State-of-the-art streetcars, designed by Canadian transport manufacturer Bombardier Inc., will begin entering service in 2013 in Toronto with the promise of a better customer experience.
Bombardier Transportation isn't worried that the new mayor of Toronto's dislike for streetcars could undermine contracts with its second-largest tramway market in the world.
"We don't have any indication that the contract is not going on right now and we're really getting to work on it," spokesman Marc-Andre Lefebvre said Thursday after the company announced a new US$235-million tramway order from Brussels.
During his campaign to lead Canada's largest city, Rob Ford said streetcars were not the answer to Toronto's transit needs. The right-leaning mayor-elect said he prefers to add buses and extend the subway system in time for the 2015 Pan-Am Games.
He also said he wants to halt the provincially funded plan to build light-rail lines from Toronto's downtown to the suburbs.
But on Wednesday, Mr. Ford backed away from his plan to phase out streetcars. If cancelling the order "is going to cost the taxpayers an arm and a leg, then obviously we can't do it," he said.
The Toronto Transit Commission ordered 204 streetcars in 2009 for more than $1.2 billion in what was billed as the largest single order for light-rail vehicles in the world.
Ontario's provincial transit agency, Metrolinx, exercised an option last June for 182 light-rail vehicles to be delivered between 2013 and 2029 at a value of $770 million. It also has an option for 118 more vehicles.
Mr. Lefebvre said production will soon begin in Thunder Bay, Ont., on the new streetcars that are expected to be delivered starting late in 2012.
"We're ramping up to start production on these vehicles as we speak and it's a great contract for the City of Toronto, so we'll wait to see," he said.
Meanwhile, Bombardier announced Thursday that Brussels has exercised an option seven years after it purchased its first Flexity trams.
It will have the world's biggest fleet of a single type of tram once the vehicles are delivered by April 2015.
The follow-on order for 65 trains will increase the Belgian capital's fleet of trams to 220, making it Bombardier's third largest market for the vehicles after Germany and Canada.
The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's site in Bruges, while the frameworks will be produced at the Siegen facility in Germany.
Brussels Transport CEO Alain Flausch said the option allows the transit authority to reach its goal of acquiring and operating "a homogeneous fleet of a quality light-rail vehicle which has received strong appreciation from our clients."
Two Brussels tramways operated in Vancouver during the Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games.
Benoit Poirier of Desjardins Securities said the Bombardier railway division continues to pile up orders that will boost its free cash flow and backlog.
Including the Brussels contract, Bombardier has announced US$1.1 billion of railway orders in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, following $3.1 billion in the prior period.
Mr. Poirier said investors should be pleased with the division's continued order momentum.
"We believe that this segment's contribution to free cash flow generation should not be overlooked given the order momentum and its improving profitability," he wrote in a report.
More than 1,500 Flexity tramways are in operation around the world. Overall Bombardier now has more than 3,000 trams and light-rail vehicles operating or on order in cities across Europe, Australia and North America.
Berlin-headquartered Bombardier Transportation is the world's largest rail manufacturer. More than 100,000 of its vehicles are in operation in over 60 countries.
The rail and aerospace divisions, which employ about 65,000 people around the world, generated $19.7 billion of revenues last year.
On the Toronto Stock Exchange, its shares were unchanged at C$4.99 in Thursday trading.