TransPod steel partnership (CNW Group/TransPod Inc)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

steel of a deal

TransPod announces Canadian steel pact for Calgary to Edmonton (via Red Deer) line

Oct 2, 2025 | 5:08 PM

The company which plans to build an ultra high-speed transit line from Calgary to Edmonton announced Thursday a deal with two Canadian steel companies.

TransPod’s agreement is with Ontario-based Algoma Steel and Alberta-based Supreme Steel to provide steel materials for the project which is anticipated to create 140,000 jobs in Alberta.

It’s also projected to contribute close to $19.2 billion to the region’s GDP, cut CO₂ emissions by 636,000 tonnes per year, and offer fares around 44 per cent lower than airfare between the two big cities.

The project was announced several years ago, but has inched slowly towards coming to fruition.

More specifically announced today, this collaboration with Algoma and Supreme will create long-term domestic demand for 1.5–2 million tonnes of Canadian-made steel — not to mention it will reduce reliance on U.S. export markets and tariffs, and built advanced Canadian expertise in precision manufacturing for large-scale infrastructure.

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Further, Supreme Steel will manufacture the precision steel guideways that will carry the project’s FluxJet vehicles.

“Canadian industry is ready to deliver the future of transportation. Together with Algoma and Supreme Steel, we can generate jobs, strengthen supply chains, and position Alberta as a hub of productivity,” says Sebastien Gendron, co-founder and CEO, TransPod.

TransPod also offered an update on the project’s status, saying preliminary work is complete.

They say progress is paused pending the provincial government’s Passenger Rail Master Plan report, due out later this year. TransPod and its partners are ready to resume development as soon as that strategy is released, they say.

“Supreme Steel is proud to play a key role in manufacturing the guideways for TransPod and transforming transportation in Alberta,” says company CEO John Leder. “This is a nation-building initiative that will leave a legacy of skills and infrastructure for the country.”

In March 2022, TransPod said Red Deer would have a stop on the line.

In a new statement from their communications director, Dianna Lai Read reaffirmed that, saying, “TransPod is committed to including a stop at Red Deer.”

In an interview with rdnewsNOW on Thursday, Alberta’s Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, Devin Dreeshen, said the report is coming soon, and will be based a lot around what they heard from international experts at a forum they held in Calgary. There, Dreeshen says they learned about the successes and failures of implementing passenger rail in other countries.

Dreeshen says the report will be comprehensive and also touch on possible branches of the TransPod project that could go out towards the mountains.

“It’s great to see this (agreement). This would be the largest infrastructure project in the history of Alberta, so it’s great to see companies wanting to get involved,” said Dreeshen, then asked about his confidence the project will eventually get done.

“Passenger rail has been talked about in this province for quite some time, but I am confident the more I look at other jurisdictions around the world that have similar cities at a similar distance, and how they’ve been successful with high speed rail networks.”

Dreeshen says it’s vitally important, especially as it pertains to Calgary and Edmonton, that the TransPod project will connect smoothly to those cities’ respective LRT networks, and ensuring it’ll be something Albertans will use.