The Alstom Flexity Freedom is a
low-floor
Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...
,
articulated
An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivot joint in its construction, allowing it to turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buses, trams and trains. Steam locomotives were someti ...
light rail vehicle developed by
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry ...
(and later
Alstom
Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...
) for the
North American market. It is marketed as part of the
Bombardier Flexity
The Alstom Flexity (sold as Bombardier Flexity before 2021, stylized in all caps) is a family of modern trams, streetcars and light rail vehicles manufactured by Bombardier Transportation, since 2021 a division of French company Alstom. As of 20 ...
family which includes other models of
tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s (
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s) and
light metro
A medium-capacity system (MCS), also known as light rapid transit or light metro, is a rail transport system with a capacity greater than light rail, but less than typical heavy-rail rapid transit. MCS’s trains are usually 1-4 cars, or 1 ligh ...
vehicles. They are produced in facilities in
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...
and
Kingston, Ontario, which once produced
rolling stock
The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can b ...
under the names of
Canada Car and Foundry
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total ...
(CC&F) and
Urban Transportation Development Corporation
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation Ltd. (UTDC) was a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It was established in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a burgeoning market in advanced l ...
(UTDC), respectively.
The Flexity Freedom is used on the
Ion rapid transit
Ion, stylized as ION, is an integrated public transportation network in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. It is operated by Keolis and is part of the Grand River Transit (GRT) system, partially replacing GRT's Route 200 i ...
in
Kitchener and
Waterloo,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
. It is planned for use on two light rail systems under construction:
Line 5 Eglinton
Line 5 Eglinton (also known as the Eglinton Crosstown or the Crosstown) is a light rail line that is under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Metrolinx and operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), the line will be part ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and the
Valley Line in
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
.
Being entirely low-floor, these vehicles directly compete with the
Bombardier Flexity Swift
The Bombardier Flexity Swift is a series of urban and inter-urban tram, light rail and light metro vehicles manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. It is part of the Bombardier Flexity family of rail vehicles, and like the others, Flexity S ...
,
Alstom Citadis
The Alstom Citadis is a family of low-floor trams and light rail vehicles built by Alstom. , over 2,300 Citadis trams have been sold and 1,800 tramways are in revenue service throughout the world, with operations in all six inhabited continents ...
,
Siemens S70
The Siemens S70, its successor the S700 and European variant, the Avanto, are a series of low-floor light-rail vehicles (LRV) and streetcars manufactured by Siemens Mobility, a division of German conglomerate Siemens AG.
The S70 and S700 are ...
,
CAF Urbos
The CAF Urbos is a family of trams, streetcars, and light rail vehicles built by CAF. The Basque manufacturer CAF previously manufactured locomotives, passenger cars, regional, and underground trains. In 1993, CAF started building trams for Met ...
, and
Kinki Sharyo
is a Japanese manufacturer of railroad vehicles based in Osaka. It is an affiliate company of Kintetsu Corporation. In business since 1920 (as Tanaka Rolling Stock Works) and renamed The Kinki Sharyo Co., Ltd in 1945. They have produced light ...
LRVs. However, as they are designed for light rail rather than streetcar applications, they also compete against, to a lesser extent, low-floor streetcars from
Å koda
Å koda means ''pity'' in the Czech and Slovak languages. It may also refer to:
Czech brands and enterprises
* Škoda Auto, automobile and previously bicycle manufacturer in Mladá Boleslav
** Å koda Motorsport, the division of Å koda Auto respons ...
/
Inekon
Inekon Trams, a.s. is a manufacturer of trams, or streetcars, located in the Czech Republic, and has supplied new trams to several cities in the Czech Republic and the United States.Webb, Mary (ed.) (2009). ''Jane's Urban Transport Systems 2009†...
and
Brookville Equipment Corporation
Brookville Equipment Corporation, based in Brookville, Pennsylvania, United States, manufactures railroad locomotives for industrial and light capacity switching needs. The company also builds and restores streetcars. The company used to be kn ...
, among others.
Design
The vehicles all have a 100% low-floor design and can be built to operate
unidirectionally or
bidirectionally.
The vehicles' design includes energy-saving features, like
regenerative braking
Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. In this mechanism, the electric traction mo ...
and the use of
LED lighting
An LED lamp or LED light bulb is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than equivalent incandescent lamps
and can be significantly more efficient than mos ...
, but they are also air-conditioned. The vehicles may be coated in special paint designed to resist
graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
. They are equipped with passenger counters at the doors.
The vehicles are articulated, but unlike competing rolling stock, they are built out of similar-length modules.
Operators can alter the number of intermediate modules, thus altering the capacity of the individual vehicles. The Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo vehicles will contain five modules, while those in Edmonton will have seven modules. Vehicles can be coupled and operated as trains of up to four connected vehicles.
The maximum passenger capacities, in the standard seating layouts, are 135 and 251, for the three and five-module configurations respectively.
When run in the five-module configuration, with train-sets of four vehicles, the maximum capacity of a light rail line is 30,000
passengers per peak hour. The vehicles' standard passenger configuration can safely accommodate up to four passengers in wheelchairs. For example, the trains for Edmonton will carry up to 275 passengers per train.
According to Bombardier, the trainsets can be built for "
catenary
In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field.
The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superficia ...
-free" power, where, instead of being powered by direct contact with overhead wires they are powered indirectly through
induction
Induction, Inducible or Inductive may refer to:
Biology and medicine
* Labor induction (birth/pregnancy)
* Induction chemotherapy, in medicine
* Induced stem cells, stem cells derived from somatic, reproductive, pluripotent or other cell t ...
, through buried loops, a form of
ground-level power supply
Ground-level power supply, also known as surface current collection or, in French, ''alimentation par le sol'' ("feeding via the ground"), is a concept and group of technologies whereby electric vehicles collect electric power at ground level fro ...
competing directly with the
Alstom APS
Alstom APS, also known as ''Alimentation par Sol'' or ''Alimentation Par le Sol'' (which literally means "feeding via the ground"), is a form of ground-level power supply for street trams and, potentially, other vehicles. APS was developed by In ...
system.
Orders
Toronto
Delivery
The Flexity Freedom cars were designed for the
Transit City
Transit City was a plan for developing public transport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was first proposed and announced on 16 March 2007 by then-Toronto Mayor David Miller and Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) Adam Giambrone. T ...
plan which would have created six suburban LRT lines for an order of about 300 cars. Only two of these projects were active in 2016: the
Eglinton Crosstown line
Line 5 Eglinton (also known as the Eglinton Crosstown or the Crosstown) is a light rail line that is under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Metrolinx and operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), the line will be part ...
, the first to go into construction, and the
Finch West LRT
Line 6 Finch West, also known as the Finch West LRT, is a light rail line under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to be operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. The , 18-stop line is to extend from Finch West station on Line 1 Yonge†...
, which was approved later.
Metrolinx
Metrolinx is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario that manages and integrates road and public transport in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), which comprises much of Ontario's Golden Horseshoe region. Headquartered at Union Sta ...
placed its first order for 182 vehicles
under a -million contract announced in 2010. Of the 182 vehicles ordered, 76 were for the Eglinton Crosstown line and 23 for the Finch West LRT.
Bombardier expected deliveries to start in 2018.
By May 2016, Metrolinx had not received the prototype vehicle that Bombardier was supposed to produce by spring 2015. The prototype, once received, would be tested for one or two years to work out any design bugs before Bombardier begins to manufacture the rest of the order.
In July 2016, Bombardier spokesman Marc-André Lefebvre acknowledged receipt of "a contractual notice" from Metrolinx complaining about the delay in delivery of the prototype vehicle. Lefebvre said that the prototype would be delivered in August giving Metrolinx 18 months to test the vehicle, about double the time needed for testing. Lefebvre also said production would begin in spring 2018 and the remainder of the 182-car order would be delivered in time for the scheduled opening of the line.
On September 1, 2016, Bombardier said the prototype was nearing completion at the Thunder Bay plant and would be available for testing in 3–4 weeks.
In September 2016, the province allowed consortia to include the delivery of light-rail vehicles in their bid to build the Finch West LRT, implying it might not use Flexity Freedom vehicles. Metrolinx was also considering such an approach for its two LRT projects outside of Toronto: the
Hurontario LRT
The Hurontario LRT (formerly the Hurontario–Main LRT) is a light rail line under construction in the cities of Mississauga and Brampton, Ontario, Canada. The line will run along Hurontario Street from Mississauga's Port Credit neighbourhood ...
and the
Hamilton LRT
The Hamilton LRT (also known as the B-Line) is a planned light rail line in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to operate along Main Street, King Street, and Queenston Road. It is one of five planned rapid transit lines which form Hamilton's proposed ...
,
the latter cancelled by the province in December 2019 due to cost.
In November 2016, Metrolinx gave formal notice of intent to cancel its contract with Bombardier. Metrolinx alleged unacceptable delivery delays fearing that the opening of the Eglinton Crosstown line would be delayed due to a lack of vehicles. Bombardier claimed it could complete the order on time.
Metrolinx also alleged that the prototype could not handle basic functions such as taking power from an
overhead catenary
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as:
* Overhead catenary
* Overhead contact system (OCS)
* Overhead equipmen ...
. Bombardier claimed the prototype functioned properly, and that it was conducting static tests before doing moving tests with power taken from a catenary.
In late November 2016, Bombardier shipped the first pilot vehicle from its Thunder Bay plant to its Kingston plant to continue testing. The vehicle was still expected to require nine months of qualification testing.
By 2016, Metrolinx had inspected Bombardier's plants several times in both Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Sahagun, Mexico, and concluded that quality control was "plagued by welding issues as a result of poor training, incorrect procedures, faulty equipment and poor management". Metrolinx also discovered that quality control standards were inconsistent between the two plants. Bombardier acknowledged the problems but claimed they had since been resolved.
On March 2, 2017, Metrolinx filed court affidavits to support its action to terminate the Flexity Freedom contract due to high financial risks. If Bombardier failed to deliver on time, Metrolinx would be liable to pay Crosslinx Transit Solutions, the consortium building the Crosstown, $500,000 per day
while Bombardier would be liable to pay only $1,500 per day per late vehicle.
After Metrolinx failed in its court action against Bombardier, it announced on May 12, 2017, that it had signed an order for 61 light rail vehicles with Alstom, a competitor of Bombardier. If Bombardier delivers the Flexity Freedom vehicles on time to service the Eglinton Crosstown line, then Metrolinx will assign 17
Alstom Citadis Spirit
The Alstom Citadis Spirit is a Low-floor tram, low-floor Articulated tram, articulated light rail vehicle developed by Alstom for Ottawa's O-Train. It is marketed as part of its Alstom Citadis family, which includes other models of light rail v ...
LRVs to the Finch West LRT and 44 to the Hurontario LRT. However, If Bombardier is late in delivery, the Alstom units will serve the Eglinton Crosstown.
On December 21, 2017, Metrolinx
and Bombardier
announced an agreement to reduce the Metrolinx order for Flexity Freedom vehicles from $770million for 182 vehicles to $392million for 76 vehicles, enough to supply only the Eglinton Crosstown line. The agreement also increased the potential penalty against Bombardier for late deliveries. In exchange, Bombardier received an 18-month extension on their contract to operate and maintain
GO Transit rail services
GO Transit rail services are provided throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The GO Transit rail fleet consists of 90 MPI MP40 locomotives and 979 Bombardier BiLevel Coaches. In , the system had a ...
on behalf of Metrolinx.
In late October 2018, the first vehicle arrived in Kingston for testing and was scheduled to be delivered to Toronto in November, followed by five more cars by February 2019.
The first Flexity Freedom vehicle arrived on January 8, 2019, at the
Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility
The Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility is a rail yard and vehicle service centre for Line 5 Eglinton of the Toronto subway. The facility is located near the line's western terminus at Mount Dennis station, on lands formerly occupied by Kodak ...
.
On February 1, 2019, Metrolinx announced that Bombardier had missed the deadline to deliver the first six vehicles.
On November 26, 2019, Metrolinx made an order modification with Bombardier to add communication and signalling equipment to the vehicles. The order change would cost $36.2million plus $3million if Bombardier completed the work on time plus $1.5million to transport the vehicles to Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant. Crosslinx Transit Solutions was responsible for designing the communication and signalling systems, which it completed late. Vehicles already manufactured needed to be retrofitted.
The due date for the acceptance of the first six vehicles is July 1, 2020. Line 5 Eglinton requires only 42 of 76 vehicles ordered for opening day (sometime in 2022), but Metrolinx expects the first 42 to be delivered by August 1, 2021. The deadline for the balance is March 31, 2022. By mid-March 2020, Bombardier had manufactured 30 vehicles, of which Metrolinx has given final acceptance to two.
Features
The Toronto vehicles were originally to have two cabs per vehicle but in 2013, Metrolinx changed the order to eliminate one cab. Thus, instead of a second cab, the rear of each Toronto car contains a passenger area with four side-facing seats and extra standing room. There are auxiliary controls in a cabinet at the rear. Thus, a two-vehicle trainset has a cab at each end with a pair of single-cab vehicles coupled back-to-back.
The Toronto vehicles are equipped with
automatic train control
Automatic train control (ATC) is a general class of train protection systems for railways that involves a speed control mechanism in response to external inputs. For example, a system could effect an emergency brake application if the driver do ...
(ATC) with three modes:
* Vehicles travel driverless within the
Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility
The Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility is a rail yard and vehicle service centre for Line 5 Eglinton of the Toronto subway. The facility is located near the line's western terminus at Mount Dennis station, on lands formerly occupied by Kodak ...
.
* On the elevated and underground section between
Mount Dennis
Mount Dennis is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is within the former suburb of York, now Ward 11 in Toronto. Primarily located along Eglinton Avenue between the Humber River and the Kitchener commuter rail line, the neighbourhoo ...
and
Laird
Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...
stations, ATC controls the train between stops with the on-board driver operating the door at stops then pressing a button to proceed to the next station.
* On the surface section east of Laird station, ATC provides information to the driver, who is in full control of the train.
Freedom vs. Outlook
Flexity Freedom vehicles are technically similar to the
Flexity Outlook
The Bombardier Flexity Outlook is a series of low-floored, articulated light-rail trams manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. Part of the larger Bombardier Flexity product line (many of which are not low-floor), Flexity Outlook vehicles are ...
vehicles of the
Toronto streetcar system
The Toronto streetcar system is a network of nine streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is the busiest light-rail system in North America. The network is concentrated primarily in Dow ...
but are wider and capable of higher speeds and use
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
rather than the streetcar system's
broad gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.
Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
.
The Flexity Freedom has doors on both sides, while the Flexity Outlook has doors only on the right side of the vehicle, in keeping with all previous generations of Toronto streetcars. While Flexity Outlook vehicles are able to negotiate the tight curves of the largely
on-street trackage and its
single-point switches, Flexity Freedom vehicles require a
minimum curve radius
The minimum railway curve radius is the shortest allowable design radius for the centerline of railway tracks under a particular set of conditions. It has an important bearing on construction costs and operating costs and, in combination with ...
of and conventional double-point switches.
The light rail lines in Toronto will be constructed to standard gauge instead of Toronto's streetcar gauge because
Metrolinx
Metrolinx is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario that manages and integrates road and public transport in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), which comprises much of Ontario's Golden Horseshoe region. Headquartered at Union Sta ...
, the Ontario provincial transit authority funding the projects, wants to ensure a better price for purchasing vehicles by having a degree of commonality with other similar projects within Ontario.
The Flexity Freedom LRVs have a black and white livery rather than the red and white used on the Flexity Outlook streetcars. In Toronto, light rail lines are considered part of the
Toronto subway
The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is a multimodal transport, multimodal rail network consisting of three Pa ...
system where vehicles have a metallic colour, to which the black and white livery would have some resemblance.
The following chart compares the features of the Flexity Freedom and Flexity Outlook as used in Toronto.
Waterloo Region
![Ion Flexity Freedom 507 Queen Station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Ion_Flexity_Freedom_507_Queen_Station.jpg)
In July 2013, the
Region of Waterloo
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo (KWC or Tri-Cities), and the townships of North Dumf ...
finalized a deal with Metrolinx to join their contract to the Toronto order and purchase 14 vehicles for the
Ion light rail system at a cost of $66million.
Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant built one production vehicle, and two prototype vehicles, with the Kingston plant making the remaining 13.
To avoid bottlenecks and shipping delays at its Thunder Bay plant, assembly work for the Flexity Freedom was shifted to Bombardier's
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...
factory.
Bombardier is also moving the building of vehicle sub-assemblies from a plant in Mexico to one in
La Pocatière
La Pocatière is a town in the Kamouraska Regional County Municipality in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, Canada.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, La Pocatière had a population of living ...
, Quebec, and cab structures to another unspecified plant.
The delivery of the first vehicle had been expected in August 2016, and the remainder by the end of 2016. However, by May 2016, Bombardier announced that delivery of the first car would be delayed to December 2016, and the last car would be delivered by October 2017.
The first vehicle was loaded for delivery from the Thunder Bay plant on February 15, 2017, with further shipments from Bombardier's Kingston plant.
The first Flexity Freedom vehicle arrived that month at the Ion maintenance facility, but it could not be tested as its operating software was incomplete. In October 2017, the second LRV arrived in more functional condition.
By mid-December 2017, Waterloo Region had 3 LRVs on site.
On December 19, 2017, Waterloo Region had its first successful test of a Flexity Freedom running under its own power at the Ion maintenance facility. The two-hour test was done at the low speed of . In 2018, testing beyond the maintenance facility started.
On June 21, 2019, regular service began for the system. In August 2020, it was confirmed that part of a compensation package from Bombardier to settle shipping delays would be a fifteenth unit, provided free of charge, for the Ion fleet. It was delivered in early March 2021.
Edmonton
![Bombardier Flexity Freedom Edmonton Showcase](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Bombardier_Flexity_Freedom_Edmonton_Showcase.jpg)
As part of a
consortium
A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...
that won the contract to build and operate the
Edmonton LRT
Edmonton Light Rail Transit, commonly referred to as the LRT, is a light rail system in Edmonton, Alberta. Part of the Edmonton Transit Service (ETS), the system has 18 stations on two lines and of track. As of 2018, it is number seven on the ...
Valley Line in February 2016, Bombardier is providing Flexity Freedom vehicles for use on the new line,
as opposed to
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
LRVs (
Siemens SD-160
The SD-100 and SD-160 are light rail vehicles (LRV) that were manufactured by Siemens Mobility between 1992 and 2013 for the North American market. The vehicles were all constructed at the Siemens facility in Florin, California.
The primary di ...
and
Siemens–Duewag U2
The Siemens–Duewag U2 is a type of light rail vehicle (LRV), built by consortium of Siemens, Duewag and Wegmann & Co built between 1968 and 1990.
The design was based on the prototype U1 tram built in 1965 for the Frankfurt U-Bahn. The U2 was a ...
) on the existing
Capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
and
Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
Lines. Where the vehicles built for Ontario have five segments, the vehicles built for Edmonton will be longer, built of seven segments.
The first car was shipped on June 27, 2018 (from Kingston, Ontario, on
CN Rail
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...
) and went up for display at Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre (next to the location of the future Valley Line
Bonnie Doon stop
Bonnie Doon stop is a tram stop under construction in the Edmonton Light Rail Transit network in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It will serve the Valley Line, and is located on the west side of 83 Street, south of 84 Avenue, between Bonnie Doon and ...
) on July 27, 2018.
The Edmonton LRVs have 82 seats each, 8 doors on each side, and each have a capacity of 275 people.
A total of 26 trains are slated to be produced for the line, with 10 due in late 2018, 13 in 2019, and 3 in 2020
(two years before the line is scheduled to open).
Competition
An Alstom press release said that the order from Metrolinx was for
Citadis Spirit
The Alstom Citadis Spirit is a low-floor articulated light rail vehicle developed by Alstom for Ottawa's O-Train. It is marketed as part of its Alstom Citadis family, which includes other models of light rail vehicles, and is based on the Cita ...
vehicles, the same design as it was supplying for
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
's
Confederation Line
The Confederation Line (french: Ligne de la Confédération), also called O-Train Line 1 (french: Ligne 1 de l'O-Train), is a light rail line operated by OC Transpo in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as part of the city's O-Train light rail system. I ...
.
The Citadis Spirit vehicles are 50% larger than Flexity Freedom vehicles, so transit planners anticipated fewer vehicles would be required. The Citadis vehicles cost $8.7million each, over twice the average $4.2-million cost of the Flexity vehicles from the original 182-vehicle Metrolinx order, although each Citadis can carry approximately 1.8 times more passengers.
However, with the reduction of the initial Metrolinx order from 182 to 76 Flexity Freedom vehicles, the average cost of Flexity Freedom vehicles rose to $5.2million per vehicle.
Metrolinx has ordered competing vehicle fleets from rivals Bombardier and Alstom to service Line 5 Eglinton. However, only one of the two fleets will be used on that line when it opens. To produce the vehicle order for Metrolinx, Alstom plans to build a plant in
Brampton, Ontario
Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it th ...
that will create 100 to 120 full-time direct jobs.
References
External links
*: Region of Waterloo video from November 1, 2017, featuring Ion train 504 in motion on the Bombardier Kingston test track plus views of trains 503, 506, 508 and 509.
{{Flexity
Toronto rapid transit passenger equipment
Proposed public transport in the Greater Toronto Area
Articulated passenger trains
Bombardier Transportation tram vehicles
Electric multiple units of Canada
Metrolinx
750 V DC multiple units