Residents worry raised REM will invade their privacy – West Island residents living near the REM stations, where they will be raised above ground level, are worried that commuters will be able to see into their homes and invade their privacy – and they are also worried about the noise. The stations in question include Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Sunnybrooke, Pointe-Claire and Kirkland. Jean-Vincent Lacroix, a spokesperson for the REM, said in a Global News report that the height of each station has still not been finalized and they will be ensuring the stations are well integrated into the existing environment and will let the residents know how they plan to do so – and will be taking the residents’ concerns into consideration. Residents are hoping their worries will be properly addressed.
Many West Islanders have seen the launching gantries – one is in the parking lot of the Fairview Pointe Claire shopping center. They are basically huge cranes holding up several concrete segments while crews place them, fasten them with tensioning cables and then connect them to the concrete posts in place. The gantries will slowly move through the West Island at approximately 40 metres every two days, as over 4100 concrete segments are assembled, ending at the last gantry in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. The fully automated REM system will span 67 kilometres with 26 stations, transforming the Metropolitan Montreal Area transit system. The new, more efficient, frequent and hopefully more reliable service will connect the South Shore, Downtown Montreal, the West Island and Airport Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau. Once completed, the REM will be one of the largest automated transportation systems in the world – after Singapore, Dubai and Vancouver.The first stations are planned to open in 2021 with the full network is expected to be running by 2023.
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