Do not expect to see Thunder Bay’s Bombardier plant benefit from a large scale Skytrain order for Vancouver.
Union head Dominic Pasqualino tells us while the local plant may have built parts for this train in the past, Thunder Bay is simply not designed to take the work. “We don’t have the track… the infrastructure to get the track built over here would be a lot of money. I don’t even know about the logistics of it. We’ve got track for subways cars, street cars, Go Trains.”
He’s not surprised the work is not coming here. Instead it is going to Kingston, where they have the technology.
However, he will never stop pushing Thunder Bay. “Hopefully maybe we can get some spinoffs of it, but I’m not sure about any of that. It’s all speculation at this point.”
The union head adds he’s still watching for Toronto to come through with a massive order for enough cars to keep Thunder Bay busy for years. Much hinges on the federal and provincial governments coordinating their efforts.
