Ottawa city officials are expected to announce on April 21 a preferred bidder for the C$725m project to develop a 31 km light rail line between Rideau Centre and Barrhaven, serving 34 stops. SNC Lavalin/Bombardier, Kiewit-Ellisdon/ Kinki Sharyo, and PCL/Dufferin Construction/Siemens submitted financial offers on March 3, having lodged technical proposals three weeks earlier.
Montréal transport authority AMT has unveiled a C$1·2bn package of public transport investment for the next three years, including C$828m for commuter rail expansion and C$312m for the metro. Top priority is a C$253m commuter rail route to Mascouche, followed by a rail link to Dorval airport and extension of the Blue Line from Snowdon to St Michel and Anjou. Mayor Gerald Tremblay hopes to build a light rail line along Park Avenue from Old Montréal to Jean Talon station within four years at a cost of C$500m.
The three shortlisted bidders for construction of the Tel Aviv Red Line submitted their tenders on February 27. Chairman of the metro company NTA Benny Waknin hopes to name a preferred bidder within three months. Subject to financial close, construction of the 22 km route between Petach Tikva and Bat Yam with 11 km of tunnel is expected to start in mid-2007 for opening in 2013.
Chicago Transit Authority is planning to launch a new Silver Line in July, initially for six months, in a bid to improve metro services to the western suburbs. Trains from the Cermak branch of the Blue Line will be re-routed over the 1·2 km Paulina connector to join the Green Line and terminate on the elevated loop in the city centre. This will free up capacity on the route to O’Hare via the Dearborn Street subway for a more intensive service on the Blue Line’s Forest Park branch.
Transport for London subsidiary Docklands Light Railway Ltd confirmed on March 8 that it had awarded a £400m franchise to Serco for operation and maintenance of the DLR network for seven years from May 28 2006. Serco has been operating the DLR network since April 1997. Tunnelling is due to start this month for the £180m DLR extension under the River Thames to Woolwich Arsenal; trains are expected to start running on the 2·5 km extension in 2009.
On February 28 Transport Initiatives Edinburgh Ltd announced that Alstom, Bombardier, CAF and Siemens had been invited to tender for a contract to supply and maintain rolling stock for the Edinburgh light rail project. TIE hopes to order the rolling stock later this year and start construction of an initial Leith Waterfront - Haymarket - Edinburgh Airport route in 2007 under a single framework contract which went out to tender on February 24.
