Improvements coming in Laval on Blainville–Saint-Jérôme line

Given the opening of the new Autoroute 25 bridge, plus the imminent double-tracking of the AMT’s Blainville–Saint-Jérôme commuter rail line, there is now good reason to believe that the long-neglected eastern half of Laval is well-positioned for an economic boom.

Double-tracking
Officials with the AMT and CP Rail (which owns the Blainville–Saint-Jérôme right-of-way) joined Chomedey Liberal MNA Guy Ouellette, Fabre Liberal MNA Michelle Courchesne and Vimont Liberal MNA Vincent Auclair at the AMT station in Sainte-Rose on May 16 to announce the start of work on the project. The stretch of railway tracks between the Saint-Martin junction and the Sainte-Rose station, which is currently a single track, will be doubled.
According to a press release issued by the AMT, double-tracking will make the line more flexible. It currently carries not just AMT commuter trains, but also freight traffic for CP Rail — a situation which was often quite difficult for railway controllers to manage over the past years. However, with twice the space on that portion of the Blainville–Saint-Jérôme line, the AMT will be set to greatly increase the number of commuter trains that pass on it.
Increased capacity
The agency says it’s just a matter of time until the number of departures is increased and travel by rail in and out of eastern Laval becomes much quicker. Currently, trains on the Blainville–Saint-Jerome line travel along a single track for 33 kilometers between Saint-Jérôme and the Saint-Martin junction in Laval. Double-tracking will provide rail traffic controllers with a greater ability to use transportation logistics, so that commuter and freight trains can be maneuvered to a second track or to a siding when a train needs to pass another.
The work, which will be carried out by CP Rail between now and the end of next year, got underway in April. Various railway infrastructures that are being put into place include new sidings in Blainville, Mirabel and Sainte-Thérèse. Improved visual signaling equipment is also being installed at other points along the line, as are gates and warning equipment at some level crossings. Among other improvements, a new platform will be built at the AMT’s Vimont station. The cost for it all is estimated at $35 million, with Quebec picking up the tab for $26 million.
Six more trains
The AMT estimates that the improvements, in conjunction with the deployment last summer of new multi-level, higher capacity passenger cars, will mean a 65 per cent increase in the number of clients served on the Blainville–Sainte-Jérôme line — a jump to 8,300 passengers served during rush hours, from 5,000 three years ago. The AMT currently schedules 20 trains each week day on the line, including five during rush hours. There would be six more departures as a result of the improvements. The Blainville–Sainte-Jérôme line currently carries more than 2.2 million passengers per year.
Sustainable development
While the new A-25 bridge and the enhanced AMT service add to the growing number of reasons that make eastern Laval an attractive place to live and do business, the Liberal MNAs were mostly concerned about the positive impact the rail project stands to have in terms of sustainable development. Courchesne spoke of the “application of principles of sustainable development” as one of the government’s reasons for backing the project. Auclair referred to it as “an excellent means for reducing automobile traffic, while also reducing our output of greenhouse gases.”