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87-615: The Flexity Freedom is a low-floor , articulated light rail vehicle developed by Bombardier Transportation (and later Alstom ) for the North American market . It is marketed as part of the Bombardier 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

174-418: 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

261-504: A forecasted ridership of 5,500 in 2031 and a proposed line length of 3.3 km (2.1 mi) along Main Street, the project scored 'medium' with a preliminary benefit-cost ratio of 0.66–0.90. In January 2022, Brampton city staff were working on two alternative plans to reinstate the LRT extension from Brampton Gateway Terminal to Brampton GO Station in downtown Brampton. One plan was to extend

348-575: A lack of projected growth along the northern half of the proposed Brampton route to support an LRT. Proponents said the Main Street route advocated by the province would have revived the city's struggling downtown core. However, opponents argued that the Main Street route lacked potential for ridership and future growth. According to City of Brampton's transit ridership data, the current ridership along Main Street has an average of 200 riders per hour per direction on weekdays and Brampton's downtown has

435-597: A new signalized intersection with the LRT crossing Eaglewood between the creek and the west side of Hurontario. By April 2022, the first tracks were being laid at the Operations, Maintenance and Storage Facility (OMSF). In later phases of construction, LRT tracks will be laid on Hurontario Street north and south from the junction to the OMSF. By July 2022, construction started on the guideway on Hurontario Street working northbound from Matheson Boulevard to Britannia Road. At

522-475: 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 (ATC) with three modes: Flexity Freedom vehicles are technically similar to the Flexity Outlook vehicles of

609-477: A path. This was done without disrupting overhead railway traffic with most work having been done at night. The temporary bridges were removed with the GO tracks lying on top of the push box that will be a permanent part of the LRT infrastructure. This work was completed by June 2023, with the push box ready to be converted into a 46-metre (151 ft) tunnel under the GO railway tracks for the LRT line. In related work,

696-543: A residential area and an inconvenience for pedestrians and motorists using the street. The Port Street extension was subsequently dropped; thus, the LRT would terminate at the Port Credit stop beside the GO station. On March 21, 2019, in addition to cancelling the City Centre loop, Metrolinx also cancelled a stop at Highway 407 and a pedestrian bridge at Cooksville GO Station to reduce project costs. Originally,

783-579: 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,

870-510: A ridership of about 450 passengers an hour. Opponents were also concerned that running the LRT on Main Street in Brampton's historic downtown would diminish its heritage character and have an impact on downtown parking. There was also a concern that the city might have to pay up to $ 100 million for relocating utilities, road resurfacing, traffic redirection, landscaping, etc. Although all councillors were in support of an LRT, they disagreed on

957-434: A surface alternative, all stops would be on the surface with an additional stop near Brampton City Hall. A roughly 2.5-kilometre (1.6 mi) branch-loop is planned around Mississauga City Centre and Square One Shopping Centre . The loop would serve most of the City Centre at a walking distance of 500 metres (1,600 ft), and include stops on Burnhamthorpe and Rathburn Roads, and a still-undecided north-south street. It

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1044-677: A unique appearance compared to any other trams running at the time, they earned a number of nicknames, including hobble skirt cars, public welfare cars, and sow bellies. Typical floor heights of low-floor trams are 300 to 350 mm (11.8 to 13.8 in), and the Ultra Low Floor tram has a floor height of only 180 mm (7.1 in). For comparison high-floor trams are typically more than 600 mm (23.6 in) and rapid transit using heavy rail trains has floor heights of 800 to 1,200 mm (31.5 to 47.2 in). Hurontario LRT The Hurontario LRT (formerly

1131-472: A wider channel and flood walls are being added to Mary Fix Creek which runs on the north side of the Lakeshore West right-of-way before curving on the west side of the LRT right-of-way. The road bridge over the creek at Inglewood Drive will be replaced by a new bridge further south opposite Eaglewood Boulevard which will be extended west from Hurontario Street. At Eaglewood and Hurontario, there will be

1218-459: Is planning for mixed-use zoning along Hurontario including accommodation, businesses, commercial, retail and arts-cultural development. Before its cancellation, the Main Street route was controversial. At a Brampton Council meeting on July 8, 2015, five of the eleven councillors opposed to the Main Street route argued that the LRT plan was being directed by Mississauga with Brampton absent from negotiation. They demanded an alternative route funded by

1305-679: 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 CA$ 770 -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

1392-472: The Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility . 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 $ 36.2   million plus $ 3   million if Bombardier completed

1479-581: The Flexity Swift , Alstom Citadis , 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 Škoda / Inekon and Brookville Equipment Corporation , among others. 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

1566-530: 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 north to Steeles Avenue in Brampton. The line will be built and operated as a public-private partnership by Mobilinx, a consortium of private European and Japanese companies, with provincial transit agency Metrolinx retaining ownership of

1653-659: The Kusttrams in Belgium . The most common design of 100% low floor vehicles is the multi-articulated design. This uses short carbody sections for the wheels with longer sections between them. Examples of this are the Alstom Citadis and Combino . A different design was developed by MAN . In 1990 the GT6N was the first 100% low-floor tram. These trams are found in ten German cities (such as Bremen and Munich ) and in

1740-537: The Toronto streetcar system but are wider, are capable of higher speeds, and use standard gauge rather than the streetcar system's broad gauge . The Flexity Freedom has doors on both sides, while the Flexity Outlook has doors only on the right side of the vehicle as they are not bi-directional, in keeping with all previous generations of Toronto streetcars. While Flexity Outlook vehicles are able to negotiate

1827-598: The Brampton Gateway stop was to be located on the north side of Steeles Avenue. After the cancelation of the Main Street segment of the line in 2015, the City of Brampton asked Metrolinx to relocate the stop to the south side to allow for a future extension north along either Kennedy Road or McLaughlin Road. Thus, Metrolinx changed the stop location. However, by January 2022, Brampton reversed its decision and requested that

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1914-532: The Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Subsequently, Metrolinx decided to initially use only 28 vehicles on the line. On May 23, 2019, IO and Metrolinx announced that proposal have been submitted by only two of the three shortlisted teams of private companies, namely Mobilinx and Trillium Transit Partners. Hurontario Light Rail Connection Partners did not submit a proposal. On October 21, 2019, IO and Metrolinx announced that Mobilinx had been awarded

2001-611: 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, enough to supply only the Eglinton Crosstown line. The agreement also increased

2088-474: The Hurontario LRT project according to IO's Alternative Financing and Procurement (AFP) model which basically is a public–private partnership arrangement. On October 18, 2016, IO and Metrolinx started the procurement process by issuing a request for qualifications to design, build, operate and maintain the Hurontario LRT. The request said bidders could offer to supply 44 light rail vehicles, which implied that Metrolinx would break its contract with Bombardier for

2175-457: 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

2262-672: 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 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

2349-465: The LRT line was projected to cost $ 1.4 billion. (Prior to the cancellation of the Brampton portion of the line, the estimated cost was around $ 1.6 billion. ) On April 21, 2015, the Government of Ontario announced that it would completely fund the line, not including local capital costs such as utility relocations, surface upgrades, and landscaping. When Mobilinx was chosen as the winning bidder,

2436-494: The LRT on the surface at a cost of $ 500 million. The alternative plan was to put most of the extension underground costing $ 1.7 billion. Brampton prefers the underground plan and is asking upper levels of government to cover the extra cost of the preferred plan. City Council approved the recommendation to progress the LRT extension study to 30% Preliminary Design and to prepare a Draft Environmental Project Report for both alternatives. Brampton needs to replace its aging water mains, and

2523-502: The LRT to run along the Main Street portion of the route because of concerns of low ridership projections, impacts on Brampton's historic downtown and the preferences for an LRT along an alternate route. Thus, the LRT will terminate at the Brampton Gateway Terminal on Steeles Avenue instead of Brampton GO Station . Construction began in 2020; as of July 2024, no official opening date had been set. In 2016,

2610-583: The LRT's below-ground Port Credit station in a trench adjacent to the Port Credit GO Station , and Mobilinx constructed the passage for the LRT under the Lakeshore West line tracks using the Verona System. Three temporary bridges were constructed under the GO line using piles and beams. A hollow, concrete "push box" structure was constructed in the trench and was pushed under the railway line using hydraulic jacks while excavation cleared

2697-499: The Ontario government approved both projects, but did not specify stop locations for either or if the Main Street extension would be tunnelled or at-grade (either as LRT or a mixed-traffic streetcar ) through Brampton's downtown. Circa 2010, the LRT was to have extended south of Lakeshore Road turning west on Port Street terminating at Elizabeth Street. At a 2013 open house, local residents objected to this extension as an invasion of

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2784-552: The Port Credit GO Station where the LRT station will be below grade on the west side of Hurontario Street just east of the GO station building. After passing under GO transit's Lakeshore West line, the LRT will continue north for about 250 metres (820 ft) on the west side of Hurontario Street before crossing over to the LRT's centre median. The line will cross under the Queen Elizabeth Way along

2871-503: The QEW so that the space for the current northbound lanes can be used for the LRT. On March 8, 2023, the first of 13 traction substations to convert from AC to DC and to provide electricity for the trains, each housed within a steel structure about the size of a shipping container, was installed at Skyway Drive and Hurontario Street. The next two substations to be installed along Hurontario Street will be at Britannia Road and Topflight Drive,

2958-480: The Swedish city Norrköping . Other designs are only partially low floor, with high floors over the bogies at the outer ends and single axle bogies under the low-floor centre section. North American light rail type vehicles frequently have a similar configuration but with a centre bogie designed to accommodate a low floor situated under a short centre section. In Vienna, Ultra Low Floor (ULF) Trams can "kneel" at

3045-486: The Valley Line began. 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 percent larger than Flexity Freedom vehicles, so transit planners anticipated fewer vehicles would be required. The Citadis vehicles cost $ 8.7   million each, over twice

3132-478: The adjacent Brampton Gateway Terminal ) Brampton Transit bus routes: (Both routes have indirect connection to the 407 Park & Ride, which is also the southern and northern termini of BT Route 2 Main and MiWay Route 17 Hurontario respectively) Brampton Transit bus routes: Brampton Transit bus route (Züm): (Both routes directly serve the adjacent Mississauga Hospital ) The LRT is planned to run every 7.5 minutes during rush hours, and every 10-12 minutes for

3219-432: The aforementioned press conference to rename the line after former Mayor Hazel McCallion, Premier Doug Ford offered to reinstate the loop but did not specify a time frame. Reinstating the loop was estimated to cost between $ 300 million and $ 400 million, and could be added after completion of the line. Mississauga politicians, including Mayor Bonnie Crombie, had been advocating for the loop's reinstatement. The original plan for

3306-548: 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

3393-620: 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. 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 built one production vehicle, and two prototype vehicles, with

3480-516: The bridge, there would be an junction for an LRT branch to the Mississauga City Centre, and the junction would have crossed the southbound traffic lanes of Hurontario Street and a Highway 403 exit ramp at grade. By 2021, this design had changed to locate the line on the west side of Hurontario Street on elevated guideways. One guideway would run north from Square One Drive and cross over Rathburn Road. A second guideway would continue

3567-547: The cancelled Main Street route will be invested in priority transit projects in the Greater Toronto Area which might or might not include Brampton. At its February 20, 2020, meeting, the Metrolinx Board of Directors endorsed a prioritization framework for a proposed Frequent Rapid Transit Network that was inclusive of a reinstated LRT extension from Brampton Gateway Terminal to Brampton GO Station; with

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3654-411: The choice between a surface or underground LRT extension must be made before Brampton can finish planning for water main replacement. Brampton politicians, including Mayor Patrick Brown, have been advocating for the Main Street extension. On February 27, 2023, Brampton Transit staff presented a project update to City Council, noting that design development updates and inflation have increased the costs of

3741-543: 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 LRVs to

3828-567: The contract to build and operate the Edmonton LRT Valley Line Southeast in February 2016, Bombardier provided Flexity Freedom vehicles for use on the new line, as opposed to Siemens LRVs ( Siemens SD-160 and Siemens–Duewag U2 ) on the existing Capital and Metro Lines. Where the vehicles built for Ontario have five segments, the vehicles built for Edmonton are longer, built of seven segments. The first car

3915-498: The contract to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain the Hurontario LRT for a period of 30 years. The total contract value was $ 4.6   billion with a completion date of the fourth quarter of 2024 was set in the announcement. John Laing Group, Astaldi, Transdev, Amico, and Hitachi are part of the consortium. In spring 2020, construction started on the Operations, Maintenance and Storage Facility, just south of Highway 407. By January 2021, excavation work had started to build

4002-662: The corridor is currently suburban in nature, these secondary entrances create mid-block crossings throughout Hurontario and Main Streets, which enhance pedestrian access. In January 2018, a consultation process was started to select unique and memorable names for the stops. The stop at Central Parkway was named "Fairview" as there is already a Central Parkway station on the Mississauga Transitway. Note: Bus routes running along Hurontario Street are not listed except at bus terminals or route endpoints. (Routes serve

4089-414: The curbside, reducing the height from the road to only 180 mm (7.1 in). Some public transport companies have both low floor and high floor trams. They report that low floor trams have 15% higher maintenance costs for the rolling stock, and 20% higher maintenance costs for the infrastructure on average. Many low-floor trams have fixed bogies which increase track wear and tear, while decreasing

4176-419: The delivery of Flexity Freedom vehicles. On June 6, 2017, IO and Metrolinx announced that three teams had been shortlisted: On December 1, 2017, IO and Metrolinx announced that the route would employ 44 Citadis Spirit vehicles, from Alstom to be manufactured at a new assembly plant in Brampton. These vehicles are longer and have higher capacity than the Flexity Freedom vehicles purchased by Metrolinx for

4263-409: 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. 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

4350-474: The former northbound lanes of Hurontario, with new northbound lanes for road traffic passing beneath the QEW in a new tunnel. At Dundas Street , the LRT could connect to a proposed Dundas bus rapid transit . The LRT will indirectly connect to Cooksville GO Station using the LRT's Cooksville stop at John Street. Further north, between the Robert Speck stop and Highway 403 , the line will switch to

4437-467: The high growth in both cities. They identified three options: light rail transit for the entire corridor, bus rapid transit for the entire corridor, or a combination of both (light rail south of Mississauga City Centre and bus rapid transit north of it). After three public information sessions, the residents of both cities favoured light rail transit along the full length of the corridor. On October 28, 2015, Brampton City Council voted against allowing

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4524-500: The latter street providing LRV access between the Operations, Maintenance and Storage Facility and the mainline. The 18-kilometre (11 mi) LRT line will have a dedicated right-of-way throughout the entire corridor. Most of the corridor will be along Hurontario Street with the LRT in a reserved centre median and with two lanes in each direction for general traffic plus turning lanes. General traffic will cross tracks only at major signalized intersections. The LRT line will begin at

4611-406: The line has been officially announced. The cities of Mississauga and Brampton have determined that rapid transit along Hurontario is required due to the chronic overcrowding of Mississauga's (and the suburban Greater Toronto Area's) busiest bus routes, 2/17 Hurontario, which carry more than 25,000 passengers a day, combined with the numerous high-density development proposals along the corridor and

4698-659: The line over Highway 403. Between these two guideways, there would be a junction to a branch on a third guideway descending to City Centre. In 2010, Metrolinx placed an order for 182 Flexity Freedom vehicles manufactured by Bombardier for use on the light rail lines it was building in Greater Toronto. However, by 2016, Bombardier was having delivery problems supplying vehicles for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT (officially Line 5 Eglinton ). Thus, Metrolinx would seek another vehicle supplier for its other LRT lines. Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and Metrolinx decided to deliver

4785-575: The line. It will be the only street railway operating in the Greater Toronto Area outside Toronto proper. Upon opening, the route will be named the Hazel McCallion Line in honour of Hazel McCallion , the former mayor of the City of Mississauga. In 2022, the provincial government announced the line's renaming on the occasion of the former mayor's 101st birthday. As of February 2024, no route number or map colour for

4872-474: The line. According to Ed Sajecki, Commissioner of Planning and Building for Mississauga, downtown development had been mostly residential towers as developers felt it was to too expensive to provide parking for large office towers. Sajecki expects that the LRT will eliminate the need for downtown parking. With the LRT, downtown population is expected to double in less than two decades from its currently estimated 40,000. According to Mayor Bonnie Crombie , Mississauga

4959-481: The loop called for the north-south leg to follow Duke of York Boulevard, but Crombie is planning for a route further west along Confederation Parkway . By January 18, 2024, the Ontario Minister of Transportation had requested that Metrolinx provide an initial business case by February 5 for constructing both the Main Street extension and the Mississauga City Centre loop. Three weeks later, on February 8,

5046-420: The low speed of 10 km/h (6.2 mph). 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. As part of the consortium that won

5133-514: The mainline, before crossing over Highway 403 on the elevated guideway and returning to centre median running on Hurontario on the north side of the highway. The first stop north of Highway 403 will be at Eglinton Avenue, with stops at Bristol Road, Matheson Boulevard, Britannia Road, Courtneypark Drive, and Derry Road. North of Derry, at Topflight Drive, there will be a junction to the line's maintenance and storage facility. The line will then enter Brampton, with two stops at Ray Lawson Drive and

5220-638: The names of Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F) and Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC), respectively. The Flexity Freedom is used on the Ion rapid transit in Kitchener and Waterloo , Ontario, and the Valley Line in Edmonton . It is planned for use on the Line 5 Eglinton light rail system under construction in Toronto . Being entirely low-floor, these vehicles directly compete with

5307-564: The north leg of County Court Boulevard before terminating at the Brampton Gateway Terminal on Steeles Avenue , which offers connections to the 511 Züm Steeles BRT line. There will be one grade-separated station (at Port Credit GO) and 18 on-street stops throughout the corridor with an average spacing of 850 metres (2,790 ft) and will feature 90-metre (300 ft) platforms. They are expected to have heated shelters, CCTV cameras, real-time information system and bicycle lockers. Most of them will feature secondary entrances, but since most of

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5394-409: 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

5481-531: The operations, maintenance and storage facility, 15 metres (49 ft) of track had already been laid. Track construction started in September 2022 at various intersections along Hurontario Street between Sandstone Drive (south of Britannia Road) and Matheson Boulevard. On Hurontario Street at the Queen Elizabeth Way , the push box technique was used to create new northbound traffic lanes under

5568-607: The pivoting bogies. The idea of a low-floor tram dates back to the early 20th century when a number of trolley systems began experimenting with various "stepless" designs. Perhaps the most notable is the Hedley-Doyle Stepless car introduced in 1912 for use on Broadway in Manhattan . A number of other cities also purchased Hedley-Doyle Stepless trams after seeing their success in Manhattan. Since these cars had

5655-565: 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. 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

5742-401: 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 system where vehicles have a metallic colour, to which

5829-439: 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

5916-527: 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 to 4 weeks. In September 2016,

6003-714: 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 and the Hamilton LRT , 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

6090-447: The provincial government. On October 28, 2015, Brampton City Council voted 7–4 against allowing the LRT to run along Main Street through its heritage downtown area, as originally planned by the province. Without this agreement, the province has indicated it would move ahead with the project, terminating the LRT at Steeles Avenue ( Brampton Gateway Terminal ) instead of Brampton GO Station. Opposed council members had also previously cited

6177-402: The provincial money allocated to the Main Street route in Brampton would now be available for other transit projects across the province. However, McCuaig also said Metrolinx would be open to evaluate alternate transit proposals from Brampton for provincial funding for the next round of transit initiatives. On November 3, 2015, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca announced that the funding for

6264-401: 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

6351-845: The route it should take. Councillors opposing the Main Street route have proposed running the LRT east or west along Steeles Avenue and then north to Queen Street where it would then possibly continue east from Brampton's downtown area to the Bramalea GO Station or possibly all the way to the terminus of the western branch of the Toronto subway 's Line 1 Yonge–University at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre . In March 2013, Brampton City Council asked city staff to consider two alternative routes north from Steeles Avenue, either (1) partially north on Main Street, east to Peel Memorial Hospital , north to Queen Street and west to Brampton GO Station, or (2) north on Kennedy Road, west on Queen Street to Brampton GO Station. Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig said

6438-436: The speed at which a tram can drive through a curve (usually 4–15 km/h (2.5–9.3 mph) in 20 m (66 ft) radius curve). The Škoda ForCity and the newest Alstom Citadis X04 try to counter the effect with pivoting bogies while maintaining 100% low floor design. Prior to the new design, pivoting bogies could only be used under high floors, hence such trams could only be part low-floor, with high-floor sections over

6525-465: 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, a maximum capacity of 30,000 passengers per peak hour can be achieved. The vehicles' standard passenger configuration can safely accommodate up to four passengers in wheelchairs. For example, the trains for Edmonton carry up to 275 passengers per train. According to Bombardier,

6612-443: The station platform infrastructure in existing rail systems. Some systems may make use of former railway alignments where use of existing high platforms is desirable, while others, particularly new systems, may not have the space to site high-level platforms in urban centres. Trams traditionally had high floors, and articulated tram designs evolved with low-floor centre sections. Examples of this design are Amsterdam 11G/12G-trams and

6699-468: The stop be moved back to the north side so that riders would not have to cross Steeles Avenue to transfer between the LRT and the bus terminal. Metrolinx said they would consider Brampton's request out of safety concerns. According to a published 2017 design, the LRT would occupy the centre median of Hurontario Street as it crossed over the Highway 403 intersection on a bridge. At the southern approach to

6786-462: The surface alignment ($ 933 million) and underground alignment ($ 2.8 billion). City staff still recommend the underground alignment due to perceived benefits in travel time savings, infrastructure modifications, downtown revitalization, operations and maintenance, and protection for a future extension. Brampton's preferred underground option would have a surface stop at Charolais Boulevard and underground stops at Nanwood Drive and Brampton GO Station. With

6873-419: 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. Light rail lines in Toronto, starting with Line 5 Eglinton, will be constructed to standard gauge instead of Toronto's streetcar gauge because Metrolinx , the Ontario provincial transit authority funding

6960-427: The total contract value was $ 5.6 billion. This included $ 4.6 billion to design, build and finance plus $ 1 billion to operate and maintain the line for 30 years. The line was previously costed at $ 1.2 billion for capital costs only. The City of Mississauga is expected to cover the operating and maintenance costs. Mississauga plans to use the Hurontario LRT to spur commercial development and employment opportunities along

7047-598: 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 the Alstom APS system. 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:

7134-510: 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. Low-floor tram A low-floor tram allows accessible level access from curb level platforms. Level access can also be achieved either by using a high-floor vehicle serving high-platform stops. Currently both types are in use, depending on

7221-708: 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 have seven modules. Vehicles can be coupled and operated as trains of up to four connected vehicles. The maximum passenger capacities, in

7308-578: The west side of Hurontario Street and run onto an elevated guideway . Midway across this guideway there will be a Y-junction for a spur descending to Rathburn Road and terminating at the Mississauga City Centre stop. Here there will be connections to the Mississauga Transitway and the City Centre Transit Terminal, and access to Square One Shopping Centre . To leave the stop, light-rail trains must reverse back to

7395-476: The work on time plus $ 1.5   million 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 2024), but Metrolinx expects

7482-550: Was initially cancelled on March 21, 2019, when Metrolinx announced that the downtown loop would be dropped due to financial restrictions beyond the spur to the stop on Rathburn serving the City Centre Transit Terminal . Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie indicated that the rest of the loop could be built as a later phase. In September 2021, it was listed as one of the city's six transportation priorities by Mississauga City Council . On February 14, 2022, at

7569-541: Was shipped on June 27, 2018 (from Kingston, Ontario, on CN Rail ) and went up for display at Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre (next to the location of the what is now the Valley Line Bonnie Doon stop ) 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 were produced for the line, with 10 delivered in late 2018, 13 in 2019, and 3 in 2020. On November 4, 2023, regular service on

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