Where are Toronto’s new supersized streetcars?

The 204 fully accessible, low-floor vehicles were ordered in June 2009 for $1.25 billion.

But so far, only three are running on the 510 Spadina line. Many Torontonians have assumed the protracted roll-out is the result of last summer’s eight-week strike tat Bombardier’s Thunder Bay plant.

Few are aware that the late delivery actually pre-dates that labour disruption and that the originally contracted schedule specified there would be 43 in the city by now. There should have been seven in service by the end of last year.

Instead, the TTC is expecting delivery of only the fourth new vehicle next week, and TTC CEO Andy Byford says he has put Bombardier on notice that it must recover from the slow start in the early production.

“I have made it very clear to Bombardier that, regardless of delays on production and the strike, and issues they have had with quality, I will not accept any slippage from that 2019 end-date for the last route to go live,” he said Thursday.

“It’s only 2014; I will not allow that to slip any further. They must stick to the end date,” Byford said.

However, he said Bombardier’s current pace “doesn’t give me the confidence that will happen.”

The last of 11 routes scheduled to get the new vehicles, in 2019, is Carlton. The first, on Spadina, which requires 12 streetcars, was supposed to be fully converted by the end of this year.

The strike has played a role in slowing delivery, say TTC and Bombardier officials. But there were earlier challenges.

The prototype streetcar — the version that gets tested and re-tested before the vehicles go into production — didn’t arrive until March 2013. At that point there were reliability issues that needed to be addressed, said TTC spokesman Brad Ross.

A particular challenge was the design and engineering of the TTC’s unique, two-stage wheelchair ramps. They have to deploy in one stage to meet raised streetcar platforms on lines such as Spadina and St. Clair, and then in two stages where streetcars stop on the road, on routes such as Queen, he said.

Accessibility was a huge factor in the TTC’s specifications for the 100 per cent low-floor streetcars.

“The ramp is a constantly moving part. It needs to work mechanically for the customer without them having to have some assistance. It’s about making sure our customers who use mobility devices can do so freely and independently,” said Ross.

“It needs to deploy and retract reliably every single time we use it, just like the doors.”

A Bombardier spokesman confirmed Thursday that the Montreal-based company is in discussions with the TTC about the master production schedule. But Marc-Andre Lefebvre would not confirm that the complete order will be delivered by 2019.

“We’re going to do our utmost to get the whole fleet delivered as fast as possible,” he said.

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The priority, however, is delivering streetcars that are safe, efficient and reliable.

“That’s something that we never waver on. We want to get it right the first time when we deliver the car. We won’t go faster just for the sake of going faster. We want to make sure the TTC riders have the car that they deserve,” said Lefebvre.

Byford said there are penalties built into the contract with Bombardier if it doesn’t deliver on time.

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