Alstom has been awarded a contract worth over 230 million EUR by Metrolinx, the regional transportation agency for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, to equip the Union Station Rail Corridor (USRC) with a new signalling system due to be installed in 2019.

The scope of the project includes the planning, design, manufacture, delivery, installation, testing and commissioning of a new and complete modernized signalling system. It will consist of a wayside signal system based on Alstom’s Integrated Vital Processor Interlocking (iVPI®) technology, Alstom switch machines and all associated and supporting electrical, power and communications sub-systems.

The new signalling system will increase the reliability of the system and provide Metrolinx increased control and maintainability for years to come. Moreover, it will guarantee maximum passenger safety and flow, while decreasing maintenance costs for the operator.

The USRC is a 6.4 km long complex network for which a signalling system has been installed in the 1920s. Union Station in Toronto, part of USRC, is the largest passenger train station in Canada and the second largest in North America – with over 250,000 people per day; it connects multiple modes of transportation: commuter, intercity, subway, streetcar and bus. With passenger traffic expected to double over the next 20 years, modernization of the station’s original signalling equipment is essential.

Components of the new signalling system will be manufactured at Alstom’s North American centre for signalling and control systems located in Rochester, NY. At its peak, the project will employ in excess of 100 people and has the potential to create approximately 50 new jobs. Alstom has been offering signalling solutions to Canadian transit customers for years, most recently to Toronto Transit Commission and Société de Transport de Montréal.