Contract awarded for Trinidad and Tobago railway

International Railway Journal, May, 2008

TRINITRAIN, a French consortium of Alstom, Bouygues Construction and RATP Developpment has won a contract to design, build, operate and maintain a 105km passenger railway network on the island of Trinidad.

The network will initially consist of a 50km north-south line from the capital Port of Spain to San Fernando, and a 54km an east-west line from Port of Spain to Sangre Grande. The network will include 20km of viaducts and 10 stations, and will have capacity for at least 100,000 passengers per day.

During the $US 70 million first phase, Trinitrain will carry out preliminary design to finalise the route and produce specifications for the project. This will take around 20 months, after which costs and detailed scheduling will be agreed with the National Infrastructure Development Company.

Construction will be managed by Bouygues and the government says it expects the lines to open in 2012 or 2013. Alstom will supply railway systems and rolling stock, and RATP Developpment will operate and maintain the network for 15 years.