The planned route for the Caisse de Depot's light rail system for Montreal and suburbs will require the expropriation of up to 30 homes.
Two buildings that had been earmarked for possible expropriation, namely the Rodier building and the building that house the New City Gas club, will be preserved.
Dinu Bumbaru of Heritage Montreal was pleased to hear the historic structures would be saved.
"This is very good news. Somehow the CDPQ Infra was informed as they were making efforts and clearly they were up to their word which was a good thing considering the complexity of this project," said Bumbaru.
CN and the Caisse subsidiary that is leading the train project, CDPQ Infra, have worked out an agreement to use tracks leading to Central Station from Griffintown, or to build tracks below those that currently exist.
Macky Tall, CEO of CDPQ Infra, said this will not affect the other train companies using those tracks, namely Via Rail, Amtrak, and the AMT's Mont St. Hilaire line.
However CDPQ Infra will need to expropriate at least two dozen homes in order to run trains from Montreal to the new Champlain Bridge and the South Shore, and to the West Island and Deux Montagnes.
The company would not say which areas would be affected by expropriations.
Tall said the REM is still planning to connect to the existing public transit networks in Montreal at Central Station, and at the McGill and Université de Montreal metro stations.
After facing criticism for planning to build a 2,000-car parking lot in wetlands near Morgan Rd. in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, the REM is now planning a large parking lot for the westernmost station planned in Kirkland, near the Chemin Ste. Marie exit of Highway 40.
The route through St. Laurent will now be partially underground in order to avoid disturbing a park, even though the Deux Montagnes train line currently runs aboveground.
"Our estimate is that it would also have a significant environmental benefit because it would remove both cars and buses from the road," said Tall.
He believes the REM will convince thousands of drivers to leave their cars at home.
"The estimated impact is 16,800 tonnes a year of greenhouse gas avoided. That is the equivalent of planting 25 times the Mount Royal forest. It's significant," said Tall.
According to estimates from Statistics Canada, that is the amount of pollution created by roughly 3,500 cars each year.
Environmental hearings on the train lines are due to begin next week.
Calls for tender are being issued this fall and the REM is expected to be operational by 2020.
Nobody has said how much each trip would cost, or if riders would be able to transfer to other transit systems at no cost.
