Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx have awarded a contract to Connect 6ix valued at $9B ($2.3B for capital costs and $6.7B for short-term construction financing and transaction costs, train costs and 30-year operations and maintenance, lifecycle, and long-term financing). The Connect 6ix team will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Ontario Line Rolling Stock, Systems, Operations and Maintenance (RSSOM) package for a 30-year term.
The Connect 6ix team includes:
- Applicant Lead: Plenary Americas, Hitachi Rail, Webuild Group (Salini Impreglio Canada Holding Inc.), Transdev Canada Inc.
- Design Team: Hitachi Rail, IBI Group Professional Services (Canada) Inc.
- Construction Team: Hitachi Rail, Webuild Group (Astaldi Canada Design & Construction Inc. and Salini Impreglio Civil Works Inc.), NGE Contracting Inc.
- Operations, Maintenance and Rehabilitation Team: Hitachi Rail, Transdev Canada Inc.
- Financial Advisors: National Bank Financial Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
“These important steps forward in procurement mean we are even closer to giving communities across Toronto a new subway line that will take 28,000 cars off the road each day and also ease congestion across the existing transit network – reducing crowding by as much as 22 per cent at Bloor-Yonge subway station and 14 per cent at Union subway station. With connections to more than 40 other transit routes along the way, the Ontario Line will make it easier than ever for Torontonians to choose transit first,” said Phil Verster,
president and CEO of Metrolinx.
“We are pleased to arrive at the end of an exceptionally competitive set of procurements which attracted leading firms from around the world. We have worked tirelessly as a team, engaging the market to understand how best to procure these works even as the world dealt with an unprecedented set of conditions and challenges. As we move forward with more procurements, we will continue to think deliberately about project packaging and risk as we work with our partners to implement the government’s historic plan for subways in the GTHA,” said Michael Lindsay, president and CEO of Infrastructure Ontario.
The team will begin mobilizing their design and construction crews, with work to commence in 2023. The project is anticipated to be completed in 2031. Once all the civil infrastructure elements and systems from Ontario Line North and South segments have been completed, integrated and certified, Connect 6ix will then begin operating and maintaining the Ontario Line for a 30-year term.
The Ontario Line RSSOM package is a design, build, finance, operate, maintain contract that covers a 30-year term. It includes:
- Designing, supplying, operating and maintaining the rolling stock (trains)
- Designing, building, operating and maintaining all track and systems (communications and train control)
- Designing, building, operating and maintaining the Maintenance and Storage Facility (where the trains are stored) and the Operations Control Centre (where staff control train operations and are connected to TTC and GO Transit systems) and backup operations control centre
- Working collaboratively with TTC according to future operations and maintenance agreements
- Integrating fare equipment with the PRESTO system
“As a world leader in autonomous metro systems, we’re hugely excited to help transform Toronto’s transit network by delivering the new Ontario Line. This will be the second major program that we’ll be bring our digital expertise and engineering excellence to deliver in Canada, after the Hurontario the light rail transit project,” said Andrew Barr, Group CEO, Hitachi Rail.
”Because of the worldwide scope of our operations, Transdev is very familiar with public-private partnerships for building transit,” said Arthur Nicolet, CEO Transdev Canada. ”This approach involves the operator at the earliest stage of the design process and ensures the sustainability of the system over the long-term. Being awarded a 30-year commitment to operate the line, we are more than keenly interested in ensuring the final product delivers on all of the expectations for riders.”
The Ontario Line project is being delivered through various P3, progressive design-build and traditional procurement contracts, which are all being staged accordingly for their successful delivery.
Metrolinx and IO also announced the issuing of two Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the Ontario Line North segment. The North segment will be delivered through four packages of work: two smaller early works contracts and two major works contracts. The RFQs issued today are for the major works contracts.
Pape Tunnel and Underground Stations – Progressive Design-Build contract
- Three kilometres of twin tunnels underneath Pape Avenue between the Gerrard portal and the Don Valley bridge
- Underpinning of the existing TTC Pape Station on Line 2.
- Two underground stations (Pape and Cosburn) and two portals
- Three emergency exit buildings/emergency services buildings
- A rail switch/crossover in the section of tunnel near Sammon Avenue
- Interface with Line 2 TTC subway
Elevated Guideway and Stations – Progressive Design-Build contract
- Three kilometres of an elevated guideway (tracks and bridge structures)
- Five elevated stations (Riverside-Leslieville, Gerrard, Thorncliffe Park, Flemingdon Park, Science Centre)
- One emergency exit building
- Interface with the maintenance and storage facility
- Interfaces with Eglinton Crosstown LRT Line 5 as well as sections of existing Metrolinx-owned rail corridor where Ontario Line trains will operate
The Ontario Line will be a 15.6-kilometre new rapid transit line running between the Ontario Science Centre and Exhibition/Ontario Place in Toronto, with 15 stations, including six interchange stations. The new line will provide more than 40 connections to other subway, bus, streetcar, light-rail transit and regional rail services. When in service, the Ontario Line will be operated by Connect 6ix and owned by the Provincial transit agency Metrolinx.
Featured image: Rendering of an Ontario Line subway train car’s front exterior. (Metrolinx)
