The Flexity Freedom is a low-floor, articulated light rail vehicle developed by Bombardier Transportation for the North American market. It is marketed as part of its Flexity family which includes other models of trams (streetcars) and light metro vehicles. They are produced in facilities in Thunder Bay and Kingston, Ontario, which once produced rolling stock under the names of Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F) and Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC), respectively.
The Flexity Freedom is to be used on the Ion rapid transit in Waterloo, Line 5 Eglinton in Toronto, and the Valley Line in Edmonton; it is also being considered for future Canadian light rail systems, including the B-Line in Hamilton.
Being entirely low-floor, these vehicles directly compete with the Flexity Swift, Siemens S70, CAF Urbos, and Kinki Sharyo 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 Skoda/Inekon and Brookville Equipment Corporation, among others.
Video Flexity Freedom
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 and the use of LED lighting, but they are also air-conditioned. The vehicles may be coated in special paint designed to resist graffiti. 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 trains.
According to Bombardier, the trainsets can be built for "catenary-free" power, where, instead of being powered by direct contact with overhead wires they are powered indirectly through induction, through buried loops, a form of ground-level power supply competing directly with Alstom's "APS" system.
Freedom vs. Outlook in Toronto
Flexity Freedom vehicles are technically similar to, but different from, the Flexity Outlook vehicles currently in production for the Toronto streetcar system in that they are wider and capable of higher speeds, and use standard gauge rather than the streetcar system's unique broad gauge. All current production models have cabs on both ends and doors on both sides, while the Flexity Outlook have only one cab and doors on one side, as with all previous generations of 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 of 25 metres (82.02 ft) 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, 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.
Maps Flexity Freedom
Orders
Toronto
The Flexity Freedom cars were designed for the Transit City 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, the first to go into construction, and the Finch West LRT, which was approved later. Metrolinx placed its first order for 182 vehicles under a $770 million contract announced in 2010. Of the 182 vehicles ordered, 76 are for the Eglinton Crosstown line and 23 for the Finch West LRT. Bombardier expects 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, will 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 will be delivered in August giving Metrolinx 18 months to test the vehicle, about double the time needed for testing. Lefebvre also said production will begin in spring 2018 and the remainder of the 182-car order will 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 LRT. This implies that the Finch LRT might not use Flexity Freedom vehicles.
In November 2016, Metrolinx gave formal notice of intent to cancel its $770-million 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. 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.
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 fails to deliver on time, Metrolinx is liable to pay Crosslinx Transit Solutions, the consortium building the Crosstown, $500,000 per day while Bombardier is 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 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 $770 million for 182 vehicles to $392 million for 76 vehicles. The revised order is enough to supply only the Eglinton Crosstown line. The agreement also increases 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 on behalf of Metrolinx.
Waterloo Region
In July 2013, the Region of Waterloo 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 $66-million.
Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant will build five production vehicles with the Kingston plant making the remaining nine. To avoid bottlenecks and shipping delays at its Thunder Bay plant, assembly work for the Flexity Freedom would be shifted to Bombardier's Kingston, Ontario factory. Bombardier is also moving the building of vehicle sub-assemblies from a plant in Mexico to one in La Pocatière, 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 will be delayed to December 2016, and the last car will be delivered by October 2017.
The Rail Journal reported the first vehicle was loaded for delivery from the Thunder Bay plant on February 15, 2017 and that further shipments would be from Bombardier's Kingston plant. The first Flexity Freedom vehicle arrived that month at the Ion maintenance facilty, 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 10 km/h (6.2 mph). In 2018, testing beyond the maintenance facility will start.
Edmonton
As part of a consortium that won the contract to build and operate the Edmonton LRT Valley Line in February 2016, Bombardier is providing Flexity Freedom vehicles for use on the new line, as opposed to Siemens LRVs on the existing Capital and Metro Lines.
Hamilton
It is uncertain whether the Hamilton B-Line LRT will use the Flexity Freedom. The province expects to issue a request for qualifications to build the line in 2017, but as of October 2016, Metrolinx has not announced whether the supply of light-rail vehicles would be part of the request, which would open the project to competing vehicle suppliers.
Peel Region
The Hurontario LRT, scheduled to start service in 2022 within the City of Mississauga, was to use Flexity Freedom vehicles. However, in September 2016, Metrolinx stated it will allow consortia to include the delivery of light-rail vehicles in their bid to build the line.
Production problems
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.
Competition
An Alstom press release said that the order from Metrolinx was for 48.4-metre (159 ft) Citadis Spirit vehicles, the same design as it was supplying for Ottawa's Confederation Line. The Citadis Spirit vehicles are 50% larger than Flexity Freedom vehicles, so transit planners anticipated fewer vehicles would be required. The Citadis vehicles cost $8.7 million 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 $5.2 million 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 that will create 100 to 120 full-time direct jobs.
References
External links
- Ion Vehicle Testing - Kingston, ON - October 2017 on YouTube: 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.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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