Ontario Construction News staff writer
RailOne Rainbow Canada Corp. is building a concrete railroad tie manufacturing facility in North Bay with $1 million in provincial funding.
Funding will come from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) to help the company refurbish an existing building, purchase manufacturing equipment and conduct marketing activities.
The project is expected to create 19 jobs and establish a domestic source of concrete railroad ties for heavy-haul freight, high-speed rail and urban transit projects.
RailOne is a joint venture established to manufacture concrete railroad ties in Canada. The North Bay facility will use technology developed in Germany and is intended to help strengthen Canada’s railway supply chain while reducing reliance on imported products.
“Northern Ontario’s resources, know-how and talent make it a natural hub for manufacturing,” said George Pirie, minister of northern economic development and growth. “Our government is proud to support the establishment of the RailOne factory, creating good-paying jobs and producing Ontario-made products for rail systems across the province, and beyond.”
The project will expand North Bay’s manufacturing sector while reducing transportation costs associated with importing concrete ties from overseas.
“This funding has helped establish Ontario’s first facility to manufacture concrete ties for transit projects,” said Vic Fedeli, MPP for Nipissing.
Concrete ties offer a creosote-free, low-maintenance alternative to traditional wooden railway ties.
“With great highway and rail access, we are ideally situated to serve Canada’s concrete rail tie needs from coast to coast,” said RailOne managing director Boris Naneff.
RailOne CEO Saurav Mittal said the company was bringing 70 years of German concrete railway technology to Canada.
“They’re developing a robust Canadian railway supply chain for passenger transit, high speed rail and heavy haul logistics,” Mittal said.
The provincial government has increased the NOHFC’s annual budget to $110 million to support economic development projects across northern Ontario, including in rural, urban and Indigenous communities.
In September, more than $3.4 million in NOHFC funding was announced for manufacturing projects across the region.
Since June 2018, the NOHFC has approved more than $1.1 billion for 9,011 projects in northern Ontario. Those projects have leveraged more than $3.4 billion in investment and created or sustained more than 13,900 jobs.
