i
Highlands Station

In 1890, the Canadian Pacific considered it of the utmost importance to build a train station near the St. Lawrence bridge in the Highlands district of the municipality of the Parish of Lachine. This resulted in fierce competition with the Grand Trunk Railway, which controlled the transportation of goods and passengers between Montréal, and the stations in the Eastern U.S. The Short Line network (a local rail network) completely changed this situation. Starting in 1913, transit greatly increased and the CPR doubled its railway tracks.

 

Built along the network nicknamed the Short Line, the LaSalle train station, formerly the Highlands train station, was owned by Canadian Pacific. The rail network covered Southern Québec to reach the port of Saint John, New Brunswick. The section of this rail network between Montréal and Farnham in the Eastern Townships was inaugurated on August 8, 1887 and so it became necessary to build the St. Lawrence bridge, which others called the Lachine bridge, in order to connect the island of Montréal to the South Shore. It was the second one to span the river, the very first being the Victoria.

In 1922, one section of the network crossed through the centre of LaSalle, to promote the City's industrial development. The Loop Line connected to the Short Line a bit north of the train station, in the area of the CPR yards in LaSalle. In order to accommodate Montréal-bound passengers, the company installed a shelter in 1925. However, that shelter disappeared during the 1970s and passenger service came to an end in 1978.

The LaSalle train station was then used as a warehouse. It has kept its name since 1938, the year when CPR agreed to the change. Starting in 2001, activity resumed around LaSalle train station, as a Montréal-bound train served passengers between Delson and Candiac, morning and evening.