THUNDER BAY – There is more work headed to Thunder Bay. The city’s Bombardier plant will start delivering new Bilevel rail cars to Metrolinx starting in June.
Bombardier Transportation announced today that it has received an order from Metrolinx for the supply of 50 BOMBARDIER BiLevel commuter rail cars to be delivered to GO Transit in Toronto. The contract for the 50 rail cars is valued at approximately $125 million CDN ($128 million US, 93 million euro). The vehicles will be built at Bombardier’s Thunder Bay, Ontario, manufacturing facility. Production is scheduled to start in June 2011 and first deliveries in November 2011.
“We are pleased to provide GO Transit with additional BiLevel cars and welcome our customer’s renewed confidence in the products we deliver,” said Raymond Bachant, President, Bombardier Transportation, North America. “We are also proud of our successful customer relationship with GO Transit who operates the largest commuter rail network in Canada.”
“This is great news for the employees at Bombardier and the economy of Thunder Bay. This investment continues our government’s commitment to mass transit and helps Bombardier remain a major economic catalyst for Thunder Bay and region,” stated Bill Mauro, Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP.
“Today’s announcement will benefit the people who live and work in Thunder Bay. Investments like this will keep people working and our community strong and vibrant”, enthused Michael Gravelle, Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP.
In service since 1978, the BiLevel car was designed in cooperation with GO Transit, now a division of Metrolinx. The objective was to establish a user-friendly, 162-seat car with a baseline design for future modifications.
The BiLevel car is the most popular multi-level commuter rail car in North America, with operations in 13 major cities across Canada and the United States, including urban centers like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco and Seattle. This latest order from Metrolinx will include the 1,000th BiLevel car manufactured in Thunder Bay.
Bombardier’s Thunder Bay plant is actively working on the supply of Toronto’s latest generation of metro cars, as well as light rail vehicles for the Toronto Transit Commission and Metrolinx.