East End residents march to denounce the REM elevated rail line

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Mercier resident Monique Laguë had a simple reason for taking part in a demonstration against the proposed REM de l’Est elevated railway line on Saturday.

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“I don’t want REM to come into my living room,” he said in an interview. “I live in a condo close to where the line is supposed to be built. If the project goes ahead, the area will be uninhabitable. If they can bury the line elsewhere, why can’t they do it here? “

Laguë was among more than 100 people who took to the streets of the East End on a cool November afternoon to denounce REM de l’Est and promoter CDPQ Infra. Regional transit planner Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain should be in charge of analyzing the project and proposing better solutions, organizer Daniel Chartier said at the meeting.

“This is a bad project and we don’t want it,” Chartier said. “We want the government to stop this crazy train. We need an objective analysis and a true public consultation. At this time, only CDPQ Infra has been able to hear what the public thinks. This is not how public consultations should work. “

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Also present were politicians such as the leader of the Parti Québécois Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the Québécois solidarity member MNA Alexandre Leduc and the mayor of the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, Pierre Lessard-Blais.

“The REM de l’Est is a bad solution to a real problem,” Leduc said. “We want public transport. We are going to fight for a good project, but not for this one ”.

Alternative solutions could include better bus transportation services, expanding existing metro lines, building new ones, or creating a streetcar, Chartier said.

Going forward with REM de l’Est would be tantamount to ignoring the costly lessons of the construction of the Mirabel airport in the 1970s, said the renowned professor of urban studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Gérard Beaudet. said in an open letter published Saturday in La Presse .

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At an estimated cost of $ 10 billion, the REM de l’Est is the latest branch of the sprawling Réseau express métropolitain, the first section of which is already taking shape in and around the island of Montreal.

CDPQ Infra’s initial plans for REM de l’Est sparked a quick reaction among urban planners and entrepreneurs alike. Many voiced opposition to the sea of ​​concrete towers that they felt would have disfigured downtown Montreal.

Yielding to public pressure, CDPQ Infra agreed in September to bury the westernmost part of REM de l’Est to preserve at least part of the visual appeal of the center. That will not be the case in the East End, much to the dismay of area residents.

“This project will destroy the soul of our neighborhood,” said Ronald Daigneault, a Mercier resident who is part of the collective that organized Saturday’s event and launched a petition asking for work to stop on the new line . “We cannot accept it, and that is why we are on the street today. The REM de l’Est is a project that should be designed for the citizens of the East End, not for the promoters and their profits ”.

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Some, like Hochelaga-Maisonneuve resident Martin Renaud, criticized the planned destruction of Mercier’s Morgan Park that the elevated rail line will cause.

“This would be a great loss for the neighborhood,” Renaud said in an interview. “Many families do not have the means to visit other parks in other parts of Montreal.”

Others fear that the REM de l’Est will weaken the Société de Transport de Montréal by diverting part of its passenger numbers. To control losses, the STM will have no choice but to cut local bus services, on which most East End residents depend, Chartier said.

That is one of the reasons opponents say the fight against REM de l’Est is just beginning.

“Now that more and more people are taking notice of the project, the tide against it is growing,” said Chartier. “The bigger the wave, the more politicians will understand that there is a serious problem here.”

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