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.

The Flexity Freedom is used on the Ion rapid transit in Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario, and the Valley Line in Edmonton.

[10] Being entirely low-floor, these vehicles directly compete with the Flexity Swift, Alstom Citadis, Siemens S70, CAF Urbos, and Kinki Sharyo LRVs.

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 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.

[16] 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.

[26] On March 2, 2017, Metrolinx filed court affidavits to support its action to terminate the Flexity Freedom contract due to high financial risks.

In exchange, Bombardier received an 18-month extension on their contract to operate and maintain GO Transit rail services on behalf of Metrolinx.

[31][27] 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.

Thus, instead of a second cab, the rear of each Toronto car contains a passenger area with four side-facing seats and extra standing room.

[39] 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 the projects, wants to ensure a better price for purchasing vehicles by having a degree of commonality with other similar projects within Ontario.

[42] 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.

[15] 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.

[51][52] The first Flexity Freedom vehicle arrived that month at the Ion maintenance facility, but it could not be tested as its operating software was incomplete.

[54] 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.

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.

[4] 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.

[27] Metrolinx has ordered competing vehicle fleets from rivals Bombardier and Alstom to service Line 5 Eglinton.

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.