Buried REM stretch a small comfort

Re: “REM de l'est to include tunnel, but critics still slam design” (Montreal Gazette, Sept. 3)

I feel reassured that I am not the only one to think that the huge concrete structures being built for the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) are ugly now and will become uglier with age, and with the paraphernalia yet to be added.

Nathalie Drouin, a university professor and executive director of an international research consortium on the governance of large infrastructure projects, asserts that “Montreal will be disfigured” and that the city's “image” could be damaged.

CDPQ Infra, the agency responsible for the construction of the REM, must think so too, since it agreed to hide some nine kilometres — about one-third — of the REM de l'est underground.

I am, however, left with a bitter taste. If it is unacceptable to disfigure parts of downtown, why is it acceptable to disfigure the West Island and other parts of the island and surrounding areas?

To borrow Drouin's words: “How come we didn't think about that earlier?”

André Simard, Laval