Mascouche line

CN operated a commuter service 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

Ridership was never very high. Near the end, most remaining passengers preferred to switch to the Sauve Metro station on the Orange Line of the Montreal Metro which opened October 14, 1966. Congestion on that part of the line was one of the reasons the Mascouche line was inaugurated.

A temporary service dubbed the "Métropolitrain" was organized by the STCUM from May 15 to October 12, 1990, while Autoroute 40, the boulevard Métropolitain, was being rebuilt. It ran on then-Canadian National track from near the Du Collège metro station to Repentigny with an intermediate station near the Sauvé Metro station. Two trips ran each way in each weekday rush hour. There was no direct service to central Montreal. 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 (Sauvé Metro)
• Saint-Leonard, at boulevard Lacordaire
• Rivière des Prairies
• Pointe-aux-Trembles (Bout-de-l'Île)
• Repentigny

The Agence Métropolitaine de transport (AMT) began service on this line on December 1, 2014, after completing construction of 10 new train stations, several civil engineering structures and 13 km of new railway track.

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. In May 2018, the RTM rebranded itself as Exo, and rebranded each line with a number and updated colour. The Mascouche line became Exo 5, and its line colour was updated to a lighter pastel shade of purple.

Since May 11, 2020, the Mascouche line has temporarily terminated at Ahuntsic station (with some trains continuing to Central Station via an alternate route partially using the CN Taschereau intermodal yard to access Central Station) due to the ongoing conversion of the Deux-Montagnes line into the mainline of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) light rail system. Once the downtown section of the REM is completed sometime in 2024, a new station called Côte-de-Liesse will open, expressly designed to ensure smooth transfer of users between the Mascouche line and the REM, and replacing Ahuntsic station as the line's new terminus.[4]

In 2023, the service was renumbered to line 15 in order to be unique within the Montreal rail network.[5]