Work is progressing fairly satisfactorily on Edmonton, Alberta’s eight-mile Valley Line LRT, the city’s first low-floor operation. Meanwhile, LRV deliveries to major LRT projects in Ontario are proceeding more or less on schedule.
RAILWAY AGE, DECEMBER 2019 ISSUE: If legendary New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra were to ride Ottawa’s new Confederation Line, he would say—provided he was familiar with the old North Shore’s Electroliners or Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Co.’s Liberty Liners—“It’s déjà vu all over again.”
Alstom Canada has leased a large industrial building in Brampton, Ontario, northwest of Toronto, for the assembly of its Citadis Spirit LRVs. Debro Steel formerly occupied the building, located on the south side of CN’s east-west access line that serves MacMillan Yard, Toronto’s main classification yard.
Metrolinx, the Ontario Government’s transit agency, has dropped its appeal of the court decision earlier this year that had prevented the authority from cancelling a C$770 million order with Bombardier for 182 Flexity Freedom LRVs.
Progress has been made on Metrolinx’s plan to electrify the GO Transit regional/commuter rail network. Meanwhile, major delays and controversy mark Bombardier’s streetcar contract with the Toronto Transit Commission.
In the wake of Bombardier Transportation’s ongoing problems with light rail vehicles it’s building for various Ontario LRT projects, the purported combination of the railway businesses of Siemens and Bombardier appears to have taken on an interesting twist. This folllows the filing of an official protest letter by Siemens Canada with Ontario’s Transportation Minister over Metrolinx’s awarding of a single-source LRV contract to Alstom.
RIDEAU Transit Group (RTG) has awarded Alstom a $C 300m ($US 227m) contract to supply 38 Citadis Spirit low-floor LRVs for the Stage 2 O-Train light rail expansion project in Ottawa, Ontario, which received federal funding on June 16.
Alstom and Metrolinx of Canada announced a C$529-million ($388-million) order for 61 Citadis Spirit light rail vehicles for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.
Ottawa’s O-Train Confederation Line LRT project attained a major milestone on Dec. 2 as the first of 34 Alstom Citadis Spirit LRVs began testing on the line segment between Blair and Cyrville stations, during a ceremonial launch.
