http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl ... =161471045
Speaking at the Breakfast with the Prime Minister at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Port of Spain yesterday, Works Minister Colm Imbert said Government was about to complete phase two of the Interchange.
Imbert, who detailed some of the plans for his Ministry under the Vision 2020 programme, highlighted a $17 billion road programme, consisting of 13 separate freeways and highways and 471 kilometres of road which, he said, would provide easy access to any part of Trinidad.
He also stated that construction of the Rapid Rail was due to start in mid-2010 and "within 36 to 39 months, the first train should roll out of Port of Spain".
Imbert said the Rapid Rail was needed because there were some 550,000 trips per day on the main roads of Trinidad and 275 trips per day from Port of Spain to other parts of the country. He said travel time (per individual) was in excess of four hours a day.
"The road system is overwhelmed," he said, adding that putting more buses on the road was a poor solution.
Contending that a different mass transit system was required, he said the Rapid Rail would provide 194 million trips annually by 2032.
Imbert said Government planned to construct two rail lines-the East-West line from Sangre Grande to Westmoorings, and the North-South line from UWI to San Fernando.
It also planned to establish a Mass Transit Authority, which would have a railway division, ferry division and omnibus division, and which would be responsible to all forms of mass transit, he said.
He said Government was now at the end of the phase one (early engineering and designing) of the system and was entering the second phase of the rail system, which involved detailed designs and construction. He said the rail system would be constructed in five segments and Government was hoping to construct all segments simultaneously.
The five segments would be: a. City Gate to Chaguanas; b. San Fernando to Chaguanas; c. UWI to Arima; d. City Gate to Westmoorings; e. Arima to Sangre Grande.
Imbert said a technical team from the Ministry and National Infrastructure Development Company (Nidco) visited France to witness how long it takes to load and offload one of the trains, and the results were very satisfactory.
The Rapid Rail would travel at 160 kilometres (100 miles) per hour and it would take 39 minutes to get from Port of Spain to San Fernando, he said. He added that it was the intention to have a train leaving every five to ten minutes during peak periods.
Imbert said the Rapid Rail would be built on a design/build/operate basis.
He noted that Government had been able to attract some of the largest contractors and consultants in the world. French firm Bouygues, the company that is leading the consortium for the Rapid Rail, is reputedly the second largest construction company in the world.
Vinci Construction Grands Projets, which is involved in the Interchange project, is the largest construction company in the world; while AECOM, the company which would be involved in the road network, was the probably the largest engineering consultancy firm in the world, he said. -Ria Taitt
....... Where we getting the money for this?
and they movign dred with secrecy lol
