This story is the first of a two-part series. To see Part Two, click here.
MONTREAL (djc Features) – It may not be faster than a speeding bullet, or even as swift as a plane ride, but Bombardier’s Superman of trains could reshape how Canada views high-speed rail — a travelling method designed to reduce trip times, digitize casual rides and rattle a few cages at the same time.
The yet-to-be-available JetTrain has a name as self-explanatory as The Beer Store. This steel-encased train is powered by an engine used in turboprop planes designed by Bombardier’s aerospace division. JetTrain’s speed can reach a maximum of 260 km/h, reducing a Montreal-Toronto ride to three hours from four-and-a-half hours. It can even maintain its breakneck speeds along curves, due to a high-tech tilting mechanism Bombardier patented for its landmark product.
“In North America, this is the first time this marriage has taken place,” says Daniel Hubert, manager of advanced engineering for Montreal-based Bombardier. The groom is the jet technology, particularly the 5,000 horsepower that drives JetTrain (compared to a conventional train’s 4,000 horsepower). The bride is the 69-foot-long train, built lighter than its predecessors. Inside the sleek red-and-white casing, all the required amenities compliment the luxury ride: Climate control, increased legroom, individual power outlets and Wi-Fi access.
But for all the impressive specs touted by the world’s largest producer of high-speed trains, what’s happening with all the old-school style rails? Even though the airplane industry nose-dived since 9/11, travelling by train is not as practical in Canada as it is in Europe or Asia. VIA Rail, though, points to some optimistic numbers: In 2002, VIA transported four million passengers across the country. And high-speed rail, if implemented nationwide, could pluck 900,000 vehicles off the road each year.
JetTrain launched in October 2002 but Bombardier says the train’s public presence depends on the feds. Transport Minister David Collenette recently injected $700-million into the rail industry (particularly VIA Rail) although an expansive high-speed plan could take years to finalize. To patient but ambitious heavyweights like Bombardier, high-speed is worth waiting for.
“It’s a complimentary mode of transportation,” Hubert says. “It works with the convergence of air, and provides a solution to 400-mile corridors.” In train-speak, corridors are those traffic-congested routes that stress out every driver and transport minister. For JetTrain’s purposes, the Quebec City-Windsor route is the Super Bowl of corridors, and JetTrain’s proponents support the cost-effectiveness of easing car traffic in this stuffed-like-sardines area.
Harry Gow, founding president of transport advocacy group Transport 2000, highlights a long-standing concern. “We have to unplug the plugged toilet that is [Toronto’s] Highway 401,” he says, alluding to the highway where 400,000 vehicles pass through daily. He says high-speed rail has been effective in the Boston-Washington corridor where Bombardier fleets already shuttle passengers at blazing speeds. “And terrorists aren’t going to hijack trains and plow them into buildings,” Gow adds, without prompting.
High-speed supporters must have grinned ear to ear when a 2002 Ipsos-Reid poll revealed that 95 per cent of Canadians agree trains would decrease road congestion. And the captain at Bombardier’s helm is no stranger to tracks and tilting mechanisms — CEO Paul Tellier resurrected an underperforming Canadian National Railways, turning it into a money train.
Tellier has stiff-armed doubts that Bombardier Inc. couldn’t recover from a slump, and the transportation segment performed adequately: 2002 numbers reveal that it brought in close to one-third of the company’s global revenue. Its 2001 acquisition of train-maker Adtranz excited investors and shaped the Canadian company into an even more intimidating behemoth. Partnerships with key players such as Toronto-based Go Transit and Deutsche Bahn AG are examples of Bombardier’s money-making contracts. (A recent $633-million order from Deutsche Bahn will introduce screens that inform passengers in real-time about stops and transfer points.)
Bombardier’s reach has touched almost every corner of the globe. More than half of its revenue is generated from the European rail market. China, a major purchaser, recently ordered 300 intercity passenger cars; and in June, Bombardier finalized a contract to supply Taiwan with a $729-million rapid transit system. Bread-and-butter work includes the five-year, $1.56-billion operating and maintenance deal signed with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. And JetTrain may make a global debut with Florida’s proposed high-speed rail line, which will link the 137-kilometre route from Tampa Bay to Orlando. Slated to open in 2009, the rail network promises (according to the website) to “leave the gentlest footprint on precious ecosystems.”
But Bombardier has left a memorable footprint on the rail industry, with 32 manufacturing facilities across the world. Tellier is confident that customers will continue to gobble up the company’s offerings, regardless of the economic climate. Last year, he pithily summed up his thoughts on Bombardier Transportation’s future: “This is almost — underline ‘almost’ — recession-free,” he said.
Bombardier business isn’t all carefree and cozy. Last March, Tellier brought down the axe on 3,000 jobs, in response to dipping shares. In mid-August, Bombardier lost out to rival Siemens AG of Germany to build 168 rail coaches — a $444-million contract. JetTrain’s introduction was soured when high-speed rail opponents called the project a “genuinely terrible idea.” Warren Everson of the Air Transport Association of Canada wrote in the Globe and Mail: “The rule of thumb in transportation is this: The faster the trip, the more expensive it is. Would a high-speed train defy this conventional wisdom by providing rapid transit at a low cost?”
Bombardier’s Hubert counters by accepting only half of Everson’s statement. “Sure, costs increase when speed does. But Canada needs a high-speed rail network, especially since cars are clogging highways. In the long run, we’ll save money on all the gas saved. And airplanes will still be an option when someone has to travel from Toronto to Vancouver, for instance.” But finger-waggers like Everson point out that when two technologies compete for the same market, one loses. He believes that “airlines can’t win against a government willing to use billions of tax dollars to seize the market,” inevitably bullying planes out of those coveted corridors.
Politics and protest is par for the course when Tellier and his execs blueprint an expansive network like JetTrain high-speed rail. Its aerospace battles with aggressive rival Embraer (from Brazil) have taught the transport giant how to bare some fangs. When Tellier sold Bombardier’s troubled recreational products division (read: Ski-Doos, ATVs and boating products) for $1.2 billion in late August, investors welcomed a restructuring plan that would reduce debt and take the heat off its marginal profits.
So Bombardier Transportation is in an exclusive position to electrify the Canadian travel industry without electrifying its trains. JetTrain’s technology is eons away from what train pioneers must have envisioned when they laid down the last spike on the transcontinental railroad in 1885. Today’s rail supporters hope to speak a new language in the coming years, when the words “high-speed rail” regularly descend onto newspapers and contracts.
You heard it here first: Bombardier is calling all Canadians to come aboard.
