Le petit train du nord formerly extended northwards beyond Saint-Jerome, into the ski hills of the Laurentian Mountains and then Mont-Laurier; this latter section was later converted into the Parc Linéaire Le P'tit Train du Nord rail trail in the 1990s.

The Montreal–Blainville line was originally opened in July 1997 and was supposed to serve commuters during major repair work on the Marius Dufresne Bridge [fr].

In its early years, the AMT Blainville train was composed of a GP9 locomotive and four Canadian Vickers Gallery Cars.

The stations were merely wooden platforms with gravel parking lots; not too much money was spent because the line was not supposed to become permanent.

To cope with the situation the AMT decided to extend the service from Parc metro directly downtown to Gare Windsor (now Lucien-L'Allier Terminus).

A little later, a stop was added at Vendôme station, to provide an interchange with the Montreal Metro's Orange Line.

Following the De la Concorde Overpass collapse in Laval in October 2006, the AMT opened the temporary station Vimont on Bellerose Boulevard in anticipation of increased ridership.

The AMT also leased eight Bombardier BiLevel Coaches and one F59PH locomotive from GO Transit to allow for additional trains in the short term.

In November the highway was re-opened, and the leased train set was returned to GO Transit, but the Vimont station became a permanent stop on the line.

[9] The line colour was also changed from pastel green to yellow, to avoid confusion with the Réseau express métropolitain.