Ontario issues two RFQs for new subway line, kick-starting $10.9B building project

The Toronto Transit Commission will be responsible for the day-to-day operations on the new subway line

Queen’s Park is barreling ahead with plans to get tunnel boring machines moving dirt beneath Toronto for a new subway line.

Provincial transit agencies Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx have issued request for qualifications for two P3 contracts tied to the Ontario Line, which will run north/south through the east end of the city before looping west toward downtown.

The project, estimated at $10.9 billion, is the largest component of the province’s decade-long transit expansion plan expected to cost nearly $30 billion. An altered version of the so-called Relief Line, which had been planned by the City of Toronto, the Ontario Line will run 15.5 kilometres and include 15 proposed stations.

“The Ontario Line is one of the most significant transit infrastructure projects for Ontario in a generation,” Laurie Scott, the province’s minister of Infrastructure, said in a release. “Moving forward with these procurement contracts signals the government remains committed to building much needed transit infrastructure to reduce congestion and contribute to the economic recovery and renewal of our province.”

The pair of RFQs cover two aspects of the project. One includes construction on the stations, tunnel and other civil work required for the southern segment of the line, the other covers the entire rail line’s rolling stock, systems, operations and maintenance. Infrastructure Ontario said it plans to shortlist qualified teams for both scopes of work and issue RFPs by this fall.

The province’s transit network plan before the proposed Ontario Line | Click to enlarge

A third contract for the northern stations, tunnel and related construction is not expected to be issued until 2022.

Running from the Ontario Science Centre at roughly Eglinton Avenue and Don Mills Road, to Ontario Place on Toronto’s waterfront southwest of downtown, the line is designed to improve transit coverage and relieve some of the pressure on the Yonge subway line, which faces overcrowding.

The trio of P3 contracts will cover the majority of the Ontario Line project, but transit planners are also working on a series of smaller, related contracts that will cover early works, such as bridge, track and other prep activities. IO said it will tender these contracts later this year.

Along with issuing the RFQ, the Ontario government challenged Ottawa to contribute to the project.

“To build projects of this magnitude, however, we need everyone at the table,” Kinga Surma, the associate Minister of Transportation, said in a release. “We are calling on the federal government to commit to paying their fair share, at least 40 per cent of the four nationally-significant subway projects.”

When announcing its $28.5 billion transit expansion plan last spring, Premier Doug Ford said the province would “backstop” the projects itself if other levels of government did not step up.

The province has faced criticism for scrapping the better studied, city-led Relief Line in favour of the Ontario Line.