Bombardier Transportation announced today that it has signed an agreement with Toronto-based Metrolinx for the exercise of 182 option vehicles, included in a June 2009 contract. The agreement is valued at approximately $745 million.

Deliveries of these vehicles are scheduled to take place between 2013 and 2020. Under the agreement, up to an additional 118 vehicles could be ordered at a later date.

The vehicles are Bombardier Flexity 100 percent low-floor light rail technology. The five-module bi-directional vehicles are more than 92 feet long and 8.7 feet wide. The vehicles' wide range of features include:

• A step-less interior allowing easy access at street level

• Car capacity for more than 280 passengers

• Efficient heating and air conditioning

• Comfortable interior; enhanced accessibility and safety features

• Locations for wheelchairs and strollers

• Active leveling system to ease boarding and exiting

• Enhanced communications features

• A regenerative braking system that feeds power back into the Metrolinx network

These low-floor vehicles meet the individual needs of numerous cities, such as Geneva and Zurich (Switzerland), Linz and Innsbruck (Austria), Lodz (Poland), Eskisehir (Turkey), Brussels (Belgium), Marseille (France), Valencia and Alicante (Spain), Palermo (Italy) as well as in the Rhine-Neckar Region, Berlin, Augsburg and Krefeld (Germany).

Final assembly of these additional vehicles for Toronto will take place at Bombardier production facility in Thunder Bay, Ontario.