CDPQ Infra will unveil a plan by the end of the month to reduce noise from its Réseau express métropolitain (REM). In the meantime, the operator will organize several meetings in the neighborhoods of Griffintown, Pointe-Saint-Charles and L’Île-des-Sœurs, where residents are complaining about the sound emitted by the light train.
The organization intends to unveil within two weeks a report on the issue of noise, the result of analysis work that has been going on for several months now, we read in an email sent Monday to citizens.
This report will be presented at three meetings open to the public which will be held between now and the end of September:
- September 26: Pointe-Saint-Charles (at Saint-Charles church);
- September 27: Griffintown (at Plaza Centre-Ville);
- September 28: Nuns’ Island (at the Elgar Center).
“We reiterate that we are not satisfied with the noise emanating from the passage of the REM in these sectors and are determined to implement the right solution in the right place,” indicated on this subject a spokesperson for CDPQ Infra, Emmanuelle Rouillard- Moreau, in a written statement.
In July, in an interview with The Pressthe CEO of CDPQ Infra, Jean-Marc Arbaud, recognized that the REM was making too much noise in these three neighborhoods in particular, promising fixes to reduce the decibel level.
Measures taken by The Press with a sound level meter showed that the noise generated by the REM regularly exceeds 70 decibels, sometimes even the 75 mark, which concerns Montreal Public Health, but also local residents.
Mr. Arbaud had notably mentioned the addition of noise walls, the installation of parts along the railway line to absorb vibrations and grinding work on the rails in order to make them smoother. According to our information, all of these measures should be included in the plan, in addition to several others. Changing the frequency or speed of trains, a solution that had been proposed by some, however, seems to be ruled out for the moment.
“Measures by neighborhood”
At the Pointe-Saint-Charles Action-Gardien development corporation, which has been mobilizing for months to obtain mitigation measures, spokesperson Simon Paquette welcomes the holding of these meetings. But at the same time he asks CDPQ Infra to be ready, and to act concretely.
“What people really want are exact measurements by neighborhood, with precise deadlines. In short, knowing concretely what they are going to do. That’s our expectations,” he sums up in one breath.
He maintains that citizens still have difficulty believing that the noise problem will really be solved.
If they just reproduce the same study they did a few years ago on environmental noise, it won’t be enough. We are in neighborhoods where the noise level is already very high. This must be considered, too.
Simon Paquette, spokesperson for the Pointe-Saint-Charles Development Corporation Action-Gardien
His group also calls on the Caisse de dépôt to take into account the “urban transformations” underway, especially in Pointe-Saint-Charles. “The move of Ray-Mont Logistiques, for example, will have an impact. We hope that the CDPQ Infra experts will be clear on this,” concludes the spokesperson.
In Saint-Laurent, guarantees demanded
REM noise is also an issue in areas where light rail is not yet in service. This is the case of the borough of Saint-Laurent, which last week adopted a motion asking the Caisse de dépôt “to take and implement concrete measures and actions to reduce the anticipated noise impacts that will be generated” by the REM.
Saint-Laurent asks CDPQ Infra in particular “to ensure compliance with its commitments transmitted by letter in December 2020, in particular on the extent of the noise barrier which was presented in October of the same year”.
“This major public transportation project that is the REM must not be done to the detriment of the populations it intends to serve,” explained the mayor of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa, in a press release, saying “we are strongly committed to preserve a friendly and quality living environment.”
The Caisse subsequently confirmed that the size of the noise walls in the Saint-Laurent borough had “remained the same since their presentation to elected officials in the sector in 2020”.
Trends are emerging
All this comes at a time when the REM team revealed on Monday that it had passed the millionth trip milestone. On average, more than 30,000 daily passages have been observed since the inauguration last July, its manager indicated on social networks. “We will be able to identify user travel trends over the fall, but we can confirm that weekdays in the morning and evening peak periods are the busiest,” explains the spokesperson. Emmanuelle Rouillard-Moreau on this subject.
Henri Ouellette-Vézina, The Press