05-25-2016, 07:58 AM
It's a NEW standard, for North America, based on the FLEXITY 2 designed in Europe. The frames were being built at a Bombardier-acquired plant in Mexico and this was the first job for them (the FLEXITY Outlook trams for Toronto). They screwed them up and now production of the frames is being shifted to BBD's La Pocatiere facility in Quebec, which is winding down the TR Subway vehicle order for the TTC.
Thunder Bay COULD have cranked these out on schedule, like they do every other product they make, if it weren't for the shoddy frames. That put them so far behind that now they need to shift production of our train variant, the FLEXITY Freedom, to another plant - Millhaven (Kingston). Millhaven is just finishing up an order for Kuala Lumpur so they have capacity there now, too. That's also where the test track is, which the first Freedom LRV will use, so this all makes sense.
The problem is we're now riding a rolling wave of lateness which will eventually tighten up. But it will take a little bit of time (6 months).
We just have to sit tight and wait. Knee-jerk reactions of "cancel the order! Buy different trains!" Solve absolutely nothing and would only result in a far, far worse delay.
Thunder Bay COULD have cranked these out on schedule, like they do every other product they make, if it weren't for the shoddy frames. That put them so far behind that now they need to shift production of our train variant, the FLEXITY Freedom, to another plant - Millhaven (Kingston). Millhaven is just finishing up an order for Kuala Lumpur so they have capacity there now, too. That's also where the test track is, which the first Freedom LRV will use, so this all makes sense.
The problem is we're now riding a rolling wave of lateness which will eventually tighten up. But it will take a little bit of time (6 months).
We just have to sit tight and wait. Knee-jerk reactions of "cancel the order! Buy different trains!" Solve absolutely nothing and would only result in a far, far worse delay.