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TTC: Flexity Streetcars Testing & Delivery (Bombardier)

Can I ask a really honest question (not trolling) what is the business case for building any transit system along Sheppard? Be it LRT or Subway, is there really a need for transit up there? I thought everyone just took the car. Wouldn't it be better spent along York Mills or Lawerence or Eglinton? Isn't the current Sheppard subway a bit of a failure / empty most of the time? Do people argue "If we build it they will come." I'm confused by the urgency of a transit line along Sheppard when there seems to be way more urgency on Eglinton.
 
W. K. Lis said:
I subscribe to Tramways & Urban Transit magazine (from UK). See http://www.tramnews.net/ and http://www.lrta.org/ for subscriptions. The worldwide rolling stock orders on the books for 2012 shows more than 3,000 new trams and LRVs are currently on order from 17 manufactures. The majority are low-floor. The prices range €1.75 m (Citadis Compact) to €3.37 m (Dualis tram-train) with roughly €3m being typical. The largest order on the books currently are for, surprise surprise, Toronto, with 195 Flexity Freedom for delivery between 2013-15 and 182 LRV (custom) for delivery between 2014-16, both from Bombardier. Subject to change of course, since the delivery dates in the magazine article I am reading from seem suspect to me. I think the quantity and dates should be switched between the two Toronto orders. The magazine is from the UK, so the information is from a foreign source.

Other non-World Class cities with orders are:

  • Paris with 107
  • Berlin with 99
  • Krakow with 24
  • Melbourne with 50
  • Wien with 20 (Bombardier)
  • Stockholm with 15 + 106
  • Warsawa with 186 + 40
  • Calgary with 38
  • Wien with 104 (Siemens)
  • Praha with 250
Click to expand...

It's Warsaw or Warszawa, choose one :)
 
Conspiratorially, I do wonder if the *provincial* funding for the streetcar program, about $400 million worth, is entirely safe in the March 27 Liberal budget.

The Star seemed to quote Dwight Duncan as saying that what will be ''billions'' in cuts to infrastructure won't affect the TTC, but it wasn't clear to me whether he meant specifically the funds for new light rail lines. Certainly the mayor wouldn't complain about driving a stake through the heart of the downtown network he so despises.

Work on the new vehicles and the preparations for them is already well underway of course, presumably drawing on a good chunk of that provincial money, and contracts have been signed etc etc. I hope I'm just paranoid.
 
allabootmatt said:
Work on the new vehicles and the preparations for them is already well underway of course, presumably drawing on a good chunk of that provincial money, and contracts have been signed etc etc. I hope I'm just paranoid.
Click to expand...

I think you are. When the big banks advise deferring corporate tax cuts and spending on transportation solutions in Toronto, McGuinty (an environmentalist) is going to listen.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Warszawa if you are Polish, Warsaw if you are American.
Click to expand...

American? I think you mean English-speaking.

My point was that Warsawa is like a weird hybrid of the two, like you're combining Warsaw and Warszawa.

Incidentally, it's Krakow and Cracow, but you rarely see Cracow written anymore, whereas the anglicized Warsaw is still widely used.
 
hawc said:
Can I ask a really honest question (not trolling) what is the business case for building any transit system along Sheppard? Be it LRT or Subway, is there really a need for transit up there? I thought everyone just took the car. Wouldn't it be better spent along York Mills or Lawerence or Eglinton? Isn't the current Sheppard subway a bit of a failure / empty most of the time? Do people argue "If we build it they will come." I'm confused by the urgency of a transit line along Sheppard when there seems to be way more urgency on Eglinton.
Click to expand...

This isn't really the best thread for this...but yes, Sheppard has reached a point where the current bus service is no longer adequate. Same goes for Eglinton, which is why it is also getting its own line; funded and currently prepping for construction.
 
From the Chief Executive Officer’s Report Period 11 & 12 (October 30 to December 31, 2011) in PDF at this link:

The low floor light rail vehicle procurement project is partway through the Final Design phase. The first of the three prototype LRVs is scheduled for delivery in early September, 2012, with the other two scheduled for delivery before year end. The prototype vehicles will undergo extensive vehicle reliability, performance and technology verification tests. System compatibility tests including accessibility features, platform and on-street boarding interface with the vehicle, its bridgeplate and ramp deployment, fare collection and overhead power interface, etc. will be conducted.
Based on the prototype tests, a baseline vehicle configuration will be established for production vehicles, scheduled for delivery beginning in the fall of 2013.
Click to expand...
 
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