Bombardier misses another deadline for Eglinton Crosstown project
Bombardier promised test vehicle for the major Toronto transit project would be delivered in August

thestar.com
By Ben Spurr
Sept. 1, 2016

Rail manufacturer Bombardier has blown another deadline for the delivery of the first vehicle for Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT, but the company vows the latest delay won’t affect the opening of the $5.3-billion transit line.

Metrolinx, the regional transit agency for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, confirmed Wednesday that the Quebec-based manufacturer has yet to complete the test vehicle for the Crosstown. That means Bombardier has missed the end-of-August target date that the company said as recently as last month it was on track to meet.

“Bombardier was not able to deliver the pilot vehicle at the end of August. Metrolinx officials continue to work closely with Bombardier and track its progress,” said Anne Marie Aikins, a spokeswoman for Metrolinx, which is an agency of the provincial government.

“The latest information Bombardier has provided is that the prototype will be ready for testing within the next three to four weeks.”

According to Bombardier spokesman Marc-Andre Lefebvre, the pilot is in the “final phase of manufacturing” at the company’s Thunder Bay, Ont. plant.

“We will be putting the final touches in the next two to three weeks before presenting the car to Metrolinx for inspection,” Lefebvre said. He added that the company has proposed a way “to accelerate the inspection process” in order to allow the vehicle to proceed to on-track testing “as quickly as possible.”

In July, Metrolinx issued a notice of default to Bombardier claiming that the company was in breach of contract for failing to meet its delivery schedule. At the time, the transit agency said it was concerned that the delay could impact the opening of the 19-km Crosstown, which is scheduled to enter service in 2021.

Lefebvre pledged Wednesday that the company would supply the necessary vehicles for the line to open as planned. According to Bombardier, testing of the prototype will take only nine months once the vehicle is complete. Full production of the 76-vehicle Crosstown fleet is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2018.

In May, Bombardier announced changes to its production line that it said would allow it to ramp up manufacture of the vehicles.

Aikins wouldn’t say Wednesday whether Metrolinx remains concerned about being able to open the Crosstown on time.

Metrolinx placed a $770-million order with Bombardier in 2010 for up to 182 vehicles that could be used on provincially-funded light rail projects, including Toronto’s Crosstown, Finch Ave. West, and Sheppard Ave. East lines. The Finch line is also slated to open in 2021, and could be served by the same Bombardier vehicles. Completion of the Sheppard LRT has been deferred indefinitely.

Bombardier was originally supposed to deliver the first pilot vehicle in the spring of 2014. The date was later pushed back to the spring of 2015, but that timeline was also missed.

Toronto transit users are still dealing with repeated delays to the TTC’s order for a new fleet of Bombardier streetcars. Under the original terms of the $1.2-billion contract, the company was to have delivered 109 of the streetcars to the TTC by the end of this year. So far, only 22 service-ready vehicleshave arrived.

In April, the company set a new target of supplying a total of 30 of the vehicles by the end of 2016. Lefebvre told the Star Bombardier is on track to meet that end-of-year quota, and to deliver all 204 new TTC streetcars by 2019.

Asked whether the TTC is confident the vehicles will arrive on time, agency spokesman Brad Ross said that in meetings with Bombardier, TTC CEO Andy Byford has reinforced “that they must meet 30 by year-end, but also that he wants to see a delivery schedule that shows improved delivery in 2017. He also reiterates, at every opportunity, that the 2019 end date for delivery of all 204 cars is not to slip.”