Green Line Board and City award contract for LRV supplier

The Green Line Board and The City have selected CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) as the supplier of our new fleet of Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) for the Green Line LRT Project.

The contract includes 28 modern low floor LRVs that will improve accessibility, reduce station footprint and enhance safety for pedestrians and vehicles. Low floor LRV technology has been the standard in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand for decades. It is now becoming the choice for many new LRT systems across Canada and the United States including Ottawa, Waterloo, Toronto, Portland and Minneapolis and marks an exciting step for Calgary’s transit network.

The robust competitive procurement process, which began in February 2019, was overseen by a third-party fairness monitor throughout the RFQ and RFP process.

“Awarding this contract is a major project milestone and step forward in delivering Calgary’s next LRT,” said Darshpreet Bhatti, Green Line CEO. “CAF’s proposal met all of the City’s technical and commercial requirements and their Urbos 100 LRVs offer proven modern low-floor technology adding excellent value for Calgarians. CAF in an industry leader and this new fleet will provide Calgary with a world class transit option.”

The contract also includes the ability for The City to procure additional vehicles for future Green Line stages along with tools and support for operating and maintaining this new fleet.

"CAF is extremely grateful to the City of Calgary for choosing our Company as a major partner for the future Green Line LRT Project, the City's most important infrastructure project to date,” said Jesús Esnaola Altuna, CAF General Chief Sales Officer “We are extremely committed and enthusiastic about this Project and would like to draw attention to the transparency of the bidding process as well as the professionalism shown by Calgary’s project team,”

Green Line is the first project CAF will complete in Canada and follows more than 40 projects that the CAF Group is currently working on across five continents.

The awarding of the LRV contract is an exciting milestone for Green Line and with the updated procurement schedule for the Phase 1 main construction DBF, charts a strong path forward for the project.

As the largest infrastructure project in Calgary’s history, Green Line has $4.9B in funding commitments from the Government of Canada, Government of Alberta and the City of Calgary.  With the alignment of all funding partners in July 2021, Green Line is moving forward with delivering Phase 1 of the project, from Shepard to Eau Claire. Phase 2 of the Council-approved plan, from Eau Claire to 16 Avenue N., will proceed if cost of escalation and other risks do not materialize in Phase 1.

Phase 1 of Green Line will connect more than 55,000 riders to Calgary’s transit network and create almost 20,000 jobs throughout construction.

For more information on Green Line, please visit: www.calgary.ca/greenline.

Green Line LRV renderings and video of CAF Urbos 100 vehicles can be viewed here.