Since I was spotting the trains not too long ago, I can tell you that it makes a lot of noise when a train enters the trench. The rail technology they used + the way the trench was built + the speed at which the trains role in the trench, makes the whole thing pretty loud. It's a chain reaction… the rails are laid on concrete and not ballast (rocks) which makes the track vibration louder, the train runs at 80km/h which makes a lot of vibrations and those vibrations are carried out in a narrow open-air trench. (vibration = noise)
In the last video I made, you can see at 3:49 (
https://youtu.be/7rn42uvu-ow?t=230 ) the train transitioning from the tracks laid on ballast to the tracks laid on concrete... as soon as the train hits the concrete section the noise is multiplied by at least 3. A couple solutions would be able to fix the problem:
1)
[Easy but costly] : Lay ballast one the entire section from Parkdale Avenue to Merton Street. This wouldn't cure the problem fully but would make the noise level much more acceptable for nearby residents.
I don't believe The City officials when they say that they could not lay the tracks on ballast! The trillium line has a much narrower trench, yet the tracks are laid on ballast.
2)
[The most expensive & technically challenging] : Cover the trench and basically make the section an underground tunnel. This would completely resolve the problem. However, that would mean shutting down the line for at least another year which would mean continue with our unreliable bus network for the time being which is clearly not an option for The City and commuters. Plus, it would mean adding at least an extra 250M that City doesn't have.
However, such a scenario would permit the creation of a linear park along Scott's Street, which would be a plus for the neighborhood.
3)
[One of the most plausible] : Install sound barriers. It wouldn't really resolve anything since the noise would only be deviated up to the nearby high-rise condos. However, for people living in houses right by the trench it would permit a temporary solution that would maybe make the noise more livable.
4)
[Also plausible] : The City decides to fund high quality noise isolating windows for nearby residents. Then again it wouldn't resolve the problem completely since in Summer much of these residences would have their windows open during the day. But during colder weather it would definitely help. Plus the cost of such an operation would be significantly lower than any of the above solutions.
5)
[The most likely and cheapest] : Simply reduce the speed of the trains in the trench and make them run at a speed around 50km/h. That would reduce the vibrations travelling in the tracks therefore reduce the noise in the trench significantly. However it would make the trains slower and the trip slightly longer (couple seconds).
PS: I lived in London (UK) when I was much younger, my dad was working there, and we had a high density rail line (London to East-Midlands Mainline I believe) about 600 meters from our house. During some parts of the day trains would be zooming past the neighborhood every 1 or 2 minutes. They had large scale sound barriers surrounding the neighborhood, and even with that we could hear the trains passing in the entire area. When you're not used to it, it can be quite difficult but after 1 or 2 days you just get used to it and bearly notice it. And remember London is the City in the occidental part of the world with the densest Rail network, so you're never far from a Rail or Metro line, most of them being open air.
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