini	Lucien-L'Allier Saint-Jérôme
Stations	13
Daily ridership	12,544 (2018)[1]
Ridership	3,261,600 (2018)
Line number	SJ
Website	RTM - Saint-Jérôme line
Operation
Opened	1882
Owner	Canadian Pacific Railway (railways between Lucien-L'Allier and Sainte-Thérèse, RTM (rolling stock and railways between Sainte-Thérèse and Saint-Jérôme)
Operator(s)	Bombardier Transportation
Technical
Line length	62.8 km (39.0 mi)[2]
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Route map

Saint-Jérôme line
Original station Saint-Jérôme Zone 7 Zone 6 Mirabel planned Blainville Zone 6 Zone 5 Sainte-Thérèse A-640 Rosemère Rivière des Mille-Îles Zone 5 Zone 3 Sainte-Rose Vimont originally Petite-Cote A-440 Saint-Martin Junction QGR to Quebec City Saint-Martin De La Concorde De La Concorde Rivière des Prairies Zone 3 Zone 2 Bois-de-Boulogne originally Henri-Bourassa Zone 2 Zone 1 Mascouche line Chabanel A-40 Parc originally Jean Talon Parc Deux-Montagnes line Mascouche line Mount Royal Tunnel to Central Station A-15 Candiac line Vaudreuil–Hudson line Montréal-Ouest originally Montreal Junction A-15 Vendôme Vendôme Westmount Lucien-L'Allier Lucien-L'Allier Windsor Station

The Saint-Jérôme line was operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) between 1882 and 1981. The line was not active until Exo's predecessor agency, the Agence Métropolitaine de transport (AMT), 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.[3]

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.[3]

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 (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).[4]

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 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.

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.[5]

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 (ATC) 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.[6]

RTM service

On June 1, 2017, the AMT was dissolved and replaced by two new governing bodies, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) and the Réseau de transport métropolitain (RTM). 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:[7]

• A train station is projected in Mirabel. The project has been delayed for years due to agricultural zoning issues. The station is due to start construction in 2019 with a completion date in 2020.
• The ARTM 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 new campus in Montréal. The project is currently under study by the City of Montréal and the ARTM. No timeline has been given.
• The ARTM is studying improving access to its Blainville and Sainte-Thérèse train stations as well as doubling the railway between Sainte-Rose and Sainte-Thérèse, which includes work to double the track over a bridge.

Stations

There are 13 stations on the Saint-Jérôme Line:

Station	Location	Connections	Zones
Lucien-L'Allier	Ville-Marie, Montreal	Lucien-L'Allier Metro station Downtown Terminus STM: 36 (On rue Saint-Antoine),150, 358, 410, 430, 435 (On René Lévesque Boulevard), 935 Trainbus Blainville / Centre-Ville (one block away at the corner of René Lévesque Boulevard and Peel Street)	1
Vendôme	Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal	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 Upper Lachine Road), 37, 90, 102, 104, 105, 124, 371 (same corners as 17) & 24, 63, 356 (these last three one block north on Sherbrooke Street west[8][9])
Montréal-Ouest	Montreal West	STM: 51, 90 (250 metres south on rue Saint-Jacques), 105, 123, 162, 356
Parc	Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, Montreal	Parc Metro station, STM: 16, 80, 92, 93, 365, 372, 435[10]
Chabanel	Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Montreal	STM: 19, 54, 135, 146[11] Less than one kilometre walking distance of the Ahuntsic station on the Mascouche line.[12]
Bois-de-Boulogne		STM: 135, 164, 171, 180, 380[13]	2
De La Concorde	Laval-des-Rapides, Laval	De La Concorde Metro station,[14] STL: 2, 33, 37, 42, 63[15]	3
Vimont	Vimont, Laval	STL: 27, 4[16]
Sainte-Rose	Sainte-Rose, Laval	STL: 63, 65, 73[17]
Rosemère	Rosemère	Exo: 12, 15, 17, 20, 22[18]	5
Sainte-Thérèse	Sainte-Thérèse	Exo: 9, 11, 22, 23, 27, 51, 60, 61, 73, 88
Blainville	Blainville	Exo: 71, 72[19]	6
Saint-Jérôme	Saint-Jérôme	Exo: 9, 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 107[20] CRTL: 35[20] Intercity buses from Groupe Galland,[21] Autobus Maheux[22] and Transport Adapté et Collectif des Laurentides (TACL).[23]	7

Notes

• The Saint-Jérôme Line operates over the following Canadian Pacific Railway subdivisions:

Westmount Subdivision	Lucien-L'Allier	0.1	Montreal West	4.6
North Junction Lead	Montreal-West	0.0	St-Luc Jct*	2.1
Adirondack Subdivision	St-Luc Jct	45.4	Outremont*	49.1
Parc Subdivision	Outremont	4.7	Saint-Jérôme	32.9

* Saint-Luc Jct and Outremont are not passenger stops.

• Exo owns the track from Sainte-Thérèse to Saint-Jérôme.

References

1. https://exo.quebec/Media/Default/pdf/section8/publications/RA_2018_exo.pdf
2. "RTM - Saint-Jérôme line - Information". Réseau de transport métropolitain. 2017. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
3. "Horaire ligne Saint-Jérôme" (PDF) (in French). Agence métropolitaine de transport. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
4. "Reprise du service de la navette trainbus 935, de la gare Jean-Talon au centre-ville". AMT. 1999. Retrieved 2006-12-26.
5. "Train de Banlieue Montréal/Blainville/Saint-Jérôme" (PDF). AMT. 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-08.
6. Increasing capacity on the Blainville–St-Jérôme Line
7. Programme triennal d'immobilisations (in French only)
8. "Plan du Reseau STM 2007" (PDF). STM. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
9. "Plan du Reseau de Nuit STM 2006" (PDF). STM. 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-26.
10. "Vendôme". STM. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
11. "AMT - Saint-Jérôme line > Bus transfers". AMT. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
12. Google Maps walking itinerary
13. "AMT - Saint-Jérôme line > Bus transfers". AMT. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
14. "De la Concorde". STM. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
15. "AMT - Saint-Jérôme line > Bus transfers". AMT. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
16. "AMT - Saint-Jérôme line > Bus transfers". AMT. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
17. "AMT - Saint-Jérôme line > Bus transfers". AMT. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
18. "AMT - Saint-Jérôme line > Bus transfers". AMT. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
19. "AMT - Saint-Jérôme line > Bus transfers". AMT. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
20. "AMT - Saint-Jérôme line > Bus transfers". AMT. 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
21. (in French). Groupe Galland http://www.galland-bus.com/spip.php?article41. Retrieved 2015-06-08. Missing or empty |title= (help)
22. (PDF) (in French). Autocars Maheux http://www.autobusmaheux.qc.ca/documents/horaires/20150401-horaires_autocars_maheux.pdf. Retrieved 2015-06-08. Missing or empty |title= (help)
23. (PDF) (in French). Transport Adapté et Collectif des Laurentides http://www.transportlaurentides.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/TACL_trajets_horaire_25Aout2014.pdf. Retrieved 2015-06-08. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• RTM - Saint-Jérôme line (official website)