The opponents of the Quebec tramway are tenacious and eloquent people. Sébastien Tanguay portrayed two people who are passionately devoted to their cause (The dutyAugust 8, 2022).
They are pleading in court for a work stoppage. The judges are ready to grant them what they are asking for as long as their arguments are based on facts proving that there would be real harm to the public interest if the tramway project were to be carried out.
Let’s take one of the alleged facts: there will be cutting down of trees on a major avenue. Their concern is based on the fact that these cuts are part of the City’s plans; it is therefore important that the authorities find a solution. If the cuts are necessary to be able to install electrical supply wires for the trams, there are possible solutions: in Bordeaux and Barcelona, a security system is installed on the ground where the current is activated only when the tram passes. In Nice, trams are equipped with batteries to allow them to pass “wirelessly” through sensitive areas.
As for noise, the engineering firm Systra reported that the noise of a tram would be 75 to 80 decibels at 10 meters, which is comparable to the noise of a car, which emits 80 decibels (The sunDecember 4, 2020).
We see that, in fact, in relation to these two factors, either the apprehended damage can be avoided, or it is non-existent. The same could possibly be true for other factors. One then wonders if the whole campaign of opponents of the tramway might not be motivated not by the facts, but by an indifference to public transport in general. Because they use, they confide, “quite rarely” public transport.
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