Waterloo Region residents won’t be able to travel down tracks in light rail transit vehicles until 2017, but if a $92-million deal with Bombardier is approved, they will get the chance to sit in a vehicle next week.

The deal would see the region purchase 14 vehicles initially, with an option to purchase up to 14 more.

The region had budgeted $95 million for the vehicles, leading Waterloo Coun. Sean Strickland to call the deal a good one for taxpayers.

“We’ve got a really good price. We’re delivering the best value we possible can,” he tells CTV.

The purchase price works out to approximately $4.6 million per vehicle, plus taxes, an $11-million contingency fund and a $2-million letter of credit.

If the contract with Bombardier is approved, a sample vehicle will be displayed at regional headquarters next weekend.

“The public will actually be able to touch it and feel it and sit on it and have their picture taken in it if they’d like,” says Strickland.

The vehicles, which will be assembled at a plant in Thunder Bay, are part of a larger contract between Bombardier and provincial transit agency Metrolinx.

Although the Ion vehicles will be essentially the same as the vehicles ordered by Metrolinx, the region would be able to make minor changes to items like the vehicles’ colour scheme and seat fabric.

Strickland says the option for additional vehicles is important, as the region may find itself needing to replace vehicles, or adding additional ones due to customer demand.

The total budget for LRT in Kitchener-Waterloo and bus rapid transit in Cambridge is $818 million.

Of that, and aside from vehicle costs, about $35 million has been spent so far, primarily on consulting fees and land acquisition.

“It’s exactly where we expected to be right now,” says Thomas Schmidt, the region’s transportation commissioner.

The bulk of the $818-million budget – somewhere in the vicinity of $536 million – will be spent on the contract with the consortium that designs, builds and operates the transit system.

The three finalists for that contract are expected to have their bids ready by early 2014.