Toronto’s Ontario Line project promotes | So Good News

Connect 6ix rendering showing early concept design for the planned 9.7-mile Ontario Line in Toronto, Canada.

Connect 6ix has been awarded the C$9 billion contract for the Ontario Line Rolling Stock, Systems, Operations and Maintenance (RSSOM) package, Canada’s Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx reported Nov. 17.

Connect 6ix, which was selected in September as the preferred proponent team, will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the RSSOM suite for a 30-year period. The contract includes C$2.3 billion for capital costs and C$6.7 billion for short-term construction financing and transaction costs; train costs; and 30 years of operation and maintenance, life cycle and long-term financing.

The 9.7-mile (15.6-kilometre) Ontario Line is a planned Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) rapid transit line connecting the Ontario Science Center and Exhibition/Ontario Place. The stand-alone line, half of which will be underground, will include 15 stations and more than 40 connections to other transit routes, including GO Transit lines, existing TTC subway and streetcar lines, the under-construction Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit and bus services (see the map below).

Connect 6ix consists of lead applicant Plenary Americas, Hitachi Rail, Webuild Group (Salini Impreglio Canada Holding Inc.) and Transdev Canada Inc.; design team of Hitachi Rail and IBI Group Professional Services (Canada) Inc.; the construction team of Hitachi Rail, Webuild Group (Astaldi Canada Design & Construction Inc. and Salini Impreglio Civil Works Inc.), and NGE Contracting Inc.; operations, maintenance and rehabilitation teams of Hitachi Rail and Transdev Canada Inc.; and financial advisors National Bank Financial Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

The scope of work includes:

• Design, deliver, operate and maintain the rolling stock (trains). According to Hitachi, the trains will have onboard Wi-Fi, digital passenger information screens, charging points, dedicated bicycles, dual wheelchair areas, interconnected (connected) cars, heating and cooling throughout, doors that open in sync with the platform. -side doors (screen) and regenerative braking. Wi-Fi access, passenger information screens and platform edge doors at all Ontario Line stations will also be provided, Hitachi said.

• Design, build, operate and maintain all tracks and systems (communication and train control). According to Hitachi, the line will be equipped with the latest communication-based train control (CBTC) technology.

• Design, build, operate and maintain the maintenance and storage facility (where the trains are stored) and the operations control center (where staff control train operations and are connected to the TTC and GO Transit systems) and reserve operations control center.

• Work with TTC in accordance with future operation and maintenance agreements.

• Integration of fare equipment with the PRESTO system.

Hitachi Rail Group CEO Andrew Barr said on 18 October Railway age that the company was hopeful that Connect 6ix would be awarded the contract. Hitachi, at the time, had released the final designs for its $70 million rail car manufacturing facility and test track in Washington County, Md. First on the production line when completed in early 2024: an 8000-series rapid transit vehicle fleet for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). It can also produce Ontario line trains. Expressing excitement at winning the contract, Barr said in October: “[I]it is a great opportunity for us. I think for Maryland to have that continuation [of work on the Ontario Line cars] is a great story, so you can continue that production.”

The Connect 6ix team will begin work in 2023, and the project will conclude in 2031, according to Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx. Once all the civil infrastructure elements and systems from the Ontario Line North and South segments are completed, integrated and certified, Connect 6ix will then begin operating and maintaining the Ontario Line for a 30-year period.

Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx earlier this month awarded a fixed-price contract to Ontario Transit Group for the Ontario Line Southern Civil, Stations and Tunnel (South Civil) package.

The scope of work includes:

• A 3.7-mile (6-kilometer) tunnel and associated tunneling works from the Exposition to the Don Yard portal (west of the Don River).
• Groundwork required to build the tunnels and stations; tooling and wiring to prepare the mechanical and electrical systems; and guideway structures and facilities to prepare the track structure to be installed by the RSSOM contractor (Connect 6ix).
• Stations: An above-ground station to be integrated with the existing GO Transit Exhibition Station; two subway stations to be integrated with the existing TTC Osgoode and Queen subway stations; and four new tube stations (King/Bathurst, Queen/Spadina, Moss Park, Corktown).

The C$10.9 billion Ontario Line project is being delivered via various contracts, procured through P3 and traditional procurement models, according to Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx.