TTC will sue Bombardier over late streetcars
Lawsuit among seven actions against manufacturer related to delayed delivery of $1.25B low-floor fleet
The TTC board will sue Bombardier. But it’s not ready to excise the Quebec-based manufacturer from its list of suppliers, despite its repeated failure to deliver Toronto’s $1.25-billion order for new lowfloor streetcars.
“We don’t think barring them as a supplier right now will get the streetcars on the street any sooner. In fact, it may do the opposite,” said Councillor Josh Colle, who chairs the TTC board.
And while the TTC will go after Bombardier for $50 million, its priority is to get the new streetcars in service. “We need them for our riders. We can’t continue to put out old vehicles on the street,” he said.
“We need them for our riders. We can’t continue to put out old vehicles on the street.” JOSH COLLE TTC CHAIR ON PRIORITIZING GETTING NEW STREETCARS IN SERVICE
Among seven actions approved by the TTC board on Wednesday is a request that the CEO of Bombardier appear in Toronto next month to explain the company’s failure.
The TTC will also claim $50 million in liquidated damages and other compensation, for which additional streetcars could be substituted. The TTC has already looked at adding 60 more cars to the original 204-car order.
Meantime, it will begin investigating alternative suppliers in case Bombardier is never able to fulfil the order, for example if it were to be sold or go out of business.
Ten new streetcars are in service on the Spadina and Harbourfront lines. But the TTC originally expected 73 to be running by the end of this year. That was downgraded to 20 and, earlier this month, Bombardier admitted it won’t be able to make good on that commitment, either.
Instead it has said Toronto could have16 new cars delivered by the end of 2015. The latest delay was blamed on crimping of electrical connectors in the same Mexican supply plant that was blamed for earlier problems with the walls and undercarriages of the streetcars.
Colle, who said he doesn’t even know if that’s to be believed, stressed that none of the delays are the fault of the TTC.
“I want to be clear. This is not a TTC failure or problem. This is Bombardier,” he said, adding that the company needs to explain itself.
Apologizing to the TTC, a company spokesman said when the latest delay was announced that he believes Bombardier will be able to deliver one streetcar every five days in 2016.
The Thunder Bay plant where the vehicles are assembled has added an extra shift and the company is now working with a seventh project manager, said TTC CEO Andy Byford.
“The 10 streetcars we’ve got in service are fabulous. The issue is we just want more of them,” he said.
“You can’t just stand by and let that happen; you wouldn’t anywhere else in life,” Mayor John Tory told reporters earlier in the day.
Tory would also like, more than anything else, to find out “whatever the key is to get this company to mobilize more resources and to do more things and to show an even greater determination to get these streetcars delivered.” With files from Betsy Powell