TTC LRV deliveries gaining ground
The roller-coaster-ride story of the Toronto Transit Commission’s 204-unit Bombardier Flexity Outlook LRV order appears to be leveling off.
The roller-coaster-ride story of the Toronto Transit Commission’s 204-unit Bombardier Flexity Outlook LRV order appears to be leveling off.
New Jersey Transit is exercising an option with Bombardier Transportation for 17 ALP-45DP dual-power locomotives, to supplement its existing 35-unit fleet.
Germany’s Siemens AG and France’s Alstom SA are discussing a merger to create a European rail transportation manufacturing conglomerate to counter growing competition from China, according to a report in the Sept. 23, 2017 Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, Siemens continues to engage in talks with Canada’s Bombardier, Inc. about merging their railway businesses.
Former Bombardier Transportation executive Andrew Robbins has been named executive director and chief executive of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.
Metrolinx, the Ontario Government’s transit agency, has dropped its appeal of the court decision earlier this year that had prevented the authority from cancelling a C$770 million order with Bombardier for 182 Flexity Freedom LRVs.
Progress has been made on Metrolinx’s plan to electrify the GO Transit regional/commuter rail network. Meanwhile, major delays and controversy mark Bombardier’s streetcar contract with the Toronto Transit Commission.
In the wake of Bombardier Transportation’s ongoing problems with light rail vehicles it’s building for various Ontario LRT projects, the purported combination of the railway businesses of Siemens and Bombardier appears to have taken on an interesting twist. This folllows the filing of an official protest letter by Siemens Canada with Ontario’s Transportation Minister over Metrolinx’s awarding of a single-source LRV contract to Alstom.
Unnamed sources inside Bombardier and Siemens AG have told the Montreal Gazette that the two companies are considering various joint ventures as part of the planned merger of their respective railway divisions.
Supplier consolidations are nothing new in the global railway industry. The latest purported combination has German technology and engineering colossus Siemens AG acquiring Canadian firm Bombardier’s Transportation division, according to a report published Tuesday, April 11, in Toronto’s Globe and Mail. Bombardier shares jumped nearly 7% on the Toronto Stock Exchange after Bloomberg News, citing anonymous sources, originally broke the story.
The year 2017 will see construction on Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT project move into its next phase.