The CEO of the TTC and the chair of its board will meet with Bombardier officials in Thunder Bay today in an effort to apply pressure on the company as it ramps up production of the city’s new streetcar.
In 2009, the city agreed to pay Bombardier $1.25 billion for 204 new streetcars, however the company soon fell far behind on the original delivery schedule for the state-of-the-art vehicles.
The schedule initially called for the delivery of 50 streetcars by now, however so far the TTC has only taken delivery of 7.
Due to the slow rollout of the vehicles, the TTC and Bombardier agreed to a revised schedule in February that called for 30 of the streetcars to be delivered by the end of 2015.
The revised schedule still calls for Bombardier to deliver all 204 streetcars by the end of 2019.
“We have had issues with Bombardier’s ability to build these streetcars,” TTC CEO Andy Byford told CP24 on Monday. “Tomorrow TTC Chair Josh Colle and I are flying up to Thunder Bay because we want to see first-hand whether Bombardier can actually deliver the promised ramp up in delivery. They are saying that they will ramp it up to one new streetcar every five days, so I would like to see that for myself.”
According to a press release, Colle and Byford will tour the Bombardier plant where the new streetcars are being produced and “discuss what can be done to speed up production and ensure that service-ready vehicles are being received regularly.”
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