Quebec Railway Company Rail SEC (Qc Rail) has awarded a consortium of SNC-Lavalin and Norda Stelo a two-year contract to undertake pre-feasibility and feasibility studies to assess the technical and economic viability
SNC Lavalin wholly owned subsidiary TransitNEXT has selected Siemens Mobility to provide the signaling and train control system for Ottawa’s 10-mile, eight-station Trillium Line South Extension project. The contract also includes updating the existing Trillium Line’s signaling system and installing ATP (Automatic Train Protection) technology on the entire network. ATP “will be increasingly important, given the higher ridership levels expected with the Trillium Line’s new South Extension and the connection to Ottawa’s Macdonald-Cartier International Airport,” Siemens noted. The project is expected to be completed in 2022.
Adding to the flotsam swirling around the once-unsinkable SNC-Lavalin, the engineering company’s credit rating went overboard Aug. 20 when S&P Global Markets downgraded its debt to junk. This followed, by days, the ruling of a federal ethics watchdog that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke conflict-of-interest law when he tried to spare the company from prosecution for bribery.
The viability of one of Canada’s largest rail engineering companies is in question as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau struggles against accusations of obstruction of justice in allegedly attempting to spare the company from a corruption trial.
