Train action group joins City committee

In minutes of a closed-door session of city council held in January, Director General Duncan Campbell reports on a Dec. 8 meeting with CP Rail and a train vibration study. During the January meeting, according to the minutes, City officials also decided to join with the Borough of Côte des Neiges/NDG, "to get more political support in order to pressure the AMT" to mitigate the impacts caused by the rail traffic. "There used to be a committee that had to do with noise reduction," Mayor Karin Marks said last week. "Some of it was from the Ville Marie Expressway and some of it was from the train. This is a group of people who are very concerned about the trains, the vibrations, the noise, the pollution. "And they were working as a group and council was working as a group, so we put everybody together and we meet as necessary, and have sent letters to (Quebec Liberal MNA) Jacques Chagnon, to the AMT, with copies to the premier, that something has to be done, that this is not acceptable. "There are a number of different things in terms of maintenance of the route that need to be done in order to diminish the vibrations and the noise," Marks continued. "And in the long term, there's new equipment that's going to be necessary. If they're going to increase the number of commuter trains, then they've got to be looking at proper investment in infrastructure that people can live close to. And that's light rail, that's electric — so there's not the pollution — and that's rebuilding the roadbeds."

Photo: Martin C. Barry