Worthy of a Post of its Own
Evil Eye has left a new comment on your post "From the folks who brought you CANADA LINE & other...":
David, this is how the scam goes. Please bear with me.
In the late 1980's Ontario's UTDC sold the proprietary SkyTrain light-metro system to Lavalin. While Lavalin tried to sell a SkyTrain to Bangkok, Thailand, they went bankrupt (Siemens won the contract and their elevated metro system is called SkyTrain but has no relation to our SkyTrain!)
From the ashes of Lavalin, Bombardier bought the rights to the SkyTrain system, did a large retooling of the proprietary light-metro and now sells it as Automated light metro.
SNC bought what was left of Lavalin and the new firm was now called SNC lavalin. There is also a relationship between SNC Lavalin and Bombardier Inc.
When one buys with a UTDC/Bombardier SkyTrain you are married to the product as no other metro is compatible with SkyTrain.
Millions of dollars were spent on ensuring that TransLink would use SkyTrain for the third metro line in the Vancouver region as they bought off the NDP with promises of jobs, jobs, jobs from a small ART assembly plant in Burnaby. The promise of jobs, jobs, jobs, just did not materialize as no one buys with SkyTrain!
With Gordon Campbell, came another wrinkle, he wanted a showcase P-3 project for the next metro line but because SkyTrain is a proprietary light-metro, a true P-3 was impossible.
Now, SNC Lavalin being no slouches, doubled down with Bombardier and Intransit BC bidding on the project and effectively bounced both Siemens and Alstom from the project, leaving SNC a winner no matter what.
Bombardier was pipped at the post by Intransit BC who dumbed down a standard ROTEM metro car operating on a truncated metro line. With other bits of nastiness such as doing away with safety features and not paying compensation to merchants and businesses along Cambie St. where cut-and-cover construction devestated local businesses, SNC Lavlin made a killing.
(there is a rumour that SNC types hobnobbed with some Supreme Court types to quash a certain lawsuit claiming damages due to cut-and-cover construction, which would greatly hurt SNC's bottom Line)
With the Evergreen line, no silliness about a P-3 there and the Bombardier/SNC Lavalin group will make a lot of money building the forgotten bit of the NDP's Millennium Line.
Building with SkyTrain means SNC wins by default.
By forcing SkyTrain to be built instead of much cheaper and just as effective LRT, means the BC taxpayer is paying a lot more money to SNC, in fact the BC taxpayer maybe paying up to 10 times more money that they should by building with the SkyTrain light-metro!
The big prize for SNC will be the proposed $4 billion SkyTrain subway to UBC and it would be interesting to see who SNC is cozy with at Vancouver city hall, the province, the NDP, and TransLink.
P.S. Remember a certain Vancouver cop found a briefcase with a cool $1 million in a trash can at Clinto park in East Vancouver and this was right around the time of the great switcheroo by the NDP by demanding SkyTrain be built instead of LRT for the then Broadway Lougheed rapid transit project, now known as the Millennium Line. I just love coincidences!
