ABOVE: ‘Green’ walls wanted along Union-Pearson express rail corridor. Mark McAllister reports.

TORONTO – Several west-end residents are taking issue with a stretch of noise-cancelling walls bordering the expanding rail-corridor through their neighbourhood.

Metrolinx, the province’s regional transit-planning body, will be building “noise walls” along the Georgetown GO rail corridor – concrete structures that run parallel to the trains to minimize the noise leaking into the surrounding community.

But the Junction Rail Committee would rather less concrete, and have several kilometres of “living walls” instead.

Instead of 10 kilometres of noise walls, the group is asking Metrolinx to install only the 3 kilometres of noise walls required by government standards and plant upwards of 10,000 trees along the full 21-kilometre GO Transit corridor.

“Let’s build what’s required but instead of concrete and plexiglass, were asking the government to investigate some alternative measures, green measures,” Kevin Putnam of the Junction Rail Committee said in an interview.

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“The wall could be constructed of plant material or covered in plant material rather than this concrete. There are lots of ways to do it, It’s not rocket science. We’re not asking them to put a man on the moon for it. We just want them to build walls that are little more friendly.”

An artist’s rendering of the proposed green wall. Credit: Handout / Junction Triangle Rail Committee / Brown and Storey Architects. Handout / Junction Triangle Rail Committee / Brown and Storey Architects

Putnam is also hoping the government electrifies the trains running through his neighbourhood. That, he says, would eliminate the need for any noise walls.

Putnam claims Metrolinx is putting a tender out for the noise walls in December. His group wants to modify that tender. He claims the walls, which he compared to the Berlin Wall, put the entire community at risk of becoming a “no man’s land.”

“The worst part is the deal works for Metrolinx; it’s all in their interest and all the risk is to the residents,” Putnam said.

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“So if these barriers get here and they become this huge canvas for graffiti and the graffiti says it’s an unfriendly place, people stop coming here, it sets the stage for bad things to happen. Right, that’s what’s called an urban blight.”

The group is meeting with Transportation Minister Glen Murray for Oct. 31 hopes to slow down construction. But the work is supposed to be done by the beginning of the 2015 Pan Am Games, when walls will be needed to mitigate noise from increased train service expected once there’s a transit link between Pearson Airport and Union Station.

Murray wouldn’t say in an interview with Global News whether he would be willing to scale back the noise walls to only 3 kilometres.

“And there’s advocates for larger barriers and harder barriers, and advocates for softer barriers,” he said. “It’s my job as minister is to make sure everyone’s voice is heard and to make sure that’s a well facilitated discussion, and that what gets developed and finally implemented reflects the concerns in different neighbourhoods of those community groups.”

Dina Graser, director of community and stakeholder relations for Metrolinx, said the agency has held “extensive” community consultations. In fact, she says, the agency has formed eight community advisory committees, held 30 meetings and four public meetings and hired landscape architects to work with the communities.

“Out of that, we’ve got some fantastic looking designs; there’s transparent panels for those are wanting light. There’s vines growing up concrete walls for those wanting green walls, we’ve got art walls, we’ve got a whole plethora of designs that have really been the result of an extensive consultation process,” she said.

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An artist’s rendering of the noise walls as proposed by Metrolinx. Credit : Handout / Metrolinx. Handout / Metrolinx

But Putnam isn’t happy with Metrolinx’s suggestions.

“All of the structures are built from concrete and plexiglass and they put up one green wall which was requiring a huge berm at the bottom. But along a rail corridor a berm base isn’t practical, it’s a very narrow space,” Putnam said. “So they put up one example of a green wall that doesn’t work and then say all walls don’t work if they’re green. They put up a straw dog and then dismiss everything.”

– With files from Mark McAllister