The Ontario Liberal government has ordered another 65 GO bi-level coaches from Bombardier in a move designed to prepare the commuter rail service for expansion and fund 250 jobs in Thunder Bay.

The latest $481 million order will bring GO’s coach fleet to 743 with the new deliveries expected to arrive between June 2016 and July 2017.

It is an amendment to an existing March 2012 contract with Bombardier, the only Canadian manufacturer of rail coaches. It offers economies of scale and a standardized fleet, according to Metrolinx.

“A consistent fleet provides great cost and operations advantages,” said spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins on Friday.

“We have a great deal of faith in their operational integrity, a high level of familiarity in their maintenance, and systems and processes in place to procure replacement parts,” she said in an email to the Toronto Star.

The new passenger coaches are supposed to help GO serve its growing ridership as it ramps up to all-day, two-way service on more train lines. But, that expansion is still a ways off.

“It’s a key part of the next wave of projects under The Big Move (Toronto region transportation plan) to have all-day, two-way service across all of our lines….achieving that depends on dedicated funding. We’re excited about this purchase because we are determined to move forward,” said Aikins.

GO, which is operated by provincial agency Metrolinx, has been using bi-level train coaches since 1978.

It launched all-day, two-way, 30-minute service on the lakeshore lines last year.

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