The TTC agreed to let Bombardier ship unfinished streetcars to Toronto and complete them on the transit agency’s property in order to successfully meet 2016 delivery targets, the Star has learned.

The Quebec-based rail manufacturer has famously struggled to fill the $1-billion, 204-vehicle order for the TTC’s new streetcar fleet. Under the schedule, the company was to have delivered more than 100 cars by end of last year, but as of this week the TTC has just 41in service.

There was a welcome spot of positive news just before last Christmas however when, with 10 days to spare, Bombardier announced that it had made good on a revised target it had set earlier that year: delivering the 30th streetcar by the end of 2016.

“Bombardier meets its 2016 delivery commitment to the TTC,” the company trumpeted in a Dec. 21 press release, which was accompanied by a photo of smiling Bombardier workers holding a “Just arrived!” sign in front of the vehicle at the TTC’s Hillcrest Complex on Bathurst St.

There was a catch, however — the streetcar wasn’t fully finished. In fact, all four of the cars that Bombardier delivered last December were not complete when they arrived on TTC property.

Minutes of meetings between the TTC and Bombardier that the Star obtained through an access to information request reveal that in order to meet the 2016 target, the TTC agreed to deviate from the detailed vehicle acceptance process spelled out in the streetcar contract.

In subsequent interviews, the TTC confirmed that the company shipped four mostly finished cars to Toronto, and then Bombardier workers completed them at the TTC’s Leslie Barns streetcar maintenance and storage facility.

The gambit paid off — Bombardier finished all four cars in Toronto and they went into service before the New Year as planned.

But the deviation from the normal process reveals the extent to which Bombardier had to improvise to meet the year-end target, and the concessions the TTC agreed to in order to make it happen.

Both Bombardier and the TTC maintain the strategy was necessary in order to get the new streetcars delivered as soon as possible, and that the outcome benefitted the city’s transit users.

Bombardier spokesperson Marc-André Lefebvre called it a “positive story.”

“This is work that we are very proud of … The 2016 deliveries are a great example of the positive outcome of the turnaround plan we introduced last year, which has effectively made it that Bombardier has met every single quarterly delivery commitment in the past 12 months,” he said.

TTC CEO Andy Byford said that he was willing to be “flexible” with the delivery process as long as it didn’t mean compromising on safety or vehicle quality. He said the TTC’s only motivation was getting the streetcars quickly, not helping Bombardier protect its reputation.

“I’m not out to do Bombardier favours. But I am out to get the best possible outcome for my customer,” Byford said.

“This isn’t being nice to Bombardier, it’s doing the right thing by the people that ride our service.”

Lefebvre said that Bombardier came up with the plan near the end of 2016 after it identified “potential bottlenecks in rail shipments availability” that could have delayed delivery of the cars, which are shipped to Toronto from Bombardier’s plant in Thunder Bay by the Canadian Pacific Railway.

He described the work that was completed in Toronto as “very minor esthetic items” like interior panels that required adjustments and paint touch-ups. The TTC said that outstanding work included “final assembly of panelling and interior components.”

TTC spokesperson Stuart Green told the Star that if the transit agency hadn’t agreed to deviate from the normal process, “it is most likely that Bombardier would not have been able to deliver these four cars by year end.”

Lefebvre declined to speculate on whether the company would have met the 2016 target if the TTC hadn’t agreed to modify the acceptance plan.

The streetcar contract, which the TTC and Bombardier signed in 2009, spells out in detail the process by which each $5-million vehicle is supposed to change hands.

Following Bombardier’s “completion of the manufacture and assembly” of each car, the vehicle is to undergo pre-delivery tests and an “in-plant inspection.”

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If it passes, the TTC’s engineer issues a preliminary acceptance certificate (PAC) “verifying the date on which the (streetcar) has been so completed … and is ready for delivery” to Hillcrest.

Upon delivery, the car undergoes additional trials, including a 600-km “burn-in” test run. Only after those tests are complete does the TTC engineer issue a final acceptance certificate (FAC) that means the transit agency has taken ownership of the vehicle.

Under the modified delivery process, the TTC agreed that the four cars would be shipped to Toronto without the agency first verifying they were complete, and would undergo both the PAC and FAC processes here.

The TTC spokesperson said that the four cars were subjected to the “same rigorous final approval testing” as all other vehicles, and that there was no cost to the transit agency.

The documents the Star obtained are minutes of meetings that TTC and Bombardier hold each month about the streetcar order. The minutes from the end of 2016 indicate that TTC officials were not fully convinced the plan would work.

At a November meeting, a TTC official told Bombardier that the transit agency couldn’t guarantee the acceptance process could be carried out in Toronto in time because with just six weeks before the year’s end, the company had yet to provide a detailed delivery schedule. The TTC needed one to ensure it had enough operators, inspectors, and maintenance workers on hand to conduct testing once the cars arrived.

“There will be a big effort for everyone to co-ordinate this during the holidays,” read the minutes, which were written by the TTC.

At the same meeting the TTC warned that if it looked like Bombardier would miss the year-end target, the transit agency would pull out of the modified approval process.

“TTC will stop the PAC process in Toronto if schedule slips (sic) and the 16 cars delivery becomes at risk,” read the minutes.

The meeting minutes also indicate that in late 2016 and early 2017, more than two years after the first new streetcar was delivered, the TTC was still expressing serious concerns about problems with Bombardier’s manufacturing process, including failing control switches, collapsed rubber on the bellows that connect streetcar segments, cracked bonnets, leaking windows, incorrect parts being installed, and deficient welding jobs.

Lefebvre said Monday the company has made “significant progress” on welding problems, which have plagued the order since the beginning. He said any other production issues “should be resolved in the very near future.”

Under the latest revised schedule, the company is supposed to deliver a cumulative total of 70 cars by the end of the year. In July the company admitted that the schedule was at risk.

Lefebvre said that doesn’t mean Bombardier will miss the 2017 target and stated that the company is “deploying extraordinary resources ... to meet our deadlines.”

“Our overall focus firmly remains to deliver the entire fleet of 204 streetcars by the original contract deadline of 2019.”

The Star's Ben Spurr gets an inside look at where the new TTC streetcar is being manufactured in the Thunder Bay Bombardier plant. (Originally published May, 2017)

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