The second Bombardier Flexity Freedom LRV for the completed yet not-yet-operating Kitchener-Waterloo LRT in Ontario, Canada, was delivered to the Dutton Road storage and maintenance facility during the week of Oct. 2, 2017.
The LRT scene in downtown Kitchener (Ontario) in early September 2017 reminds the visitor of an episode of “The Twilight Zone”: tracks complete but rusty and debris-filled; stations ready for passengers, but none to be seen.
Metrolinx, the Ontario Government’s transit agency, has dropped its appeal of the court decision earlier this year that had prevented the authority from cancelling a C$770 million order with Bombardier for 182 Flexity Freedom LRVs.
The first Bombardier Flexity Freedom LRV for the new Kitchener-Waterloo LRT line arrived Feb. 22, 2017, after a long journey by rail from the carbuilder’s plant in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
The year 2017 will see construction on Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT project move into its next phase.
Bombardier Transportation’s trouble-plagued, behind-schedule contract with the Toronto Transit Commission for 204 new low-floor Flexity streetcars continues to be the public target of Toronto Mayor John Tory and TTC Board Chair Josh Colle.
The basic design work for Hamilton, Ontario’s LRT system has been finalized, including the selection of a site for the Maintenance and Storage Facility (MSF). The eight-mile (13–km) line is being financed at an estimate C$1 billion cost by Metrolinx, the provincial agency that oversees Ontario rail transit activity.
The jinx that has bedeviled timely delivery of Toronto’s new low-floor LRVs has now struck the Kitchener-Waterloo ION LRT, presently under construction. Meanwhile, the final alignment for Hamilton’s new B Line LRT is close to confirmation.
Production and delivery delays continue to plague the new low-floor Flexity Freedom streetcars Bombardier Transportation is building for the Toronto Transit Commission. TTC CEO Andy Byford, who is said to “revel in chaos,” is frustrated with yet another missed deadline. And Toronto Mayor John Tory is “completely dismayed,” as Toronto Star City Hall Reporter Jennifer Pagliaro reported on Monday, April 25, 2016. We reprint the article, in full:
Bombardier Transportation has won a contract to provide 30 years of maintenance on the Bombardier Flexity Freedom light rail vehicles (LRVs) it will build for service on the new Toronto Eglinton Crosstown line. The contract, which was awarded by the Crosslinx Transit Solutions Maintenance General Partnership, is valued at approximately C$403 million CDN ($US 308 million, €282 million).
