Tory blames Bombardier for ‘complete failure’
The mayor and TTC chair pen letter to manufacturer about streetcar order delays
“The delay of our new streetcars has now reached a critical tipping point.” MAYOR JOHN TORY AND TTC CHAIR JOSH COLLE IN OPEN LETTER TO BOMBARDIER
Mayor John Tory and TTC chair Josh Colle have issued a strongly worded open letter to Bombardier expressing their “deep frustration” that the rail manufacturer might miss the 2019 deadline for delivering the city’s new streetcar fleet. The document, which accuses Bombardier of a “complete failure to perform,” also warns that the city could take additional legal action against the company.
“The delay of new streetcars has now reached a critical tipping point. We are no longer able to sustain our current service levels as a result,” said the letter, which was addressed to Benoit Brossoit, president of Bombardier Transportation’s Americas division.
Tory and Colle issued the correspondence a day after the TTC re- leased a report that warned the Montreal-based company is at risk of missing the 2019 deadline for delivering all 204 new vehicles.
Bombardier has fallen far behind on manufacturing the vehicles, but the TTC has always insisted that the company complete the $1.25-billion order by 2019 as stipulated in the original contract.
The company has maintained it will meet that target, with a spokesperson telling the Star as recently as Wednesday that it would be able to ramp up production fast enough to manufacture the roughly 175 outstanding vehicles over the next three years.
During the company’s investor day Thursday, its president and CEO Alain Bellemare said the firm is “very confident that we will get close” to the deadline.
As the transit agency waits for the new streetcars, it has pulled some older streetcars out of service in order to overhaul them and extend their lives.
The TTC says that has knock-on effects, because buses have to be redeployed to cover streetcar shortages, causing more crowding on bus routes affected.
“The magnitude of the Bombardier delay has meant customers waiting unreasonable amounts of time to board a streetcar and crowding beyond any acceptable standard,” the letter said.
“Bombardier delays have caused customers to wait increasingly long times in the cold and to arrive late to work or school.”
According to the document, the revelation that the 2019 target could slip has prompted the city to seek legal advice on further legal action “to recover additional damages” related to the delays.
The TTC is already suing the company for $50 million in liquidated damages, the maximum it can claim under the terms of the contract.
Not everyone agreed with Tory’s and Colle’s characterization of Bombardier as the source of delays and overcrowding on public transit.
In a Twitter post, transit expert Steve Munro said the open letter was a “smokescreen” to mask the city’s “failure to budget for more service.”
The preliminary 2017 TTC budget released last week contains no funding to increase bus and streetcar service.
The TTC expects to have 30 new streetcars by the end of 2016. It was supposed to have about 110. With files from The Canadian Press and Doug Cudmore