P’tit Train du Nord

P’tit Train du Nord (the Little Train of the North) is a unique 234km long linear park, that starts in St.Jerome (a city located 45 kilometers north of Montreal) and follows the route of the old railroad. It was originally a railroad built between 1891 and 1909 that linked Saint-Jérôme in the south with Mont-Laurier in the north. P’tit Train du Nord is a multiuse trail enjoyed by cyclists, hikers and, in the winter, cross-country skiers.

The P’tit train du Nord Linear Park entends between Bois-des-Filion and Mont-Laurier.

The landscape varies significantly along its 200-kilometer length, featuring suburbs, mountains lakes, marshes, rivers, rapids, golf courses, beaches, old villages, bridges, tunnels, forests and valleys.  The trail became the heart of the Laurentian region’s culture. The P’tit train du Nord crosses a series of little towns and villages with cafes, microbreweries, bakeries and restaurants, often on a terrace directly overlooking the trail. The old train stations have been turned into information centers and museums.

The winter of 1872 was particularly difficult for people living in Montreal, who exhausted their supply of firewood that year.

Father Labelle, who looked after parishes in the Laurentians region managed to convince the government to build a railway by organizing the “Wood Chore”. He arranged a procession of 80horse-drawn carriages to transport 60 cords of wood to Montreal and demonstrated to everyone the practical side of creating a rail between the city and the North. The first train finally arrived in Saint-Jerome on October 8, 1876.  It was Father Labelle who named the railway section between Montreal and Mont-Laurier “the train of the North.” In 1882, the Canadian Pacific Railway extended the track north to Mont-Laurier.

The P’tit train du Nord was initially used to supply the first settlers in the northern region and transport firewood to Montreal.

Later, the Laurentians established a significant tourism industry with winter sports, resorts, and hunting and fishing clubs. The “snow trains” were filled with young skiers traveling between Montreal and Shawbridge, with their skis between the seats.

Starting in 1920, several ski resorts opened their doors, and many skiers used the “snow train,” or “P’tit train du Nord,” to get to the Laurentians mountains. These trains could have up to 24 crowded wagons and up to 25,000 passengers from Thursday to Sunday!

In 1930, Shawbridge became the starting point of the Maple Leaf cross-country ski trail that goes to Tremblant.

This trail was laid out by the legendary Jack Rabbit, who lived in Piedmont and skied until he was 100 years old. In the 1930s, Shawbridge and Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts were important winter sports stations. The first mechanical ski lift in North America was created on Big Hill in Shawbridge.

In 1938, Joseph Bondurant Ryan, a wealthy American who came to Mont-Tremblant in search of gold, fell under the spell of the landscape and created an alpine village there.

The arrival of the train would trigger a tourism boom for his ski resort.

For a long time P’tit Train du Nord played a key role in the economic development of the Laurentian region, but its transportation activities ceased in 1981. In 1994, the Quebec government purchased the railway, and the rail corridor was gradually converted into a multi-use recreational trail. The train tracks were dismantled except for the portion between Montréal and Saint-Jérôme which is still in service.

In 2006 the P’tit Train du Nord was named “One of the top five bike paths in Canada” by Adventure Cycling magazine and it is one of Canada’s most popular cycling destinations.