TTC internal emails flag sharp drop in reliability of new streetcars

Thestar.com
April 1, 2019
Benn Spurr

The reliability of Toronto’s new streetcars declined sharply at the start of the year as failures in nearly all of the vehicles’ systems surged, and TTC workers struggled to deal with more than 6,000 open work orders on a fleet of about 120 cars, according to internal transit agency emails obtained by the Star.

Under the terms of the $1-billion deal the TTC inked with Bombardier in 2009, the agency’s new low-floor streetcars are supposed to travel 35,000 km before experiencing a significant failure that delays service for five minutes or more.

The TTC’s new low-floor streetcars travelled a mean distance of 7,577 km before experiencing a significant failure that delayed service for five minutes or more. The target is 35,000 km.

In the first month of 2019 the cars travelled a mean distance of just 7,577 km before exhibiting a problem that delayed service, according to statistics recently published by the TTC. That was almost one-fifth of the target, and roughly half the distance the cars ran in December before experiencing failures.

According to the emails, which were exchanged between TTC engineers and other officials over the first three months of this year, the cars’ poor performance in January was a result of an “increase in failures ... across almost all systems” including the proliferation of a braking issue that a senior engineer warned could not be fixed quickly.

Despite the decline in reliability, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said the agency is generally satisfied with the new streetcars.

“It is fair to say that on the whole, these vehicles are performing very well for us. They are bigger, they are accessible and they proved incredibly reliable during this past winter season,” he said in a statement Tuesday.

“However, where they are falling short, our staff need to make honest assessments of what they are seeing, what they think needs improving and ways to get those improvements made.”

A Bombardier spokesperson also stood by the vehicles, which she said are “safe, reliable and available for use.”

“We are working closely with our customer (the TTC) to make sure all targets are achieved,” said Sandra Buckler, the senior director of public affairs for the company.

The TTC’s order with Bombardier is for 204 of the cars. As of last week, the agency had 134 in service, and the Quebec-based manufacturer maintains it is overcoming well-documented production delays and will supply the remainder of the vehicles by the end of this year, as scheduled.

Public TTC reports show the streetcars they have consistently failed to reach reliability standards spelled out in the contract.

Under the terms of the deal, the cars were supposed to meet the 35,000 km target, a measurement known as the “mean distance between failures,” by the time the 60th car was delivered.

The 60th car went into service in January 2018, but the cars have never met the 35,000 km target. The closest the vehicles have come since then was in February 2018, when they went almost 20,000 km without failures. The reliability figures for January 2019 were the lowest for any month since the 60th car started running.

The TTC and Bombardier have repeatedly made statements reassuring the public the number of failures the cars exhibit will decrease as Bombardier perfects its production processes.

However, the emails show that with just months to go before Bombardier is supposed to finish delivering the fleet, TTC experts internally expressed serious concerns about the high number of failures afflicting different parts of the cars.

On Feb. 7, 2019, TTC chief engineer Greg Ernst wrote his colleagues to report January’s 7,577 km number, saying the cars’ reliability figures for that month were “not good.”

Brake failures in January more than doubled to 32, compared to 14 the month before. The number of failures in other parts of the cars such as doors and propulsion systems also jumped to 35 from 18, bringing the total number of delay incidents to 67.

Ernst wrote that in order to meet the reliability target, the cars should be exhibiting just 15 failures per month.

Ernst said the higher number of failures was due in part to a “safety bulletin” issued by Bombardier in November that requires the TTC to immediately remove cars from service if they experience a brake failure.

According to the TTC, Bombardier issued the bulletin out of an abundance of caution after a problem with loose fasteners on a brake caliper was discovered last year.

Ernst wrote the caliper problem as well as a leakage issue with the hydraulic brake system had resulted in “a large number” of out-of-service incidents. He warned: “We do not expect any improvement in this failure trend in the near future.”

Buckler said Bombardier has drawn up a plan with its brake supplier and the TTC to address the braking issue and intends to fully implement it by the summer.

“What’s important to note here is that there is no safety issue and that the vehicles did not and do not have problems braking,” she said.

Although the contract with Bombardier allows the TTC to refuse delivery of the cars if they don’t meet reliability standards, Green said it’s common for new vehicles to require “ongoing fine tuning” and stopping delivery wouldn’t have “provided any real benefit.”

“Simply put, we need the new streetcars to meet service demands. And even if reliability goals are not being met, they are performing relatively well in service and we will continue to work Bombardier and its suppliers to improve reliability,” he said, noting the TTC’s newer Toronto Rocket subway cars also had reliability issues when they first entered service but now perform well.

The vehicle contract allows the TTC to seek damages from Bombardier if the reliability target isn’t met by the time the final vehicle is delivered, but Green said the agency is working with Bombardier to improve performance and “avoid going this route.”

While he expressed confidence in the new cars, he couldn’t say when they will achieve the 35,000 km reliability target.

“A number of ongoing initiatives are being implemented through engineering and quality changes that will improve vehicle performance. Unfortunately, they are taking longer than expected and while we continue to work with Bombardier ... it doesn’t appear the 35,000 km (mean distance between failure target) will be achieved before these changes are fully implemented,” he said.

A separate email shows that a TTC official cautioned the high number of fixes required for the new cars was becoming overwhelming.

On Feb. 3, TTC chief vehicle officer Richard Wong told colleagues the TTC had more than 6,000 open work orders -- unfinished maintenance or modification jobs -- for a fleet of just 120 new streetcars, a number he said was “unacceptable.”

“This will get to be unmanageable -- if it is not already so,” he wrote.

While Wong wrote that a large portion of the work was modifications and warranty repairs for which Bombardier crews are responsible, his email suggested he believed TTC workers needed to buckle down.

He wrote that TTC supervisors needed to ensure parts and employees required for scheduled work were available each shift if the agency was going to improve the vehicles’ performance.

“We need to start practicing greater discipline in planning if we are to get out of our natural state of ‘fire-fighting,’” he said.

Bombardier’s spokesperson acknowledged there are “a considerable number of work orders currently open” on the new cars, but said Bombardier met with the TTC two weeks ago to work on a plan to address the issue.

“We are committed to achieve the reliability objectives within the contractual period,” Buckler said.

The emails also capture internal TTC discussions about streetcar operations in the east downtown neighbourhood of Corktown, where for years residents have complained about the vehicles making loud screeching noises as they make the turn at King St. E. and Sumach St.

One of the measures the TTC has taken to fight the problem is using on-board devices called wheel flange lubricators that are designed to dampen the sound.

The devices were installed on about 100 of the new streetcars, but last month a TTC manager reported to his colleagues that 13 of the vehicles had lubricators that weren’t working.

Stephen Lam, the former head of the TTC’s streetcar department who now works for the agency as a consultant, wrote on March 14 that he was “taken aback” by the number of malfunctioning lubricators.

He raised the possibility that the devices failing at such high rates might represent a “latent defect” that under the vehicle contract Bombardier would be required to address by reviewing its design or performing a retrofit.

According to Green, the TTC spokesperson, the agency is still investigating the root causes of the lubricating problems, but has taken other steps to quiet the screeching noise, including installing an on-site lubricator at the Cherry Loop to grease the tracks, and working with the wheel manufacturer to install a noise dampening ring on the wheels themselves.

The rise in reliability issues early this year is only the latest problem to afflict the TTC’s streetcar fleet, which includes more than 130 new streetcars as well as upwards of 100 older models that the agency is gradually decommissioning.

After struggling for years with production delays that left the TTC short of vehicles, last July Bombardier revealed it would need to recall 67 of the cars it had already supplied and send them to Quebec to fix a welding problem.

A $26-million program the TTC launched in 2015 to extend the life of 30 of its older model streetcars by a decade failed, and the agency now plans to retire the last of those vehicles later this year.