OTTAWA — More than 50 parties have made initial inquiries regarding the High Frequency Rail project, the plan to build a passenger-only right-of-way for VIA Rail Canada’s Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City corridor, Transport Canada said Monday in announcing the next step in the government’s procurement process to develop that corridor.
The initial step, the Request for Expressions of Interest, began in March 2022 [see “Transport Canada inches forward …,” Trains News Wire, March 10, 2022]. It resulted in responses from 54 parties, the agency said, including requests for clarification on some aspects of the project and suggestions for improvements in the government’s procurement process, such as a shorter period for the Request for Proposal period.
“We’re pleased with the market’s interest in this project and in the Government obtaining over 50 responses from interested parties,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a press release. “Feedback from these parties was critical in making this project even better and will be used to move the next phase of the project forward – the request for qualifications.”
That phase is expected to begin in early 2023. Changes and clarifications to the procurement project resulting from the initial responses are available at the High Frequency Rail website.
Mais oui, mes chers amis canadiens, alors eh? We have a new category of delusion, not <> tout comme aux Etats-Unis, je dis <> ici au Canada. High frequency rail! What would high frequency rail be on VIA? Five times a week, n’est-ce pas? Peut-etre every day? Maple Leaf Forever!
Machine dropped a number of characters. Apaprently the machine doesn’t recognize French punctuation. The quotations are respectively “HSR” … “HFR”. Eh?