TTC upgrading some streetcars, crushing others
Delivery of the TTC’s 204 new low-floor streetcars won’t be complete until 2019, but riders of the 501 Queen and 511 Bathurst lines won’t have to wait much longer for tangible improvements.
The TTC has started fitting some of its articulated streetcars with new energy-efficient LED lights, upgraded floors, fresh seats and Presto readers. It’s part of a $24-million overhaul designed to extend the life of the 27-year-old vehicles to 2024.
Thirty of the 52 articulated streetcars will get the beauty treatment with the option available for another 10, pending funding, says Stephen Lam, head of the TTC’s streetcar department. The remaining 12 will be stripped of their useful parts and scrapped.
Keeping some of the current streetcars in service will help the TTC maintain its capacity while the new streetcars continue to arrive. The first refreshed vehicles are due to hit the rails by the end of the year, Lam says.
The TTC has also started the process of scrapping its least reliable non-articulated streetcars.
“They are in bad shape,” says Lam.
Some will be auctioned off in bulk to museums and collectors, but most will be broken up over the next few years.
“I feel very passionate about those cars,” says Lam, “But we must move on because the major shortcoming of those cars, despite all the benefits, is it cannot provide accessibility.”
