Canadian Railroads > Bombardier to sell train unit to Alstom

While reading through the Canadian media to keep up with this protest nonsense which is crippling the nation as Trudeau continues to drag his feet through the mud with his lack of leadership,  I found this about Alstom buying Bonbardier's rail unit https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-bombardier-to-sell-train-unit-to-french-rail-giant-alstom/

There's a lot of history behind the Bombardier rail division.  Canadian Car & Foundry had plants in Montreal QC and Thunder Bay ON that built both passenger and freight cars for the Canadian Railways, and the Montreal plant built streetcars. Later the Thunder Bay plant built hundreds of subway cars for Toronto. For awhile Hawker Siddeley took ownership of the CC&F plants. Finally Bombardier took over.

I wonder if after the sale, Bombardier might pay back some of the handouts they got from the Canadian tax payers.
Doug

hoggerdoug Wrote:
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> I wonder if after the sale, Bombardier might pay
> back some of the handouts they got from the
> Canadian tax payers.

I didn't know you were a humorist, too!!!

Ray

hoggerdoug Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if after the sale, Bombardier might pay
> back some of the handouts they got from the
> Canadian tax payers.
> Doug

That money got hidden away in offshore bank accounts as soon as it was transferred to the company!

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

Apparently, this long established family run company suffered a common fate, the offspring of the founder didn't inherit his financial and business accumen. 

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> There's a lot of history behind the Bombardier
> rail division.  Canadian Car & Foundry had plants
> in Montreal QC and Thunder Bay ON that built both
> passenger and freight cars for the Canadian
> Railways, and the Montreal plant built streetcars.
> Later the Thunder Bay plant built hundreds of
> subway cars for Toronto. For awhile Hawker
> Siddeley took ownership of the CC&F plants.
> Finally Bombardier took over.

In between Hawker Siddeley and Bombardier was the Urban Transportation Development Corporation, owned by the Ontario government.

Bombardier's market in North America for railway equipment is fairly limited. It's a much bigger player in Europe, making locomotives as well as passenger cars, LRT and metro/subway vehicles. In recognition of that, in 2006 the headquarters of the rail division, known as Bombardier Transportation, was moved from Montreal to Berlin.

So in effect, what's happening here is that a German operation is being merged into a French company. That's if the European competition and monopolies regulator allows it to happen -- a merger between Alstom and Siemens was recently disallowed. There might be some difference in how that's interpreted, given that the rail division is a wholly owned subsidiary of a Canadian (i.e. non-European) parent.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/20 18:30 by railsmith.