An overflow crowd attended a town hall meeting Tuesday night in Town of Mount Royal to discuss concerns about the new light-rail train network that will run through the town in a few years.
Currently, the tracks that run through TMR play host to about two dozen commuter trains per day. Once the brand-new REM system is up and running, there'll be about 600 trains per day — including hundreds of them on weekends.
The $6.3 billion REM network will tie downtown Montreal to the airport, the north and south shores, and the West Island once it's fully operational by 2023.
While officials with CDPQ Infra, the subsidiary of the Caisse De Depot responsible for building and operating the network, assured residents there will be noise testing done, TMR's mayor Philippe Roy says now's the time to consider covering over what he calls a "highway" for trains, to block out the noise.
"We would like to see the train all-entrenched on all the 1.8 kilometres," Roy says, "and why not cover it and build over it?"
Many TMR residents who showed up at the meeting share the same concerns, and he says he plans on being in touch with CDPQ officials to relay those concerns.