(The Canadian Press circulated the following on December 20.)
MONTREAL — Bombardier Transportation, which announced plans this year to cut 21 per cent of its work force, has won an $81-million (U.S.) order to supply 26 streetcars to Marseille, France.
The Flexicity Outlook low-floor trams are to be put in service on a new tram network in early 2007, Montreal-based Bombardier said Monday. Deliveries are scheduled between September 2006 and April 2007.
“This order by the second-largest city in France demonstrates the trust in our engineering competence and the implementation of a truly innovative and esthetic industrial design,” Andre Navarri, president of Bombardier Transportation, said in a release.
In early December, Bombardier announced it was cutting 2,200 more jobs in its rail transportation division, including 500 in Ontario and Quebec. Those reductions brought to 7,600 the number cut in the transportation division so far this year, in addition to 2,500 jobs cut from aircraft operations.
Since those announcements, Bombardier Inc. CEO Paul Tellier has also left the parent company in a major boardroom shakeup.
The cuts announced this year, amounting to 21 per cent of Bombardier’s train manufacturing work force of 35,600, are to be completed by April 2006.