Toronto transit union honours TTC bus rebuild workers who have saved city
hundreds of millions of dollars

TORONTO , Dec. 11 /CNW/ - The Toronto Transit Commission's bus rebuild program that began in 1995 comes to a close today at an 11:15 a.m. ceremony at Duncan Shop, one of the TTC's major maintenance garages at the Hillcrest Complex at Bathurst and Davenport .

The program began under former Chief General Manager David Gunn because the time lag between the ordering and delivery of new buses was too great to maintain and improve transit service levels. Although it started modestly, the initial results were so encouraging that the program was greatly expanded as it proved much less expensive to rebuild buses than purchase new ones.

A typical urban public transit bus will last for 12 years. The TTC's rebuild program extends that life to 25 years, sometimes more. A complete rebuild of a bus costs a fraction of the price of a new bus. Over the life of the program, a total of 1994 TTC buses have been completely rebuilt by in-house maintenance staff, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, resulting in very substantial savings to the TTC.

"The unqualified success of this program is a testament to the great skill of hundreds of our members in the Maintenance Department," says Local 113 President Bob Kinnear . "They are a hidden public asset of great value and it is time they were given credit for the hundreds of millions of dollars they have saved TTC users and taxpayers. Toronto owes them thanks for a job very well done."

The bus rebuild program is ending because new designs and technologies, particularly the energy efficient diesel-electric hybrid buses, now make it more economic to purchase new vehicles.

"These new vehicles are great but they are also going to need to be maintained well into the future," Kinnear added. "The people of Toronto should know that this work will be done by the finest transit maintenance workforce in the world."

For further information: Bill Reno, [phone]