Bombardier taking 'bold, decisive action' to deliver LRT trains

Bombardier says it is pulling out all the stops to make sure it is able to meet its new, later, deadline to deliver the trains for the Ion LRT.

Yesterday, the Region of Waterloo confirmed problems with production of the trains had delayed the service launch date for the LRT to early2018, from late2017.

This isn't the firsttime Bombardier pushed back the delivery date of its light rail vehicles. In April, it told the Region of Waterloo problems assembling the train cars at the company's Thunder Bay plant would delay their manufacture and delivery bybetween two and four months.

• Ill-fitted Bombardier train parts blamed for LRT train car delays

"What we've taken now is bold and decisive action to make sure there are no further risks to the project," Bombardier spokesmanMarc-Andr Lefebvrehas told CBC News.

That "decisive action" meansinvolving plants in Kingston, Ont. and La Pocatire, Que.to ramp up production.

"It's not only fixing issues and putting more people to work, now we're putting even more resources than ever. We're bringing up our two other manufacturing sites to make sure that we deliver," said Lefebvre.

Cynicism growing at Region

But local politicians are growing cynical and tired of the delays.

"We can only go by what Bombardier tells us. And unfortunately the culture of Bombardier in the past has been to deny and deny and maybe do a little misrepresentation. And certainly the TTC has seen that and Metrolinx has seen that," said Tom Galloway,chair of the region's planning and works committee.

• TTC boss vows to hold Bombardier's 'feet to the fire' on streetcars
• Bombardier vows to boost production of delayed TTC streetcars

Galloway says Bombardier could be penalized financially for the delay: The maximum penalty is $3.3 million for missing the originalagreed-upon deadline.