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TTC: Flexity Streetcars Testing & Delivery (Bombardier)

I’m the last person to defend Bombardier after their disgraceful and offensive start to fulfilling the Flexity contract, but it looks like they are now on track to deliver all 204 by end of next year.

Starting from this tweet from Matt Elliot,
https://twitter.com/graphicmatt/status/1004743085463465985?s=21
I did a simple regression that shows BBD is on an exponential growth path of delivery. Assuming this continues, they will deliver the 204th car one month early.
https://twitter.com/torontopeter/status/1004785837748441089?s=21
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He said that he would run our province like a business...

I don't understand that concept. So for customers (citizens) he's going to charge the largest price for providing the minimum service? It's a regional monopoly with very very high cost in changing provinces for "customers"; think Bell in the '80s. Who gets the profits?

It should be like a co-operative; where the customer is the owner and the focus is generally on providing the basic services at high quality at minimum cost.
 
I don't understand that concept. So for customers (citizens) he's going to charge the largest price for providing the minimum service? It's a regional monopoly with very very high cost in changing provinces for "customers"; think Bell in the '80s. Who gets the profits?

It should be like a co-operative; where the customer is the owner and the focus is generally on providing the basic services at high quality at minimum cost.
The logic is that we're the shareholders, not the customers. The CEO is supposed to protect and maximize our interests, similar to your cooperative. That's the theory.
 
I don't understand that concept. So for customers (citizens) he's going to charge the largest price for providing the minimum service? It's a regional monopoly with very very high cost in changing provinces for "customers"; think Bell in the '80s. Who gets the profits?

It should be like a co-operative; where the customer is the owner and the focus is generally on providing the basic services at high quality at minimum cost.

I believe that is called Communism which I am perfectly fine with.
 
Let's see what Premier Ford has to say about Streetcars, starting tomorrow.

It's difficult not to imagine him flashing that conniving, used-car salesman grin and breaking into red faced, maniacal laughter when approached by the city on behalf of the TTC to order another 60 streetcars.

I think the city is on its own with that one, unless Justin comes to the rescue again.
 
I think the city is on its own with that one, unless Justin comes to the rescue again.
Given how much that would piss Doug Ford off, it's quite possible!

Gosh, this is going to be fun, watching Doug Ford suffer from apoplexy, when he realizes how little power he actually has on many issues, and how much power he has over issues he really doesn't care much about.
 
Sorry, the days are gone for short cars and why you are seeing most systems in Europe going to 35-45-60 meter cars these days. You increase ridership space per car at no cost of adding another driver. Labour is the high cost of running a system at about 80% of operation cost, if not more.
It might be time for any follow-on order to think about adding in smodules for some routes. Some extant ones don't have long-enough platforms for further lengthening, but the fleet would still be 'standardized' in terms of parts and modules. The longer the entire length, with caveats, (mostly traffic signalling) the more conducive it is keep a route moving on a controlled headway.

Look at systems in the US todays that are running 2-3 car train at about 2-300' long.
Many of them though run on their own RoW. AFAIK, only Melbourne and Toronto have the vast majority of their trackage on-street. Toronto has unique dilemmas that make bidding difficult, let alone operating. Double-ended versions of the Flexity should also been considered again along with adding in more modules.

If they put out a new tender tomorrow, there is no way that we would get new cars in time. They don't explicitly say so, but they strongly hint that the prudent choice would be to take the option order for 60 cars from Bombardier now, and immediately start the process for tendering another order for 100 (or more) cars for delivery in 5 or 6 years time.
It really doesn't bode well, no matter what happens.

Let's see what Premier Ford has to say about Streetcars, starting tomorrow.
Yeah...at this point, anything could happen. What he's stated and what happens bear no relationship to each other.

The logic is that we're the shareholders, not the customers. The CEO is supposed to protect and maximize our interests, similar to your cooperative. That's the theory.
One of the best examples of this is London's Crossrail run as a corporation with the Greater London Authority ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_London_Authority ) and the National Government as the only shareholders: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/gla_migrate_files_destination/CrossRail-Evidence.pdf

Metrolinx has partially done this with Crosstown, but whether Ford's team 'get-it' or not remains to be seen. Accountability is sorely lacking with most anything ML is involved in.
It's difficult not to imagine him flashing that conniving, used-car salesman grin and breaking into red faced, maniacal laughter when approached by the city on behalf of the TTC to order another 60 streetcars.

I think the city is on its own with that one, unless Justin comes to the rescue again.
For the Feds to be involved with any announced program (and there's Constitutional issues with this too) the Province must be a partner too, or at the very least, an agent on behalf of the municipality. As with a lot to do with the Ford Nation-ality, it remains to be seen what must be rewritten to get around his roadblocks....correction, transitblocks. Cars will be ultimate in Dougie's world.
 
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Apparently 4482 was dropped off at the dock last night. Thus it's likely to sit there over the weekend and get unloaded on Monday.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 

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