Toronto transit projects

[ijmorlan]

I'm not sure I follow.  The FLEXITY Freedom LRV's they have on order are 4m a pop.  The Alstom CITADIS Spirit LRV's they just bought a bunch of cost them 12m a pop.  What am I missing?

Well, there is still some uncertainty about what is actually going to happen, but presumably Alstom will actually deliver its vehicles. It’s not yet clear that Bombardier can actually do so. Just because the store is advertising 60% off doesn’t mean they actually have any of the product available to sell. You might have to go to the store across town that isn’t advertising a sale but will actually sell you the stuff you need now.

Now, to be fair, I fully expect Bombardier to be able to deliver eventually, and if the Alstoms really cost 3 times as much there is something wrong somewhere — it’s a bit much for these vehicles to cost even $4M each, but $12M is just ridiculous — but to date we don’t actually know for certain that Bombardier can deliver a complete, working vehicle, in this market.

(and yes, I know Alstom also doesn’t have an inventory of vehicles ready to drive now. The store thing is just an analogy)