Railing against time: Classic train stations have been replaced by glass and concrete boxes FINAL Edition

• Published in: The Gazette (Montreal)
• Main Author: Lapalme, Richard
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Montreal, Que Postmedia Network Inc 11.02.1996
• Subjects: Commuting
• ISSN: 2370-1676

Commuter train stations aren't what they used to be. Although the commuter lines have been modernized, only the roofs of the shelters give the impression of a train station, the true style and ambience of a station has been lost. When I was a child, I drove my parents crazy asking them to take me on the train every time we passed the station. Finally in 1960, when I was 9, I got my train ride. It was sometime in August and my mother was taking my brother, my sister, and me downtown to dress us for the new school year. There was great excitement in our house that morning as we ran around getting ready. At last we walked to the comer of 92nd Ave. and 9th St. to wait for the l'Abord-a-Plouffe bus that would take us to the train. These small, ancient buses that sputtered through our streets were relics from another era, but that's another story. Crossing the old single-span Cartierville Bridge (officially it was the Lachapelle Bridge, but everyone referred to it as the Cartierville Bridge) the bus dipped down to Laurentien Blvd. then climbed the hill to the intersection of Gouin. Just across Gouin on Laurentien was the Cartierville train station. Most of the passengers got off at this stop.