Actually, taking a second look at the RFQ, the first RFQ for "Rolling Stock, Systems, Operations and Maintenance (RSSOM)" does include the Maintenance and Storage Facilities.
The contract for RSSOM includes,
"Design, build, operate and maintain the Operations, Maintenance and Storage Facility (where the vehicles are stored); the Operations Control Centre (where staff control train operations and are connected to TTC and GO Transit systems); and the Backup Operations Control Centre"
Requests-for-Qualifications-Issued-for-Ontario-Line
The IO website doesn't actually define where the MSF is supposed to be located, however. If those details aren't in the full RFQ, I suppose it's up to the contractor to define the MSF location.
Good find. At the time I wrote my piece, the RFQ wasn't online; I was going solely on the Ben Spurr article.
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Of course without an identified, acquired/optioned site for the MSF, one can't cost the connection from said facility to the line itself.
Assuming you have competitive bidders; do they all get to 'option' the same site?
That's assuming its do-able w/o expropriation.
Land acquisition is not something typically transferred to the private sector, so Metrolinx would expropriate and identify the MSF first. The contractor would optimize the design within the site.
I would agree, except you need to choose the rolling stock in order to know what site configuration works.
This is (one) of the problems laid out in this strategy.
There are so many holes at this point.
Let's say that the intention is still to build the MSF in the Leaside area. How are the private partners to design and price that MSF, when the details of the segment between Eglinton and Gerrard won't be known for
at least another two and a half years or so?
I suppose the winning contract for the MSF would design just the MSF itself. The companies responsible for the Gerrard to Eglinton segment (who won't be selected for another 2.5 years, at least) would then be responsible for figuring out how to connect their segment to the MSF. But what if we later end up discovering that connecting the mainline to the MSF is very expensive or not feasible (we've previously discussed how building an MSF and connecting it to the mainline in that area would not be trivial due to the topography). Or what if the Gerrard to Eglinton segment ends up being astronomically expensive for whatever reason, and the government decides to not move forward... would we end up with an "orphaned" MSF? Heck, how do we even select an MSF location if we don't know where the mainline will be, or how they will connect? Designing the MSF before designing the network in the area of the MSF is very much putting the cart before the horse.
A more logical way to break up the contracts for this project, in my opinion, would be (and again, this assumes that the MSF will be at Leaside):
1. Contract for the Leaside MSF
2. Contract for the segment between Eglinton and Osgoode
3. Contract for the segment between Osgoode and Exhibition
This setup would allow the Leaside MSF to be designed and built concurrently with its connection to the mainline. It would also allow that third contract (Osgoode to Exhibition) to be canceled, without orphaning the MSF. Overall, it would appear to be a far less risky approach.
Now, what I suggested above is assuming that Metrolinx genuinely intends to build the full Ontario Line, as proposed. I'm not convinced that's their intention (and I hate that we have to speculate about their intentions, but alas...).
If Metrolinx only intends for the Ontario Line to relieve RER and Union Station, the contract sequencing they announced today makes perfect sense, as that line would span Exhibition to Don River (Unilever), utilizing Don Yard for maintenance and storage. I suspect the this has always been Metrolinx's primary goal with the Ontario Line, as the OL proposal never had the capacity nor scope to significantly relieve the Yonge Line in the first place, and also given that Metrolinx as explored several "Union/RER relief" proposals in the past. Building the Ontario Line between Exhibition and Don River seems to be a natural evolution of that old proposal to build an underground RER tunnel thru Downtown.
