Recommended LRT bid comes in at $593.7 million

CTV Kitchener: $1.7-billion total Building and operating rapid transit in Waterloo Region for 30 years will cost $1.7 billion. David Imrie has details.

$593 million to GrandLinq. $225 million for construction costs. $901 million for operating, maintaining and financing.

Add it all up, and rapid transit will cost the Region of Waterloo $1.7 billion over 30 years.

That’s assuming regional councillors approve GrandLinq, and not Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge Transit Partners or Tricity Transit System, as the consortium to design, build, operate, maintain and finance the Ion system.

GrandLinq was revealed Friday as the preferred bidder as selected by a regional working group.

The choice must still be ratified next week by the region’s planning and works committee, and later in March by regional councillors.

But to hear Kitchener Coun. Tom Galloway tell it, GrandLinq is the perfect choice.

“If you go through, one-by-one, the major partners, it’s a really accomplished group who have done projects of this magnitude and much bigger around the world,” he tells CTV News.

A number of companies make up GrandLinq, including construction company Aecon, infrastructure investor Meridiam and global public transit operator Keolis.

The consortium’s bid featured a total capital construction cost of just over $593.7 million,which the region says is close to its cost estimates and fits within the project’s $818-million capital budget.

The proposal also includes payments of slightly more than $4.5 million per year to maintain the Ion infrastructure over a 30-year period, and just over $4 million per year for 10 years – with the option to renew the deal in 5-year increments – to operate the system.

In total, the non-capital costs of the project – related to financing, operating, maintaining and insuring the system – come to $901.5 million over 30 years, or $30 million a year, with many of those costs subject to inflation.

“It’s a real advantage to council to know now what the system will cost over 30 years,” says Craig Dyer, the region’s chief financial officer.

Galloway says the cost works out to $11 per year over seven years – three of which have already taken place – for the average regional taxpayer.

Tim Mollison of transportation advocacy group TriTAG says

“We’re really pleased to see that the region, once again, has delivered on its commitment to be … on-time and on-budget,” he tells CTV News.

Not so happy is Jay Aissa, the owner of a Waterloo fencing company and creator of an online petition against Ion which has gathered 2,300 signatures.

Aissa says he doesn’t think the project will be either on-time or on-budget, doesn’t want to see the region take on “another $600 million in debt” and thinks councillors are moving ahead without public backing.

“If you want to give it away and sign the deal, just wait for the election,” he says.

“What’s the rush? Another four or five months isn’t going to make a difference.”

The two bidders that are not selected will receive payments of $200,000 to offset their costs.

Construction on light rail transit is scheduled to begin later this year, with trains up and running by 2017.

Bombardier-constructed light rail vehicles will run along a 19-kilometre track between Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener and Conestoga Mall in Waterloo, with a total of 16 stops.