TorontoA?ai??i??ai???s Airport Link in Public Hands After Collapse of PPP Deal – From the Transport Politic
Interesting news as the same players are involved with the RAV/Canada Line. Makes one think what secret sweeteners the province used to masquerade the Canada Line as a P-3?
This must bode ill for the Evergreen Line financing, as the government wants to induce business to invest in a P-3 arrangement to find the final $400 million investment to build the gold-plated metro line.
Oh yes, just $400 million would finance a Vancouver to Coquitlam/Port Moody, Maple Ridge TramTrain service!
TorontoA?ai??i??ai???s Airport Link in Public Hands After Collapse of PPP Deal
In pulling out, engineering firm SNC-Lavalin cites concerns that project wasnA?ai??i??ai???t going to have its operations subsidized.
For investors interested in infrastructure projects these days, there is apparently a lot of low-hanging fruit to pick. This, at least, is the argument made by MontrA?Ai??al-based contractor and engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, which has pulled out of a years-long commitment to operating TorontoA?ai??i??ai???s planned airport connection train because the regional transportation authority refused to subsidize the service.
The construction of a new two-mile corridor between an existing rail track and the airport was to be fully paid for by government investment. The Canadian federal government pushed a public-private partnership (PPP) deal for the projectA?ai??i??ai???s operation in the early 1990s in exchange for a commitment for national funds to back up local money.
According to an SNC-Lavalin spokesman, A?ai??i??Ai??When there are so many other infrastructure projects that are proceeding at this time, the banks are not interested in projects without a fixed income stream.A?ai??i??A? This leaves regional transit agency Metrolinx in charge of the programA?ai??i??ai???s implementation and responsible to pay for operating shortfalls if necessary. Other transportation organizations hoping that assembling a PPP will allow for a transit operation with no public subsidy should put their dreams in check.
For the rest of the story………
Wasn’t $400m the initial estimated cost that Toronto was supposed to chip in?