TMR residents worry new LRT trains will be 'living nightmare'

Some people who live in Town of Mount Royal say they fearall the extra noise that the new light-rail system will bring to their neighbourhood when trains start rolling in 2020 will make it a "living nightmare."

"We'll get 500, 600 trains a day, starting at five in the morning until one o'clock at night," said Catalin Zimbresteanu, whose home is about fivemetres from the rail line.

There is a commuter train that runs on those tracks already, however,right now it only goes bya few dozen times a day.

But once the new electric trains begin rolling, that number will increase to about 500 trains aday one every two to three minutes, 20 hours a day, seven days a week.

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"It's a real disaster for the local population here," said another resident, Pierre Mourot, who lives about 25 metres from the train tracks.

Mourot said that although the LRT trains will be less noisy than the current commuter trains, the problem is their frequency.

Public meetings planned

Concerned residents haveformed a group, and they've been going door to door in TMR, informing people about what's to come.

Mourot says he and other residents are not against the project itself as long as it is not too disruptive.

At a meeting in June, the group was told by CDPQ Infra, the consortium building the LRT system, that a three-metre-high wall would be built near the existing tunnel where the train leaves, but apart from that, nothing will be done to mitigate the noise until after the project is complete.

CDPQ Infra, a subsidiary of the project's promoter, Quebec's Caisse de Depot,is trying to quell the residents' fears.

"I think the best way is to have a continuous dialogue with them," said CDPQ Infra spokesperson Jean-Vincent Lacroix, stressingthat the light-rail technology means quieter trains.

Lacroix said the consortium plans to hold morepublic meetings.

"We cannot resolve everything in one meeting. It's a complex situation."