Contractors submitting proposals for work along Hamilton LRT track

The Ontario government is reporting another step forward in Hamilton's long-awaited LRT construction. 

The province has invited four teams to submit proposals for work including building and relocating infrastructure and traffic control signals along the planned 14-kilometre route, the Ministry of Transportation said in a news release Wednesday. 

This process started in November when the province asked contractors to pre-apply to submit proposals for work. 

At the time, the Transport Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said we were "one step closer" to seeing shovels in the ground, which is also what he said in a Wednesday news release. He has not shared when the LRT might open. 

Provincial transit agency Metrolinx is progressing on "advanced early works projects," with five completed and four more underway, including water main, hydro and telecommunications upgrades, interim president Michael Lindsay said in the news release. "We're excited to continue working collaboratively with the federal and provincial governments as well as the City of Hamilton to deliver this important transit project."

It's still unclear who will operate the LRT. After much debate last year, Hamilton city council decided to recommend the line be operated by a third party for the first 10 years of its life, before being taken over by the municipality. That was contrary to the wishes of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents city bus drivers. 

In November, then-Metrolinx-CEO Phil Verster said the agency had not made that decision.

The province says the LRT will have 17 stops, running from McMaster University in the city's west to Eastgate Square in the east. It is expected to serve 50,000 daily commuters. 

The $3.4-billion project is part of a number of transit projects the province has promised, including eventually establishing faster, all-day GO Transit on "core routes" including the Lakeshore lines between the GTA and Niagara.