Despite repeated delays to Toronto’s order for new streetcars, TTC CEO Andy Byford has been adamant that he won’t let Bombardier miss the deadline for delivering the new fleet by 2019. But TTC staff are now warning that is a real possibility.

A TTC report released Wednesday warned “there is a risk that Bombardier may not meet the revised delivery schedule for contract completion” of 204 new vehicles by the end of 2019.

According to the document, which will go before the TTC board next Tuesday, staff reached their conclusion based in part on their assessment of “production readiness” at Bombardier’s plants in Canada, Mexico and Europe.

The Montreal-based rail manufacturer has revised its delivery schedule several times after falling badly behind the original timeline for the $1.25-billion order, but it has always said it would complete delivery by 2019 as originally agreed.

Bombardier spokesperson Marc-André Lefebvre reaffirmed the company’s commitment to that target on Wednesday.

“We have full confidence that we’ve deployed all the necessary resources to deliver all 204 streetcars to the TTC by the end of 2019,” he said.

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said that although the agency is concerned, Byford “will continue to press Bombardier and its president to ensure they meet their contractual commitment.”

“We need new streetcars — a slippage is not acceptable,” Ross said.

As of Wednesday, the TTC had 27 new streetcars on its property, according to Ross. Under Bombardier’s most recent revised schedule, it’s supposed to have 30 by the end of the year.

Lefebvre said that the three outstanding vehicles are already en route to Toronto. The 30th left the company’s plant in Thunder Bay, Ont. on Wednesday morning and is expected to arrive next week.

To speed up production, the company has shifted work on Metrolinx’s order for light rail vehicles to a facility in Kingston, Ont., allowing it to add a second manufacturing line in Thunder Bay for the TTC vehicles.

The TTC board approved the purchase of 204 streetcars from Bombardier in 2009. But production was slow and by the end of 2015, Bombardier had managed to supply just 14 of the cars, instead of the originally scheduled 73.

In May of this year the company outlined a new schedule that would see it produce 76 cars in 2018 and 58 in the following year in order to meet the 2019 target. That works out to one vehicle every 3.3 days in 2018, and every 4.4 days in 2019. The TTC is now openly questioning whether that rate is realistic.

The report released Wednesday stresses that Bombardier’s latest schedule “has yet to be substantiated and accepted by the TTC.” The two parties are negotiating and the report says transit staff will update the board “once there is an agreed upon, realistic and binding delivery schedule in place.”

As it waits for the new vehicles, the TTC has had to extend the life of its existing streetcars, which are between 32 and 37 years old. The TTC has a program to overhaul 30 of the vehicles, and has patched up others to make them “road worthy,” but it still doesn’t have enough cars for all its streetcar routes and is running buses on some of them instead.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The TTC has filed a $50-million claim for liquidated damages against Bombardier, an option that is allowed for in the streetcar contract. Ross said the TTC is also accruing costs outside of what it can claim under the contract, however. “I won’t speculate on the next steps, but other legal options remain,” he said.

At the direction of the board, the TTC is in the process of retaining a business consultant to assess Bombardier’s “corporate outlook.”

Read more about: