 Hey everyone, and wow, this is the second time I get to make a video like this this year. One of the most exciting transit projects for me personally has long been Toronto's Ontario Line Subway, which is a new automated downtown line through Toronto. I've talked about this project a lot of times, including this somewhat questionably produced analysis from literally the day it was announced. Oh, how far we've come. The issue with the Ontario Line is quite literally from the day it was announced. People were suggesting that it probably wasn't going Fortunately, today is the day that I think we can put those fears to rest. And we've learned a ton of new exciting stuff about this transit project. So let's dive in. If you enjoy my videos on transit from Toronto to Zurich to Sydney, consider supporting the channel on Patreon. You can find it at the link down below. So what have we found out today, or yesterday, when you're watching this video? Well, the Ontario Line has been broken into three contracts. The RSSOM contract, the North Civils, and the South Civils. South Civils is the fairly long five and a half kilometer downtown tunnel and the approaches on either side. While North Civils is everything to the north of that, including the elevated portions of the line, the sections running adjacent to go transit on the surface and another tunneled section. The RSSOM contract, also known as rolling stock operations and maintenance, is the trains maintenance facility and other operational things. The idea here was to turn one large project into three smaller projects. That way, a wider variety of companies would be able to come in and bid on the project. Since one large project is more expensive and has more risk than a smaller project, more companies can bid on a smaller project, hopefully driving more competition and a better project. And yesterday, we learned the winners of the two most important of those contracts, the South Civils and the RSSOM contract. Now, you're probably wondering why were these contracts awarded before the North contract? And I believe the reason simply comes down to complexity. The most complex parts of the project need to get moving first so that the entire project can be finished sooner. If you started with the easiest part, which is hypothetically the elevated portions to the north of the line, well then it could be done, but if the rest of the line isn't done, then you can't open the line. So start with the hardest parts first. What's interesting is who won. The construction of the tunnels through the downtown core will be handled by Ferrovial and Vinci, the former of which has built metros in Spain as well as the Farringdon Crossrail Station, which is a very nice station. While the latter is working on the Grand Paris Express project as well as the O-Train expansion in Ottawa, which we covered in a previous video this year. What's so interesting is that the train manufacturer here is quite unexpected. I personally was pretty confident Alstom was going to win this project, given their building trains for a project very similar to the Ontario line just a few hours away in Montreal, the REM. They've also built trains in recent years for the Grand Paris Express and the Sydney Metro, so they kind of seemed like an obvious winner, especially considering their Canadian connections. Siemens was also vying for the project, which makes sense because they're a major rolling stock manufacturer, and they would have been pretty cool to see since they haven't done as many automated metro projects as Alstom in recent years. They've also done the new Via Rail trains and lots of light rail projects in Alberta. But instead, the winner is Hitachi with its driverless metro technology. Now if you're a seasoned RM Transit viewer, this probably isn't a huge surprise, since Hitachi actually has a ton of experience with automated metro systems, like in for example Taipei with the Circle Line. Their train should be a great option for Toronto, and fortunately I haven't heard of any major issues in any of the cities they're currently operating in, which include Copenhagen, Milan, Rome, Brescia, Taipei, and soon Honolulu. Now you might have heard about problems with Honolulu's rail project, but it doesn't really have to do with the trains so much as the other parts of the project. Another thing I should dispel, Hitachi makes a variety of different driverless metro trains, and the ones used on some systems like Copenhagen and the Milan Metro, which we talked about in a recent video, are famously very tiny and cute, kind of similar in size to Vancouver's Canterline. The specifications and trains for the Ontario Line call for much larger vehicles, up to 100 meters long in either 4 or 5 cars, meaning there'll be more kin in size to a traditional Toronto or New York subway car. Hitachi has built driverless trains like this for Rome's line seat, which are probably the best indicator right now of what we might be seeing in the future in Toronto. And I have to say, they are beautiful and very spacious, perfect for the heavy loads and short trips that will likely predominate on the Ontario Line given its many connections. Rome, much like Taipei's Circle Line, and unlike other driverless metro systems from Hitachi, uses overhead wire power, which is something we're also going to see on the Ontario Line, and is quite unique for a metro in North America. I should also mention that WeBuild Group is working with Hitachi to deliver the project, and that's interesting because they also helped deliver the projects in Copenhagen and Milan, which were quite successful. As it turns out, a lot of the same teams that bid successfully on Toronto's regional rail transformation also bid on the Ontario Line project, so we will be seeing their handiwork over there, but not on this project specifically. The team also had an interesting addition though. Singapore's MRT was also working with them. They're not going to be working on this project, but that would have been very interesting and maybe they'll work on the Ontario Line too? That's not a thing, just so you know. With these contracts getting signed soon, I'd say at this point there's basically a 100% chance that the Ontario Line is getting built, and that is a huge deal. The downtown subway bottleneck has existed for literally decades in Toronto, and this line will be popular from day one. And interestingly, it's also the only entirely new subway line that's currently going to be built through a downtown in North America. There are other projects that go through the downtown cores of cities, and there are other projects which are subway projects, but neither create entirely new lines that do both, and I think that's really interesting. Now, this is a huge project not only because it will allow more people to travel into downtown, but also around downtown, and that will allow Toronto City Centre, which is already one of the most populated in North America, to grow even larger. Downtown has traditionally stretched north-south along the young and university subway lines, but now more than ever, it can also stretch east-west along Queen Street and the Ontario Line, and that means a lot more housing and interesting things for people in Toronto to do. It'll also take places that have traditionally been kind of hard to get to from anywhere in the region, like Corktown and Queen and Spadina, and put them within an easy ride on our newest subway. This is also going to be a huge boost for climate resiliency projects like the Portlands, which is to some degree anchored by Toronto's own Canary Wharf at East Harbor, which will connect the Ontario Line with massively improved ghost service and a really large new satellite CBD. This will also be the highest capacity automated metro in North America. The REM comes close, but the Ontario Line's trains will be larger. All stations will also feature platform screen doors, which is a first for Toronto. The UP Express has them, but only at two stations. And I think it's fair to say that by the time the Ontario Line is completed, Toronto will probably have the third best rapid transit system in North America, bested only by New York and Mexico City, which are both actually really good systems despite the problems they do face. It's also going to be incredibly exciting for furthering the transition of Toronto away from being a car-centric city and towards being one where you don't need to live with a car. While also opening up transit as an option for so many more trips and so many more people, helping to add more people who will advocate for better transit service and coverage. I'm excited, but this is just the beginning for this massive project. Thanks for watching.