The ongoing streetcar fiasco has reached its final stop: the Toronto Transit Commission board has voted to sue Bombardier over a fleet of trams the company has yet to deliver.
The motion did not specify an amount, though threat of legal action earlier this month following Bombardier’s backing out of a promise to deliver 23 cars by the end of the year suggested a $50 million claim.
Bombardier’s was contracted in 2009 to deliver 204 state-of-the-art streetcars, 60 of which should have been in service by now. Instead, only 10 are making the rounds.
They are nice, though.
“The 10 streetcars we have in service are fabulous. The issue is we just want more of them,” said TTC CEO Andy Byford. “At the end of the day I don’t want the money. I want the streetcars.”
The TTC committed over $1 billion for the new streetcars, which have been delayed by a 2014 strike at Bombardier’s Thunder Bay plant and problems with parts manufactured at Bombardier’s Mexican plant.
Bombardier, which is based in Montreal and has long been a beacon of Canadian aerospace and transportation innovation, also posted a $4.9 billion third quarter loss today.
Not an ideal way to head into Halloween.
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