[OT] Public Transit

[Evan Leibovitch]

On 27 October 2010 13:05, <phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

>
> > Well I have a hard time believing GM made an excellent product, but I
> > guess at some point in time (long ago) they probably did.  Of course
> > given how they have done since they would probably have been making the
> > same model still if no one had been competing with them.
> >
>
> GM were instrumental in getting streetcars replaced with busses in many
> American cities. It's interesting to speculate why that didn't happen
> entirely in Toronto: farsightedness or inertia?
>

Neither. In Canada GM's lobbying has to compete with that of Bombardier, a
prominent maker of subway and LRT cars which has received plenty of
government assistance (most notably in its global commuter-plane competition
with Brazil's Embraer). And before Bombardier there was Hawker Siddley,

(Remember the recent mini-controversy about Toronto's replacement subway
cars? One bidder claimed they could do them a little cheaper if built
offshore, but the contract went to Bombardier and single-handedly breathed
new life into its Thunder Bay factory.

- Evan
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