Good to see that PSDs are incorporated into the final renders. Does that mean they are obligated to provide them in the final construction?
They are essential to have driverless operation, so yes they will happen. They also have a huge ventilation and fire safety benefit, because the passenger areas are separated from the tunnels/trains.

(yes, you can achieve driverless without them, but then you've gotta have sensors, cameras etc etc - PSDs are easier for UTO)
 
The platform renders instantly gives me MTR/Chinese metro vibes. It’s a very standard design that they use. I’m sure that the cost of platform doors are very much reasonable nowadays that they are constantly produced on a large scale for ever expanding subway systems/high speed rail in China and other places that have MTR as design partner.

Unless Ontario decides to reinvent the wheel again...typical of provincial projects.
 
Absolutely zero chance of PSDs being omitted, I think. They want to be able to operate this at sub 90s headways, and PSDs aren't all that expensive if they are designed for when building the platforms.
Yeah, I think often people forget that the issue the TTC is running into with adding PSDs to existing stations is that aside from TYSSE, they weren't built for them, not that PSDs are some high-cost item on their own. The existing station platforms have a crawlspace under them (which means the platforms are cantilevered to some extent, and adding PSDs requires putting structural supports under the edges of the platform to support the weight of the doors. Plus I think for a number of stations, that work is gonna end up with them doing a bunch of asbestos removal during the process. All of which drives the costs way up for the existing stations (also the TTC weirdly always frames PSDs as something they need to do in every station simultaneously, which also produces the high total cost they always quote).

None of those issues will exist here, so there's no good reason to cut the doors. Overall, they'll likely create greater operational savings than they cost in the first place. Even if this line ends up heavily VE'd the savings would be far more likely to come from fit and finishes than something actually functional like PSDs.
 
Exciting. Major construction starts in the spring - this is the largest single contract for the OL I believe. Very, very good news. It's almost surreal to see the line finally starting after so many decades of discussion. This line has literally been on maps more or less in it's current form since the 1960's.

More like 1910...
 
Tunneling under downtown Toronto and building complex interchange stations, I am actually understanding the ~$1B/km pricetag.

The stations aren't all that complex. I'd argue the Eglinton crosstown had more complex underpinning and direct access designs than the Ontario Line. With deep tunnel boring, and 5 levels of stairs/elevators between Line 1 and the Ontario Line.
 
News
Ontario Transit Group has been selected to deliver the south portion of the Ontario Line
I guess this all but confirms the line will not open until 2030 at the earliest? Did I read that correctly?
 
The stations aren't all that complex. I'd argue the Eglinton crosstown had more complex underpinning and direct access designs than the Ontario Line. With deep tunnel boring, and 5 levels of stairs/elevators between Line 1 and the Ontario Line.
I think it's less the station complexity and more the environment the tunnel is going under being far more complex that contributes somewhat to the costs. There's way more tall buildings to avoid having an impact on, there's the fact it doesn't stay aligned to a single street like Eglinton does, it runs below PATH tunnels, the tunnel itself is deeper, etc. That said, it's still a pretty complex job to add that many concourse levels and escalators to Queen station while keeping it operational and not having any impact on the surroundings buildings. If Metrolinx caused the south end of the Eaton Centre to fall into a sinkhole, that would look pretty bad on them, so they probably wanna avoid that.
 
Unfortunately the appointed team doesn't really have a standout design / architect team - it's just giant multinational engineering companies, really.
Ferrovial and VINCI are well regarded around the world - with many, many major projects.

The Ontario Transit Group team includes:
  • Applicant Lead: Ferrovial Construction Canada Inc., VINCI Construction Grands Projets
  • Design Team: AECOM Canada Ltd., COWI North America Ltd., GHD Limited, SENER Group
  • Construction Team: Ferrovial Construction Canada Inc., Janin Atlas Inc.
  • Financial Advisor: Agentis Capital
 

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