TORONTO -- Bombardier's rail division says Ontario's GO Transit system will be getting 125 additional two-level commuter rail cars to be produced over a two-year period at its factory in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Bombardier (BBDb.TO) valued the order at $428 million.

Production of the bilevel rail cars is scheduled to start in the northwestern Ontario city in the second quarter of 2018, and final delivery is scheduled for the first quarter of 2020.

The Montreal-based company announced the order from Berlin, Germany, where its Bombardier Transportation rail equipment business has its global headquarters.

The order is the result of a conversion of purchase options held by Metrolinx, the Ontario government's regional transportation agency for the Toronto and Hamilton areas.

Bombardier says the cars have been deployed or ordered for transit authorities in 14 metropolitan regions across Canada and the United States.

In April, Bombardier announced it's cut by more than half the number of streetcars it had promised to deliver to the Toronto Transit Commission this year, the latest in a string of delays that's angered the TTC, city council and Mayor John Tory.

In a statement to BNN, Metrolinx said the GO Transit contract has been structured so that the government agency assumes “less risk if quality standards or delivery schedules are not met” by Bombardier. For example, a larger proportion of payments will be received by Bombardier after delivery, and the agency "has a good deal of control" over scheduling and subcontracting in this order, Metrolinx said.

“Bombardier has a nearly 40-year history of producing high-quality train cars on time for GO Transit, and we are confident the extent of manufacturing issues seen elsewhere will not occur during production of these bi-level coaches,” Anne Marie Aikins, Metrolinx's senior manager of media relations, communications and public affairs, told BNN.

In July, Metrolinx threatened legal action against Bombardier over production delays for its Toronto Eglinton Crosstown project, according to a BNN source.

“Metrolinx has been concerned about Bombardier’s performance for some time as there have been significant quality and manufacturing issues that to-date have not been resolved,” the agency said in a July 20 statement to BNN.

Bombardier was supposed to have delivered almost 70 new streetcars to Toronto by now, but the TTC has only 17. The TTC is applying for damages under the terms of its contract with Bombardier, and is still determining whether to sue the company.

The government agency’s decision to give more business to Bombardier, despite its delays on a number of other Metrolinx projects, may be a result of political pressure to keep big transportation contracts at home, Lyle Stein, managing director of Vestcap Investment Management, told BNN. 

“I know in a performance-oriented business, if you don't perform you don't get the next opportunity to bid – let alone get a contract," Stein said.

With files from BNN