WATERLOO REGION - After months of saying troubles at Bombardier would not impact the region's light rail vehicles, officials now say at least two trains will be late.

"There's concern of course because there's a delay, but the delay is quite manageable at this point in time," said Coun. Tom Galloway, who chairs the committee overseeing light rail. "If the slippage or the delay were to be greater, then it could become an issue."

The first train for the Region of Waterloo's light rail transit project will be delayed by two months to October and the final, fourteenth vehicle will be delayed by four months to May 2017.

Thomas Schmidt, commissioner of transportation and environmental services, said several minor problems in the manufacturing process have added up to the delay.

"That's really what we're running into," he said. "There's a series of these minor issues that need to be addressed and they've gotten to a point where they now are resulting in that two-month delay."

Officials say the delays won't impact the overall schedule for the light rail transit project, with trains expected to start running 19 kilometres of track between Conestoga Mall in Waterloo and Fairview Park mall in Kitchener in late 2017.

Marc-Andre Lefebvre, head of communications with Bombardier Canada, said the company is working to ensure the vehicles are delivered quickly and in good repair.

"We are actively resolving some issues in our supply chain that have slightly hindered our delivery schedule, and we are working to mitigate the impact of these challenges," he said. "We are deploying all necessary resources to ensure that we build and deliver the high quality vehicles the Region of Waterloo is expecting."

The region is piggybacking on a Metrolinx contract for approximately 170 vehicles, including streetcars for the Toronto Transit Commission. The commission's order has been plagued by quality problems and resulted in some streetcars being rejected.

Regional politicians approved the $92.4-million deal for Bombardier trains in July 2013 and have been monitoring the issue.

Regional staff, consultants and representatives from Crown corporation Metrolinx have undertaken inspections at the Thunder Bay site in past to ensure quality of the vehicles.

Parts for the region's trains are manufactured in Mexico and production of the trains takes place in Thunder Bay.

Another trip is planned in May.

Despite the train delay and several delays at various sections along the route, officials expect to meet the target date for service to launch in late 2017.

Schmidt said that's the region's main concern and are changes made in construction and other plans to adapt.

"That's our target date and there are adjustments that are made," he said. "It's not that any of these delays happen in a vacuum."

The region and GrandLinq are investigating new construction methods and ways to ramp up construction to meet the region's projected launch, according to a staff report.

GrandLinq is bound by a project agreement with the region to meet certain timelines and standards, with penalties for failure. It sets out milestone completion dates for sections of the route.

According to the project agreement, the penalty for not meeting those targets is almost $23,000 per day.

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With more than a year left to completion, about $434 million of the anticipated $818 million in capital costs for the project had been spent at the end of February, with another $326 million committed.

Galloway was cautiously optimistic the project will be on budget.

"Right now it's tracking well, but I don't think anybody wants to be so bold as to say there won't be another road or another issue that comes up . Who knows what could happen," he said.