July 3, 2008
Streetcar Suspense Alleviated, Economic News Bad, BetBetBetBetBetBetBet
Looks like Toronto's next batch of streetcars will be made by Bombardier. The Canadian company is a shoo-in to win the $1.25 billion contract after German manufacturer Siemens pulled out of the bidding, leaving only a small British company and that guy down the street with the junked car on his lawn as competition.
The TSX dropped a dramatic 433 points yesterday on fears that recession will reduce demand for commodities like the oil for which we're currently turning northern Alberta into a toxic wasteland. The price of oil hit a new high of over $144 a barrel anyway.
Econ 101: With fuel prices so high, driving big trucks isn't so fun anymore, and 2,000 more workers get laid off from an auto parts company in the Toronto area. Don't say Torontoist never taught you anything.
Ontario casinos want to introduce sports betting as a way of luring back customers from the US. It'll also give all those unemployed workers a great new way to pass the time and pump their pogey cheques into the provincial tax coffers.
And Mats Sundin looks like he wants to stay in Toronto, in spite of being offered $20 million over two years by the Vancouver Canucks. Canucks management has said that if they can't get Sundin, they'll consider hiring 200 auto workers instead.
Photo by Gabi from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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That comment about the Canucks hiring 200 auto workers was pretty good. Good call back. It makes a solid point too. Nice one.
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I like that a Canadian manufacturing company will get the contract, at least those jobs won't be lost, any chance autoworkers can make streetcars or airplanes??
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A few weeks ago I commented that all the GM workers being cut should be retrained to make mass transit vehicles. That is where the government should be helping out, but the government needs to help on the demand side too, by supporting municipalities in bringing back the streetcar.
My hometown of london, Ontario once had a series of streetcars, and I'd love to see them return to the streets.
Cheers,
Tuds
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Tuds, get this through your skull: The auto workers don't want to make LRT's!
There is already a factory in Ontario that makes streetcars/LRT's, in Thunder Bay! As I said before, why create two plants for something that isn't likely to generate that big of a demand?
A better idea is for Dalton McGuinty to get Alfa Romeo to set up shop in Oshawa instead, as he said he wanted to do a few months ago. They will build a mid-size car that will be profitable enough, moreso than what GM puts out (although I'll miss the Camaro, the Solstice, Corvette, etc., when GM does go under completely!) And, he can possibly get them to make hybrids, if FIAT builds those. Wasting money on two streetcar/LRT factories is just ridiculous.