Le P'tit Train du Nord Linear Park

The history of Le P'tit Train du Nord linear park is intimately connected to the settlement of the Laurentians themselves: Curé Antoine Labelle, the abbot of Saint-Jérôme, eager to stem the massive exodus of French Canadians to factories in New England, pressured successive governments to build a railway line serving villages that were completely isolated during winter. The first section, connecting Montreal to Saint-Jérôme, was inaugurated on October 8, 1876, before Canadian Pacific acquired the right of way in 1882 and extended the line to Mont-Laurier in 1909. This railway not only enabled villages to obtain stable supplies year-round and export their firewood to Montreal, but also brought tens of thousands of winter tourists from the early twentieth century onward, laying the foundations for the contemporary Laurentian tourism industry. After passenger service was halted in 1960 under growing pressure from automobiles and the Laurentian Highway, and the line was permanently abandoned in 1981, the railway corridor was transformed and inaugurated in 1996 as a linear park, becoming Canada's longest of its kind at 234 kilometres. Today a segment of the Route Verte, the trail winds through about thirty municipalities, dotted with heritage stations converted into welcome centres, historic iron bridges and typically Laurentian forest landscapes, attracting cyclists, walkers and cross-country skiers along its entire length.