RedRocket191
Senior Member
A low-floor light-rail vehicle has no physical axle connection between the wheels or trucks to accommodate the low-floor. There maybe wiring or hydraulic connection to "tell" the wheels that we are turning at a track switch. Most new light-rail systems use the double-point switch to guide the wheels. Currently, the TTC streetcar had been using single-point switches.
When I last remembered to look down at the switches on the St. Clair right-of-way at Bathurst and Vaughan, or at Dundas West Station, I thought I saw only single-point switches.
Are the switches on Dundas Street that were re-constructed in 2007 single-point or double-point switches?
What kind of switches are being placed at St. Clair West and Lansdowne?
Does this mean we will have to dig up the "new" single-point switches and replace them double-point switches in a few years? Couldn't we put in double-point switches now?
The requirement of the LRT contract is that the cars must be compatible with the existing network. How the manufacturers do this is up to them. This means the price of each vehicle will go up, but we won't have to rebuild the network and we won't have to deal with the economic loss to business that comes with digging up all the streets.