Bombardier regains ‘credibility’ with Toronto
$1.2B streetcar order back on track for 2019
TORONTO • Bombardier Inc.’ s new management team has given the head of the Toronto Transit Commission “much greater confidence” that the city’s delay- plagued $ 1.2- billion streetcar order will be completed by 2019 as originally planned, TTC chief executive Andy Byford said Tuesday.
After multiple delays to the 204- streetcar order, the tense relationship between Bombardier and North America’s third-largest transit system had deteriorated to the point of name-calling. Last year, Byford described the company’s performance as “woeful,” while Toronto Mayor John Tory called it a “complete failure” and threatened legal action.
But on Tuesday at a Toronto Region Board of Trade luncheon speech by Byford, the relationship appeared to be thawing.
Bombardier sponsored the event and Benoît Brossoit, president of Bombardier Transportation’s Americas division, introduced Byford by praising him as a “great developer” and “a great advocate of public transit.”
Speaking to reporters after the event, Byford said he talks to Brossoit at least once a month and he has “much greater confidence now” in the company’s streetcar- delivery timeline. After several downward revisions, Bombardier met its latest goal of delivering 30 streetcars by the end of 2016 ( down from the original plan of 109) and has promised to deliver all 204 by the end of 2019 as promised in the contract.
Bombardier announced recently it would free up space in its Thunder Bay, Ont., plant for the streetcar work by shifting other projects to Kingston, Ont. It also moved some work out of Mexico, which was the source of the defective bodies and frames that were partially responsible f or slowing down the delivery schedule.
“I feel the credibility of both the schedules that they give me, albeit in draft form, and the promises that they make and the utterances that come out of Thunder Bay carry much greater conviction now than they previously did,” Byford said. “It’s to Mr. Brossoit’s credit that to date he hasn’t let me down, whereas in the past I was constantly let down.”
Brossoit joined Bombardier from U. S. aerospace giant United Technologies Corp. in April, 2016, suc- ceeding Raymont Bachant as Bombardier Transportation’s president for the Americas.
Last month, t he TTC said in a report that there is still “a risk” that Bombardier won’t meet the revised schedule, but Brossoit said Tuesday the company has taken the necessary steps to get production levels to where they need to be.
“Back in early summer we made a number of pretty bold decisions in terms of making adjustments to people, process and our capacity,” Brossoit said in an interview after Byford’s speech. “I think the building blocks are in place. It’s really now up to us to execute.”
Brossoit said there was no “silver bullet” that solved Bombardier’s production problems, but its investments in additional capacity have helped it recover some lost time.
The latest schedule calls for Bombardier to deliver a minimum of 40 streetcars this year and Byford s ai d he’ l l push f or 50. “I have never let Bombardier off the hook and I’m not going to,” he said. “I’ve also flagged to them that they do need to maintain the rampup or the final few years will be a very difficult task to meet. But if they stick to that schedule, they can deliver it.”