TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: The Trinitrain consortium of Bouygues Construction, Alstom Transport and RATP Développement announced on April 11 that it had been selected by the government and its National Infrastructure Development Co to design, build, operate and maintain a two-line passenger rail system on Trinidad.

The 'express' rail lines will have a total length of 105 km, including around 20 km of viaducts, and approximately 10 stations. A 50 km line will link the capital Port of Spain to San Fernando in the south of the island, while the 54 km second line will cross from east to west between Port of Spain and Sangre Grande.

Trinitrain will conduct preliminary studies to finalise the route and detailed specifications during the US$70m first phase of the contract, expected to last 20 months. Costs and scheduling will then be agreed with NIDCO.

Civil works for the project will be managed by Bouygues Travaux Publics, with Alstom responsible for railway systems and rolling stock. Construction is estimated to take four years, after which RATP Développement will handle operations and maintenance for 15 years.

The Trinitrain consortium will be working on the project with the Covec subsidiary of China Railways Engineering Corp, locally-based construction company Daynco and Canadian engineering consultancy Dessau.

• Trinidad's former rail network was abandoned in the 1960s.