Toronto, Ontario
The Toronto Transit Commission operates the largest remaining traditional
streetcar system in North America. The lines serve major corridors throughout
the city with the majority of service running in mixed traffic as streetcars did
in virtually all cities in the first half of the 20th century. The system is
very heavily used and has been expanded with lines serving the Harbourfront and
Spadina Avenue both opened since 1990 and placed in reserved rights-of-way. Plans for a massive expansion of the
system with a number of new light rail routes were announced in early 2007, and later were scaled
back, but still call for at least four lines to be built.
The TTC is making a generational change in its fleet as it
is it is introducing over a period of years 204 five-section, 100 percent low floor streetcars from
Bombardier, the first fully low floor cars to be delivered to a North American system.
The APTA Streetcar and Heritage Trolley Subcommittee met in Toronto in August
2012 to learn about progress in preparations for this new fleet of cars. Click on the photos below
to see enlarged views taken during that meeting:
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The streetcar subcommittee meets in the TTC's Light Rail headquarters on Yonge Street. |
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Three generations of Toronto streetcar spanning 90 years pose in Hillcrest Shop. |
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The subcommittee in Hillcrest Shop in front of the 1923 Peter Witt and the Flexity Mockup. |
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An interior shot of the Bombardier Flexity mock-up shows the 100 percent low floor. |
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The mock-up of the new Flexity comprises three of the five body sections in the finished car. |
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This view on Spadina shows the track and wire upgrades being made for the Flexity fleet. |
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A completely rebuilt grand union at the intersection of Spadina and Queen ready for the new fleet. |
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A climate requiring heavy salt use in winter is hard on CLRV stepwells, as it was it stepwells on prior generations of steel cars. |
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A new stepwell replaces a corroded one. The new Flexity is largely fabricated from stainless steel to avoid corrosion. |
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The subcommittee inside the Bombardier factory in Thunder Bay. Photos of the cars were not allowed. |
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The APTA Streetcar and Heritage Trolley Subcommittee previously met in Toronto in early
June 2007. Click on the photos below to see enlarged views taken during that
meeting:
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Participants in the subcommittee's tour on Toronto streetcars pose for a group photo. |
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The TTC made three generations of streetcar available for the tour from the 1940s, 1920s, and 1970s. |
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Star of the trip was this magnificently restored Peter Witt car from the 1920s. The city once had a huge fleet of these cars. |
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The TTC maintains two 1940s PCCs from a fleet that once numbered over 700. The cars were known as "Red Rockets." |
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A typical downtown Toronto view shows a Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) on Carlton Street. |
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The new Spadina streetcar line has been a great success and benefits from track laid in a reservation. |
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The large size of Toronto's system means that track replacement is normally underway at one or more points in the city. |
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The TTCs traditional main shops continue to service the large fleet of streetcars. |
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As part of the committee headed to dinner one night they encountered a car with a frozen axle. The TTC quickly placed the truck on a dolly. |
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Once the disabled truck was on the dolly, another CLRV was backed in front of it and quickly towed it away to clear the line. |
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The following news notes provide an overview of developments in Toronto's
streetcar service:
Follow this link to the Transit Commission's web site:
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