City prefers commuter rail link away from Westmount

The location of a proposed high-speed Montreal-Dorval rail link has yet to be decided, although crucial meetings involving Canadian National, Canadian Pacific and the Agence Métropolitaine de Transport are said to be scheduled over the next few weeks.

While the CP line runs through Westmount's southernmost section, CN's line is a little further south and runs through the community of St. Henri. "What is the City of Westmount's position with regard to the Dorval-Montreal route?" Ste. Catherine Street resident Dave Schachter asked during city council's monthly meeting last Monday. "Do we favour the CP line or do we favour the CN line?" "Council does not discuss this, so that would be very difficult to say," replied Marks. "We haven't been asked to come up with a position on it at this point. Although our preference, obviously, is to not have trains as close to our own residents. If they are going to increase the commuter line, the absolute essential is to have seamless rails, electric trains and things that will not pollute or make noise. "In Town of Mount Royal, they have them and they are not offensive to the people who live close by," the mayor added. "Unfortunately, it's very difficult for us to argue against commuters, because everybody's saying we want more and more people to be taking public transit downtown… If it's possible for the line to go via the southern one, certainly that would be our preference."

Schachter insisted that the City of Westmount should develop a clear position on the issue, since "you can be assured the AMT will have a position, you can be assured that CP will have a position, CN will have a position, and possibly the residents of Hudson and Dorval will have a position. Don't you think that we should have a position? At least a position to argue from?"

Marks said, "I think the position in terms of the technology is the one that is going to be the most successful, because to argue to send it to St. Henri is not going to have a lot of favour."

Noting that trains have been running through Westmount on the CP line for decades now, Schachter insisted, "How successful have you been so far in getting the AMT to incorporate high technology on those lines?"

Marks replied, "I think there are changes coming."

Councillor Cynthia Lulham, who has worked closely on railway disturbance issues in the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, and who represents District 7 in lower Westmount, said she would be meeting this week with Schachter and a group of residents to provide them with further information.