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It was a big embarrassment for the Commission to end a long and costly process with no successful tender [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] received. Few who followed the process with interest were not surprised. The Commission approached all builders who have purchased the tender documents and asked them 5 questions. They wanted to know the reasons why they did not submit any proposal. Would they be interested in the new process and can they supply a 100% low-floor vehicle? There was a lot of public controversy, if a 100% low-floor vehicle is a good solution and suitable for our requirements. One overseas builder went on the public record and said that Toronto is courting a disaster, if they insist on such a vehicle. Needless to say, that the builder was immediately disqualified from bidding. That was during the time before RFP was even issued, in January 2008. Commission wanted to know the reasons behind fiasco, so they can adjust and continue in the process.
The original Request For proposal called for tender of 204 vehicles. The schedule called for delivery at the rate of 24 cars per year, until 2018. Commission had budgeted price of $1.2 Billion. The purchase cost was to be split3-ways, among the City, provincial and Federal Governments. Since the later Government refused to participate in funding, City had to pick up 2/3 of the cost. The second procurement process started [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] August 2008 and closed in April 2009. Bombardier won the contract on the base of price, while Siemens was about $500-million higher in the bid. It is not difficult to attribute the difference to the advantage. Alstom completely dropped out of the process. There was another European company that lobbied, but with no success, trying to be added to the negotiated process.
We all hope that new streetcars will become a success story. Success story would be defined by public satisfaction with riding them and their preference over cars. With an increase in ridership, public will be asking for more lines and perhaps revive the Transit City plans. Transit City plan to build several new street-level right-of-way lines, across [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] the city. With [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] the new administration in the City Hall, old plans were declared dead. New administration favors subway lines over surface rails, sharing the road with other traffic. It should not be one or the other, but subway lines for long travel complemented by streetcar lines. Only mix of these modes of transportation will create higher density city with no dependency on intercity use of cars.
The contract was won in April 2009. It has taken more than 1 year, and a half to see mockup, but TTC has yet to test the vehicle on our rails. It is not very encouraging state of situations. The exact date for arrival of test cars has not been given yet. One might think that Torontonians might [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] enjoy more seeing a car on the rails first, than to look inside. If there are any problems then, we might expect further delays.
Our streetcars are nearing the end of their life and during 2006, TTC issued a Request For Information (RFI) that was sent to all builders of the record. The Commission held a preliminary discussion with them shortly after. There were several options that they were considering. Refurbishing and modernizing old CLRV to extend their useful life. This option had to be scrapped since new legislation provided for wheel-chair accessibility on all. After analyzing different options, TTC decided in favor of 100% Low-floor vehicle. Which design is better or more modern? 70% low-floor or 100% low-floor? There is no straight answer. Both designs have their pluses and minuses. We live in an environment where litigation for trivial matters is order of the day. The Commission most likely wanted to prevent future problems with somebody who trips or falls over a step, inside of the car. Commission issued a final Request For Proposal (RFP) in January 2008 to all builders that have pre-qualified. Documents issued called for 100% low-floor and $ 1 000 000.00 security deposit to be enclosed with the bid. Major unexpected change was a requirement of 25% Canadian content on the cars. There were many unique technical requirements that builders had to fulfill making tender a major design obstacle. Our rail-track has a wide gauge, ability to ride steep hills, sharp turning radiuses of 11m and single-point switches.
If technical requirements were not enough, 25% of Canadian content provision has created a major headache for overseas builder with no traditional manufacturing or contact-base in Canada. Such provision clearly favored one company with a long tradition in Canada. Why would other companies participate in the process, when the odds of winning the tender are so much against them? Bids from other companies will only help the Commission to negotiate a better deal with a preselected company of their choice.
During July 2008, Commission started one-to-one preliminary negotiations with all builders. At the end, they preselected 3 builders for closed negotiating process. As expected, it was our Canadian Builder, overseas Siemens and French Alstom. Rumors have it that Alstom was not interested at all, but was just persuaded to join the process. TTC used reference for 100% low-floor vehicle as the main criteria to select builders for further [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] negotiations. Some professional opinions differed from the official line, saying that local requirements are so unique that no company has yet, built a car to these specifications. Required reference should not be the most important one, but TTC should negotiate with all interested builders.
During the TTC public meeting in December 2007, the councilors have changed the amount of Canadian content required to 25%. It was purely political decision but had an impact on the process. Request For proposal was also explicit about a “preferred supplier,” without naming the company. Most overseas-based builders saw-through the process that was designed with some partiality in mind and refused to participate. In July 2008, only one favored builder submitted tender envelope together with required $1 000 000.00 security cheque. Actually there was another tender from an upstart English company that was quickly disqualified on two grounds. Not fulfilling; commercial part of the tender and not having any reference. A reference means any vehicle in a revenue service, anywhere. No transit authority wants to buy any unproven vehicles. The other tender submitted was also disqualified since the vehicle offered was not technically compliant with technical specifications published in RFP.
Portland City in Oregon, USA was the first North American City to introduce modern streetcars in 50 years. The cars were supplied by Czech based Skoda-Inekon consortium. This streetcar was close to the TTC’s expectation. Portland had Siemens built LRT to connect downtown with the airport. LRTs are traditionally built for longer runs with gentle curving and can’t make 50 degrees turns in the city environment and share the roads with cars. Portland streetcar can ride on LRT track, if necessary. People often call RTT or LRV any vehicle modern looking rail vehicle for city.
New low-floor LRVs will come to our cityConsider new alternative to the use of your car. Recycle, re-use and take public transit anywhere!
During the weekend in November 2011, Torontonians had a chance to see a mockup of new streetcar that will come to our city, hopefully in 2 years. Sometimes it comes with more modern LRV designation. If you are a public transit enthusiast, then this exhibit should be a place to go and get excited about it. In spite of opposition from car-proponents, our prevailing mentality needs to become more urban. Great public transit is the catalyst of change and taking a new low floor streetcar downtown to attend opera or a concert should became an accepted modern alternative to driving a car, taking a cab or limo there. Or take it to a place [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] of business. It should become equivalent status symbol that public transit is not just for those who are on the budget. I only wish that some public figures or people with status of a star could become role models. Let their photos as streetcars or subway users be made public. Transit Commission should definitely find some spokesmen or spokeswomen for the cause. I think that those people, who post unfriendly comments toward our new transit vehicles in blogs, or newspapers online, are just misguided. Their attitudes can be changed.
Ontario had a foresighted Premier in seventies, and his name was Bill Davis. He knew that transportation future is in rapid transit line and not in cars. There were no manufacturers in North America and Government should provide an initiative. Urban Transport Development Corporation was set up as Crown Corporation, to design and manufacture advanced rail system. The company developed new technology called ICTS (Interim Capacity Transit System). Scarborough RT (Rapid Transit) is one local application of this technology. Train uses smaller cars than subway, and it is propelled by Linear Induction Motor (LIM). New technology is hard to sell to municipal buyers, since they look for systems with a long track record. UTDC was only able to sell two additional systems. One in Vancouver. It is called SkyTrain and the second one in Detroit, where they call it UrbanMover. UTDC company created design and built our CLVR (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) that is currently still in use, in Toronto. It entered service in 1979 to replace old PCC (Presidents’ Conference Committee) streetcars. In 1988, newer version of CLVR entered Toronto. It was an articulated and stretches streetcar with designation ALRV. Both versions have become symbols of the city. Toronto’s rail network dated back to 19th century and it is called the legacy Network. It was unfortunate that neither models were ever sold; therefore, they remain unique to our city.
Tendering process is a text-book example of protectionism at its best. [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] As Canadians, we might root for and prefer Canadian company to fill the tender. It is important to keep many jobs in Canada. Transportation is paid by levels of Government, not private. It is, therefore, right for the party paying the bills to attach the conditions. IN USA, when Federal money is required for transportation project, 40% of the content must be US origin. If all money is secured on the local level or from private sources, than the condition [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] does not apply. You can buy vehicles from anywhere with no-strings attached. It is clear that all companies that produce vehicles for public projects operate in a difficult environment. It is not enough to have the” best product at the best price,” but the company has to be able to navigate trickery of politics. International trade and its principle are the losers. The costs of projects are artificially stretched for higher overhead due to political administration.
Public tenders of such a size, they are politically influenced processes above all. They have to [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] meet with political objectives set by Mayor and council, regardless of their costs. Our former city administration never considered costs of their new policies as important. They just introduced new taxes. Land transfer tax and new car registration tax. Lobbyists also play an important part in [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] the process and bidders employed lobbyists. TTC hired a consulting company to analyze Canadian manufacturing base and find out, how many potential subcontractors can have their input in streetcar building. The resulting recommendation was that no more than 10%. If more is requested, the builders might be discouraged from bidding. That was a warning from consulting company.
During 2006, Bombardier signed an order for delivery of 234 subway cars for TTC. The order was privately negotiated between TTC and Bombardier with no public tendering. TTC came under heavy criticism. Major competitors claimed to be able to produce the same cars for $100-million less. It was a lesson for Commission that it can’t hand over new orders to the favored supplier. The orders must be won in a competitive tendering process.
Ontario Government privatized UTDC in 1986, when it sold it to Lavalin, a [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] Quebec based Corporation that in turn sold the assets to another Quebec based corporation Bombardier. Toronto had its first Yonge subway line opened in 1954. The first subway trains were manufactured in Thunder Bay, Ontario by Hawker Siddeley Canada, a division of British based Hawker Siddleley Group. Kingstone-based UTDC acquired hawker Siddeley in nineties. Bombardier Corporation later acquired UTDC and Hawker Siddeley. The company and its manufacturing plant in Thunder Bay have a long and strong relationship with Toronto Transit Commission. It has been and continues to be a preferred supplier to TTC. Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is a municipal transport agency established in 1954. The commission is governed by TTC councilors, who are elected to Toronto City Council and appointed to TTC. Due to this function, TTC becomes a tool for implementation of political will that changes after every municipal election.
At the time when cities in North America with streetcars transportation were ripping the tracks and substituting buses, in fifties and sixties, Toronto resisted the trend. Montreal dismantled their trams during August 1959. It is a city that always followed European trends, but Europe always kept their trams. In our capital Ottawa, they dismantled trams during April 1959. Toronto’s rail vehicles were in danger in sixties and seventies, and only strong support from activists saved them until now. North American streetcar manufacturer disappeared from the scene. If you keep the vehicles, how do you replace them, when their useful life is at the end? In North Bay Ontario, there was a plant that had manufactured subway cars for TTC.
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