TORONTO – The TTC board has voted unanimously to pursue legal action against Bombardier after a slew of missed deadlines on new streetcar deliveries.
TTC chair Josh Colle spoke with media after the vote saying the priority for him and all commissioners is to get streetcars on the road.
“We need them for our riders, we can’t continue to put old vehicles on the street, we need them to provide reliable service on the TTC customers,” Colle said.
“The commission has taken the decision to commence legal action against Bombardier with a series of other motions that we think will hold their feet to the fire.”
READ MORE: TTC discuss possible sanctions against Bombardier
The board also is requesting staff to consult with alternative suppliers for delivery on the remaining streetcars, but stopped short of banning Bombardier from future contracts for now.
Colle warned eliminating the company as a supplier could slow down streetcar deliveries.
“We don’t think that barring them as a supplier right now will get the streetcars on our streets any sooner – in fact – it may do the opposite and so the decision was made to commence legal action, start to collecting liquidated damages,” Colle said.
Marc-Andre Lefebvre, head of communications and public relations for Bombardier, said in a statement that the company’s commitment to the province and TTC customers “remains strong as ever.”
“We take note of today’s decisions taken by the TTC Board, and we will not comment any further on the TTC’s actions nor make any speculations on potential impacts on our operations in Ontario,” he said.
“On the issue of the TTC’s claim, we must remind that not all delays in this project have been caused by Bombardier, and we intend to discuss this with our customer.”
Under the current contract, the TTC can claim $50 million in punitive damages, but Colle says that dollar figure can be more because of legal costs.
READ MORE: TTC considering legal action against Bombardier after streetcars delayed again
Bombardier was originally supposed to have 67 streetcars in operation by the end of 2015. Right now there are only 10 in service.
“It’s often easy to have the TTC as the whipping boy, I want to be clear, this is not TTC failing or problem,” Colle said. “This is Bombardier. I would like this amount of cameras in front of Bombardier.”
With files from Mark McAllister
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