The reliability of the TTC’s new streetcars has declined in recent months, and transit officials now believe the Bombardier-made vehicles will miss a key performance target spelled out in the vehicle contract.

Statistics in the latest edition of TTC CEO Andy Byford’s monthly report indicate that as of April, the mean distance the streetcars travelled before experiencing significant technical failures was 5,530 kilometres. That’s much lower than the more than 16,000 kilometres between incidents recorded in February.

Under the TTC’s contract with Bombardier, by the time the 60th car is delivered the vehicles are supposed to travel 35,000 kilometres without defects. After repeated delays to the order the TTC now has 37 new streetcars available for service, and the 60th is scheduled to arrive in November.

In an email sent to the Star, TTC chief streetcar engineer Greg Ernst acknowledged that under those timelines “it is not possible” for the cars to reach the reliability target by the 60th vehicle.

“Since the (streetcar) program has experienced several problem months with reliability, it will take several more good months to pull the overall average back up to the required level,” Ernst wrote.

“Bombardier and its suppliers are working diligently to improve on fleet reliability . . . . What TTC customers need to see is an immediate and then sustained improvement in vehicle service.”

The TTC defines a “failure” as a problem with the cars that causes a disruption in service of five minutes or more, or requires the car to be taken out of service altogether.

As reported in a Star investigation into streetcar delays that was published last month, Bombardier has acknowledged past manufacturing problems but says those issues have been resolved. The company has met all of its revised delivery targets since last spring and maintains it will supply all 204 cars by 2019 as promised.

Asked about the reliability numbers in the CEO report, Bombardier spokesperson Marc-André Lefebvre said the figures are “a typical part of the process of introducing a new fleet” and “actual reliability is measured only after” the 60th car.

He argued that at this stage a small number of defects can skew the statistics and that “all current indications are that the new streetcars will be among the best performing vehicles in the industry.”

According to the CEO’s report, which will be debated at the agency’s board meeting on Thursday, the streetcars’ doors are the major source of recent problems and accounted 11 of the 28 failures reported in April.

Ernst said there is not one specific problem with the doors but “a series of issues that have continued to grow” since the cars went into service three years ago. They include damaged wires, broken switches and sensors, and improper door panel set-ups. In some cases wires have been caught in door mechanisms and ripped off. Software upgrades have also been required to address door timing issues.

Ernst said Bombardier and its door supplier are altering designs and a “fleet modification program” scheduled to start in the next few weeks is expected to “greatly reduce the delays.”

Any necessary changes will be built into all future cars, but retrofits will have to be performed on the cars already delivered, he said.

The streetcars have also experienced problems with brakes, passenger information systems, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units. Ernst said Bombardier is addressing those issues as well.

Despite delays to the $1-billion streetcar order, TTC officials have said in recent months that when the cars do arrive they perform very well.

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross reiterated that argument Tuesday, saying that the door issues are relatively minor and the agency is confident that Bombardier will be able to fix them by the time all the vehicles are delivered.

He noted that the new streetcars are significantly more reliable than the TTC’s older model cars, and said the agency believes their performance will only improve.

“We’re pushing them hard on all of these issues,” Ross said. “Our confidence continues to improve on the car itself.”

The TTC placed the streetcar order in 2009, and was supposed to have roughly 130 of the new vehicles by now.

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In 2015 the agency’s board voted to sue Bombardier for millions of dollars in liquidated damages over the company’s failure to the deliver the streetcars on time.

Talks over the damages are still ongoing, and Ernst said the TTC has “made the reliability issue an open area of discussion” as part of negotiations.

Under the terms of the contract the TTC can reject the vehicles if reliability problems persist past the delivery of the 60th car.

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