Voice of Business: Passenger Rail Service One Step Closer
/Passenger rail service to Peterborough and beyond has cleared another stage toward construction.
Transport Canada announced on July 20 that the Request for Qualifications it issued back in April had concluded and three proponents were selected as eligible to bid on the upcoming Request for Proposals.
The project will link Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montréal, Trois-Rivières, and Québec City with regular passenger rail service on dedicated passenger lines. It will require hundreds of kilometres of new track, refurbishment of old rail beds, new or improved crossings at every road it crosses, agreements with property owners, new stations, and a lot of planning. Creating a proposal for a project of this scale will require significant resources, which is why each of the three proponents are conglomerates made up of large construction and transportation industry companies.
The following groups have been invited to move to the Request for Proposals (RFP) stage:
Cadence (CDPQ Infra, SNC-Lavalin, Systra Canada, Keolis Canada)
Intercity Rail Developers (Intercity Development Partners, EllisDon Capital, Kilmer Transportation, First Rail Holdings, Jacobs, Hatch, CIMA+, First Group, RATP Dev Canada, Renfe Operadora)
QConnexiON Rail Partners (Fengate, John Laing, Bechtel, WSP Canada, Deutsche Bahn)