At the end of February 2023, Quebec City has announced that Alstom has been selected preferred bidder to deliver the trams for the future tramway system. The fleet will be built in Alstom’s La Pocatière plant in Quebec (a former Bombardier Transportation plant) while the engineering and design will be headed from the Alstom headquarters in St-Bruno-de-Montarville near Montreal. The official contract signature has not taken place yet, as the city government and Alstom are still in final negotiations. This is also the reason why the cost of the contract has not been disclosed yet. However, the overall tram project has currently an estimated cost of 3.965 billion Canadian dollars (ca 2.7 billion Euros).
Alstom will deliver low-floor 7-car trams. Whether the vehicles are a new development or based on the European Citadis or on the former Bombardier Flexity tram design, has not been disclosed yet.
The call for tenders started in April 2022 and was closed in September. Only two rolling stock suppliers, Alstom and Siemens, participated in the tender. After the withdrawal of Siemens, the room was left alone for Alstom to design, supply and maintain Quebec’s future tramway for 30 years.
The new tram line
The tram line will serve 29 stations along a 19.3 km route between Cap-Rouge and D’Estimauville. Each tram will have a capacity of 260 passengers and will run at a frequency of less than 8 minutes during rush hour. The light rail system will be entirely built as right-of-way. After lengthy discussions, the final alignment has now been fixed and construction work has started in autumn 2022. A former streetcar system existed in the city between 1897 and 1948.
It should also be noted that the citizens of Quebec absolutely do not want a tramway. For the Town Hall, the tramway is a weapon in the context of the war on the car.
It should be noted that you are totally wrong since 45% of the population wants it. For this kind of project 45% approval is insanely high. Once it is built habitually the approval rate double or triple.
Alstom was the sole bidder after Siemens’ bid withdrew