Commuter train noise cut not sufficient: WTAG

However, not all of the rail welding planned as part of the improvement program was completed as the group had been led to believe during many meetings over the past few years with the Agence Métropolitaine de Transport, the regional transit authority, said a WTAG spokesman.

At a meeting this past summer, "we were informed that only 40 per cent of the rails were actually welded with butt-welding," he said. "We were led to believe 100 per cent of the rails would be butt-welded." But welding on only 90 strip sections of track has so far been completed.

At a Nov. 3 meeting, WTAG members were informed that an estimated 60 per cent of the butt-welding was completed. "We were told from CP Rail that it was due to monetary constraints. We were wondering what happened to the money because we got $1.7 million to actually do this work. Supposedly they've run out of it." The money had been obtained from the provincial government.

Based on an estimation they said they received from the AMT, the WTAG had also been expecting to obtain a reduction in vibrations and noise ranging from 60 to 80 per cent after the work was completed. However, at the moment they are concluding that the reduction actually amounts to about 15 per cent.

"Just listening to a lot of people's reactions and going around the neighbourhood and physically listening to the trains going by it still makes an awful lot of noise," said the spokesman. "You still get the clickety-clack. It depends where you're situated."

According to the WTAG, residents on Prospect Street are best-positioned to judge the results of the track improvements because their homes are parallel to the rail line. Wherever the welding has been done, the results are more apparent where the rail line passes in front of nearby houses.

The WTAG has also been trying to get the AMT to reduce the speed of its trains as they pass along a section that runs parallel to a densely-populated area from Vendôme to Atwater avenues. But the group has been unable obtain action, after being told that the problem was a responsibility of CP Rail, the tracks' owner.

"We were led to believe that this was the problem of CP Rail — reducing the train — but it's actually not. It's a decision of AMT, and then AMT in turn talks to CP Rail and asks if it's feasible."

However, the WTAG has received some positive response to a request that track crossover switches, producing intense vibrations and noise near homes on Abbott, Irvine, Lewis and Blenheim avenues, be relocated. While WTAG has learned that the locations themselves cannot be changed, CP has suggested that the switches, which are 40 years old, be replaced with more up-to-date equipment.