Métro-car fleet price soars
https://www.montrealgazette.com/Métro+fleet+price+soars/2203729/story.html
The original $1.2-billion price tag from consortium Bombardier/Alstom to renew Montreal’s métro-car fleet has soared, perhaps to $2 billion, and the original 342 cars required has at least more than doubled to 765 and perhaps tripled to 1,000.
Transport Minister Julie Boulet and Claude Béchard, MNA for Kamouraska-Témiscouata where Bombardier has a railcar factory, said on the weekend talks with Bombardier and Alstom had evolved and the proposed contract, until now pegged at $1.2 billion, would be far higher.
The proposed deal now covers at least 765 cars, Goulet spokesperson Jolyane Pronovost confirmed, rather than the 342 that had been mentioned since 2003, when the fleet renewal contract was first announced by the Société des transports de Montréal.
Pronovost disputed the price tag of $2 billion in a news story in Quebec City’s Le Soleil.
“We never said that,” she said. “There are all sorts of scenarios, but to say they’ve doubled, we can’t say that.”
Pronovost conceded, however, that “it’s obvious that the costs will surpass (the announced $1.2 billion). It will be higher. How much higher is impossible to know. We’re still in negotiations, but what we’re doing is making sure that we pay the fair and right price. That’s what it’s all about now.”
STM spokesperson Marianne Rouette said that “you know, these are negotiations. There’s a lot of give and take once you start negotiating in earnest.”
“But as far as the STM is concerned, until further notice, our call for tenders remains for 342 cars.”
The talks, steered by former premier Lucien Bouchard, were supposed to have finished in June, but that deadline passed without a deal.
Rouette also said that the main sticking point behind the delay was price, but she could not expand on that.
Asked what could be the reason for the number of cars to triple, Rouette said that all the talk about métro extensions to Laval and Longueuil in the last year might account for it.
“You need a lot more cars if you have a lot of new tracks,” Rouette said.
In September, the Quebec government agreed in principle to a plan by the mayors of Montreal, Laval and Longueuil to extend the métro, but no details have been worked out on the number of added kilometres, number of cars or the price to lengthen existing lines.
On Saturday, Le Soleil quoted Béchard as saying that “negotiations are ongoing with the Bombardier-Alstom consortium and we’re in the home-stretch, but you know, it’s very, very complex. There’s no comparable anywhere in the whole world on such an important contract.”
“It’s the biggest contract ever given by Quebec to a company. I hope that a maximum of jobs will be created in Quebec and in Canada, but at the same time, we have to justify the production costs to all Quebecers, who, in the final analysis, will foot the bill.”
Bombardier has transferred equipment from its La Pocatière plant to another factory in Plattsburgh, which is manufacturing cars for a contract for Chicago’s subway system. But Béchard said that wouldn’t affect the Montreal deal – nor trigger any retaliation stemming from possible charges of protectionism.
Rouette said that “there are a lot of numbers out there, but they’re not our numbers.”
She said that the original $1.2-billion price tag included rolling stock, long-term maintenance, training and construction of a garage to accommodate the new cars, among other things.
First deliveries of the new métro cars are scheduled for 2012.
The métro deal has been controversial from the start, when Bombardier was the sole company allowed to bid for it. After a court challenge from France’s Alstom, with which Bombardier collaborates on some contracts worldwide and against which it competes on others, a judge disallowed the sole-bid provision. Bombardier and Alstom eventually formed a consortium to bid on the Montreal contract – after a prod from no less than French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who hinted that if Alstom was barred from bidding, Bombardier might have similar problems in France, where the Montreal company regularly wins rail and métro bids.
Bombardier spokespersons were not immediately available for comment.
fshalom@thegazette.canwest.com
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