I can see the need to maintain emergency lighting and ventilation (and maybe escalators/elevators) in the stations....but....why is ML trying to provide uninterrupted traction power in the first place?
Presumably the system is built with redundancy so that the traction power can be fed from any one of several points across the route. That way, an outage in any one part of the city doesn't shut down the line. But - if power is out to the entire city, and all the feed points are affected, why try to maintain service at all? If a blackout is that widespread, having a working LRT won't help the city very much. To my knowledge, the existing TTC surface and underground systems don't have this degree of backup power.
The problem with a big standby plant is, it has to be maintained, and tested.....otherwise it may not work when called on. That's a very expensive proposition for something that will be used "once in a while". Some form of cogeneration, that can be deployed to deliver traction power as its first priority in an outage, I could buy....but that isn't the design. If only lights have to be maintained, the solution can be a few distributed small scale generators which are pretty standard items and nothing the greens should protest about.
Some of the ideas suggested by the activists sound a little "too much too soon" and are based on emerging technology rather than proven technology. Let's get Crosstown working as a transit line, and then add the evolving technologies.
I do believe that every large urban property will be covered with something "green" in only a few years. But will it be solar panels? Maybe, maybe not. Urban food, carbon-reducing vegetation, there will be lots of choices. This sounds like the usual assortment of hard-core dreamers trying to take over. Their dreams are valid, and will come to fruition - but let's follow the charge rather than lead it - because a) Crosstown's primary role is to deliver transit, and that's green enough for now and b) it's cheaper if someone else gets the bugs out first.
- Paul