[URBAN NOTE] "Bombardier shifts production in bid to speed up Toronto streetcar deliveries"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star carries Ross Marowits' Canadian Press article noting how Bombardier is juggling production at different sties to try to deliver Toronto its streetcars.

Bombardier is hoping to get its Toronto streetcar contract back on track and prevent delays at two other Ontario transit projects by shifting production among four sites in Ontario, Quebec and Mexico.

The company will relieve pressure in Thunder Bay, Ont., by shifting light rail projects for Metrolinx in Greater Toronto and the Kitchener-Waterloo region to its facility in Kingston, Ont.

Thunder Bay also makes bi-level cars for GO Transit and is completing a Toronto subway contract.

The plant in La Pocatière, Que., will lend a hand by taking on work transferred from an operation in Mexico where there have been quality issues. A second production line for the TTC streetcars will be added at a location to be identified at the end of May.

[. . .]

The changes will result in the layoff of 60 workers in Thunder Bay, unless it becomes the home of the second streetcar line. However, it will preserve 60 jobs in Kingston once production of metro cars destined for Kuala Lumpur ends later this year. Up to 50 workers will be hired in La Pocatière, which is making Montreal subway cars.