Bombardier Granted Huge Montreal Metro Deal

[Pierre the Great]

Bombardier granted huge Montreal metro deal

Bombardier has been awarded the $1.2-billion contract to replace Montreal's aging fleet of subway cars.

The Charest government announced Thursday afternoon that it has given the contract to Quebec-based Bombardier without a public tender.

The province is covering 75 per cent of the cost, while the Montreal Transport Corporation covers the rest.

Bombardier wasn't the only company that was interested in the deal. French company Alstom SA, the world leader in the manufacturing of subway cars, said it can build the trains sooner, safer and cheaper than Bombardier.

Both companies promised to build the cars in Quebec.

But the provincial government is asking the transit corporation to negotiate strictly with Bombardier, bypassing the usual public tendering process.

Economic Development Minister Raymond Bachand said Bombardier is the only Canadian manufacturer and so it is in the taxpayers' best interest to deal with that company.

Provincial bureaucrats say the government is not breaking any laws or trade agreements by not going to tender.

Alstom said it had a competitive bid that would have kept jobs in the province, and company officials plan to hold a news conference on Friday to respond to the decision.

Bachand points out that Thursday's news doesn't mean Alstom won't get another crack at the lucrative deal.

If the transit corporation can't hammer out a satisfactory deal within six months, he'll open up the process to other bidders.

Meanwhile, William Spurr, president of Bombardier Transportation for North America, said his company "is proud to have the opportunity to work once more on the Montreal metro, 30 years after manufacturing cars for Montreal."

Bombardier will get to work now, negotiating with the MTC for the renewal of metro cars for Montreal.

The design, manufacture and assembly of the fleet will take place at Bombardier's facilities in St. Bruno and La Pocati?re, Que. Hundreds of workers at the plants can now expect secure work for years to come.

Bombardier is the biggest manufacturer of passenger railcars in the world.

The oldest of Montreal's metro cars have been in service for more than 40 years.

[Tony]

Have you seen the new train carts? They suck. The old (current) carts beat them by a long shot.

[BTH]

This is random but my uncle works for Bombardier.

[shortcat1]

This is random but my uncle works for Bombardier.

mine doesn't

:king: :hlogo: :king:

[MAK]

I don't have an uncle

[Psycing]

I have 3 uncles.

ON Topic: That's great, I'm getting sick of the old metro carts. I'm sure they'll come out with some much nYcer and hopefully sleeker ones!

[alexstream]

what bugs me in the metro (and I'm not a sicko) is the frikkin poles are sooooo greasy. I'm afraid to touch them

[shortcat1]

what bugs me in the metro (and I'm not a sicko) is the frikkin poles are sooooo greasy. I'm afraid to touch them

what bugs me in the metro

(and I'm not a sicko )

hey!!!!!!!!!!! that rhymes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bow: :glare:

Edited May 15, 2006 by shortcat1

[Pierre the Great]

Anybody know what the new trains will look like?

[CerebusClone]

Anybody know what the new trains will look like?

Here's a PDF file describing the new trains:

http://stcum.qc.ca/English/info/a-MR73.pdf

Edited May 15, 2006 by CerebusClone

[Mont Royale]

This thread is scintillating. (look it up!)

[shortcat1]

I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time keeping track of this new train topic....

[alexstream]

they really should adopt the "guzzo" seats.

[MAK]

amen to that

best seats ever

[Pierre the Great]

Haven't been on many metros but the best I was D.C.'s and the worst is either St. Louis because its not really a metro just a sad excuse for one or the 1800's stinky cars in Boston.

When it comes to Canadian Metros Montreal (so I heard) has the best and most efficent and logical system while Vancouver Skytrain has the better looking cars and coolest bridges. I mean come on, ever seen the skytrain bridge? One word awesome.

[MAK]

montreal's metro system needs to be revamped.

the last few times I've taken it, we we're somehow delayed by a fire or someone throwing himself in front of a car.

I'm still frustrated that the price as almost doubled in 6-7 yearss..but the servie has stayed as bad.

also there's ton of publicity everywhere..even on the bus cards...sucks!!

Edited May 16, 2006 by marky_and_komi

[Pierre the Great]

Isn't the government wanting to expand it? Looked on some website about future plans seems pretty ambitious.

[CerebusClone]

Isn't the government wanting to expand it? Looked on some website about future plans seems pretty ambitious.

I'm sure they would like to, but everything they increase the budget for public transit the union goes on strike, and pockets 95% of it. Some of those bus drivers make over 100K a year!! Of course, these are exceptions, but the minumum salary for a bus driver is somewhere around 45K, in addition to a nice set of benefits from year 1... not bad for a job that only requires a high-school diploma.

Then, when the drivers' union has sucked in all the money they could force by taking the population hostage, the mechanics' union takes over, and also goes on strike. Of course, the drivers feel compensation for their fellow union worker, and refuse to drive buses to show their support; so the other union also sucks in all the money it can get, also by taking the population hostage, and therefore in the end, despite huge investments, there is nothing left to actually improve the network.

Gotta love those public sector unions. Soon Quebec will be just as bad as France on that matter (we're probably 10 years behind)... Actually that remembers me that this morning I heard on the radio that the blue collar workers in Montreal feel psychologically harassed because the city wants to implement some measures that would allow them to monitor some of their work... I'm sorry, but a GPS on a city-owned truck is NOT psychological harassment, and having the right the fire somebody who spends every work day at home, in restaurants, or wherever else except where they should be is just plain NORMAL.

Sorry, I got a little bit of topic...

Edited May 16, 2006 by CerebusClone

[Tony]

Those seats are trash. They keep running the prototypes on the orange line. All they do is sit more people and squish you more with everyone else. That's a load of crap if you ask me.

[fromage]

Isn't the government wanting to expand it? Looked on some website about future plans seems pretty ambitious.

An expansion towards Laval is ambitious? Hardly. It's also rather useless.

[Pierre the Great]

why would it be useless?

[Tony]

I don't want to open a can of worms but I'll try not too.

At one point in time, forgot the era, the PQ promised that they would extend the Metro to Laval in order to pretty much get more people to vote for them. At the time, it was a credible and good idea because a metro in Laval was really needed. The bus system was even worse than what is it today.

As time progressed, more problems were discovered and the costs kept increasing. These were the main reasons why the project kept getting delayed. Today, the Laval metro is being built doubled the cost of what the PQ had originally said (I'll take a guess and say late 80s and early 90s).

Today, a metro in Laval is a 50-50 hindsight type of thing. Yes, the metro project is expensive. That's not secret. Is it really needed? Well this depends on how you see things. It's all a question of time.

I would put it in these words, for the patient person, the Laval metro is useless because the bus system established by the STL (Laval bus transport society) does a good enough job to cover the use of a metro. Mind you, this system needs to improve. Waiting 20 minutes for a bus (in populated areas) is stupid if you ask me but then again I'm not a patient person. This wait can go up to 40 minutes to 60 minutes in un-populated areas. This is in the day too, it gets alot worse at night time. This whole Laval metro thing could have easily been avoited if the STL put up more buses that passed more often.

The Laval metro is a good idea in order to get you from Montreal to Laval for cheap because the STL bus fees are much more expensive than Montreal. And you can't use a Montreal monthly bus card to go to Laval unless you have this special monthly bus card that allows you to traval from Montreal and Laval under a reasonable price (100$ for adults).

Here's the stupid part though. The Laval metro is being extended to three stations. These three stations are pretty much in the middle of no where in Laval. They close to small populated areas but not close to businesses or other work areas and they don't even cover most of Laval, pretty much the south of Laval. So in the end, yes you can take the metro from Montreal to Laval in a quick easy way but once you get off at any of those stations, your stuck taking one of those shitty buses from the STL to get to anywhere.

So in my opinion, unless you live or work near by one of the delegated metro stations in Laval, you're better off getting off at Henri-Bourassa and taking a STL bus to get to Laval or take the train if you want to get to work faster.

I mean if you want to do it right, at least have a station going near Carefour Laval shopping mall, might have costed more but would be a bit more useful.