Metrolinx has ordered 61 light-rail vehicles from one of Bombardier’s competitors in order to ensure that the Eglinton Crosstown opens as scheduled in 2021, regardless of whether or not the company is able to deliver on its contractual obligations.
Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca announced on Friday that the province has awarded a $528-million, sole-sourced contract to French manufacturer Alstom to provide the vehicles.
Del Duca said that 17 of the vehicles will be used for the Finch West LRT while the remaining 44 can be used for the $5.3 billion Eglinton Crosstown in the event that Bombardier fails to deliver its order on time and is found to be in default of its $770 million contract.
Meanwhile, if Bombardier does deliver on time Del Duca said that the Alstom vehicles can be used on the planned Hurontario LRT, which is scheduled to open in Mississauga in 2022.
As part of the contract with Alstom, the company will open a facility somewhere in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area to produce the vehicles.
“As Minister of Transportation, my responsibility is to deliver transit on time and I didn’t feel comfortable standing idly by during a period of uncertainty and then coming back four or five years later and saying ‘We knew we had an issue and just didn’t step up and provide creative leadership,’” Del Duca told reporters on Friday. “We are in a position now where we have to make this kind of decision.”
Metrolinx previously served Bombardier with a notice of intent to terminate its contract amid concerns with delays in the production of a pilot vehicle and a general skepticism over whether the company will be able to deliver all 182 vehicles on time and in a state of good quality.
Bombardier, however, took Metrolinx to court and in April a judge granted an injunction preventing the transit agency from terminating the contract until the conclusion of a dispute resolution process that could take up to a year to play out.
On Friday, Del Duca said that Metrolinx is participating in that process in “good faith” but had to come up with a “creative and responsible solution” in the event that Bombardier fails to deliver the vehicles.
He said that Alstom was chosen largely because they are already providing similar vehicles for a LRT line in Ottawa and have done so on schedule.
“They have a proven track record and to me that is the most important thing,” he said. “We know right now that Alstom is producing a quality vehicle in Ottawa. It is being tested, it can operate.”
Bombardier says it is on track to meet deadline
Del Duca said that the deal reached with Alstom will not do anything to change the province’s contractual obligations to Bombardier but will give the province a backup should Bombardier end up defaulting on that contract.
In a statement, Bombardier said it is nonetheless “ready, able, and willing to deliver” the vehicles on time.
“As the Minister and Metrolinx are well aware, these vehicles can be ready ahead of schedule and well before a single track has even been laid on the Eglinton Crosstown,” the statement says. “In fact, the Metrolinx pilot vehicle is ready, undergoing qualification testing, and Bombardier is right now producing vehicles for the Region of Waterloo that are identical to those that will be used on the Eglinton Crosstown. All 14 of those vehicles will be delivered to Waterloo by the end of this year.
Del Duca said that some modifications will have to be made to maintenance and storage facilities associated with the Crosstown, so that either the Alstom or Bombardier vehicles could be used.
Testing on the Crosstown is supposed to begin in 2019 and the line is scheduled to open in December, 2021.
