The MTA’s shoddy oversight of a $600 million subway car order led to years of delays — saddling the agency with $35 million in additional costs, according to a city comptroller report released Monday.
Canadian manufacturer Bombardier was supposed to deliver 300 new subway cars by January 2017 — but only had 18 ready by then, and still hasn’t completed the job.
The contract allowed the MTA to crack down on the tardiness, but it didn’t do so until the project was already off the rails — and wound up spending another $35 million to keep older cars in service while it waited, Comptroller Scott Stringer charged.
“Bombardier decided to sell us lemons and the MTA didn’t hold them accountable,” he told reporters Monday morning. “This was a lackadaisical management process on behalf of Bombardier and the MTA.”
Delays began during the initial design process, when Bombardier failed to produce a “prioritization plan” by deadline, the audit said.
Bombardier was also late to submit its welding plan — and didn’t do so until four months into an 18-month delay caused by cracks in its welding materials, it charged.
Even when the train cars were finished, their doors, brakes and communications systems “repeatedly” failed tests, further delaying their deployment.
The MTA has continued to face issues with the train cars, even after their delivery — R179 cars are already breaking down more often than some of their older counterparts, The City reported last month.
Stringer said transit officials waited until 2016 to start holding the company accountable.
“They weren’t managing the contract,” he said.
MTA transit chief Andy Byford responded by saying Stringer’s audit merely “confirms what we already know,” and took issue with the comptroller’s criticisms of his agency.
Byford said he has met with Bombardier’s CEO every month to six weeks since he joined the MTA in early 2018.
“We have held Bombardier’s feet to the fire,” he said. “Bombardier let the MTA down. Bombardier let New Yorkers down.”
“We acknowledge some of the issues mentioned in the report, many of which occurred early in the contract and which we worked diligently to resolve,” Bombardier rep Maryanne Roberts said in a statement. “We remain focused on completing delivery of the remaining cars by the end of this month.”