TTC: Flexity Streetcars Testing & Delivery (Bombardier)

[Richard White]

I live on Spadina. I rarely, if ever see the streetcars full. Besides, I'm not talking about pulling their streetcars. I'm suggesting delaying replacing the CLRVs on other routes until after the major passenger demand on the 504 is satisfied. The 504 is the busiest ground route in the entire TTC and you can barely get on a streetcar these days. That's a crisis. It needs to take priority.

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Photo: @jessicaecyoung on Twitter

There is not enough capacity at Broadview or Dundas West to increase service.

Adding more cars to King will make a bad situation worse. There is usually a line of cars down Broadview awaiting entry to Broadview station making any additional service virtually impossible.

A nice idea but not really practical.

 

[drum118]

TTC should not be scraping anymore cars until there is enough new cars to do so, so long they can be duct tape and wire to keep them running. Extra money been wasted doing this, but it servicing the riders needs.

Again, people are say cars aren't full, but what time of the day and where on the route is it taking place?? What happen in one location is the opposite in another, but the bottom line you can't pull new cars off the current routes without having major issues.

Regardless whats going on for 504, TTC doesn't have the capacity nor equipment to deal with it even after all 204 cars are here. I and others stated in 2005 and since then by not going to a 1:1 replacement, you are moving a cattle car system to another cattle car system and not able to deal with growth, but pent up demand for low floor vehicles as well. TTC needs to deal with the extra 60-100 cars yesterday, not in 2020 or what every year it done. TTC is rebuilding 60+ cars to carry it to 2025 or when it can obtain these extra cars. Then again, is that enough to deal what is needed as well a few new extension???

 

[MetroMan]

TTC should not be scraping anymore cars until there is enough new cars to do so, so long they can be duct tape and wire to keep them running. Extra money been wasted doing this, but it servicing the riders needs.

Again, people are say cars aren't full, but what time of the day and where on the route is it taking place?? What happen in one location is the opposite in another, but the bottom line you can't pull new cars off the current routes without having major issues.

Regardless whats going on for 504, TTC doesn't have the capacity nor equipment to deal with it even after all 204 cars are here. I and others stated in 2005 and since then by not going to a 1:1 replacement, you are moving a cattle car system to another cattle car system and not able to deal with growth, but pent up demand for low floor vehicles as well. TTC needs to deal with the extra 60-100 cars yesterday, not in 2020 or what every year it done. TTC is rebuilding 60+ cars to carry it to 2025 or when it can obtain these extra cars. Then again, is that enough to deal what is needed as well a few new extension???

What about swapping King 504's CLRV's for Harbourfront 509's Flexity's. I don't think I've ever seen a 509 car anywhere close to full. For what reason were they converted to Flexity before other busier routes?

This solution would essentially fast track the 504 to Flexity, increasing capacity while maintaining the same number of cars. The 509 would then get converted back to Flexity as new ones arrive.

 

[nfitz]

Perhaps not at this time of year - though westbound from Union can be quite packed at PM rush hour. Some days in summer, faster to walk to Queens Quay and squeeze on there, when someone gets off.

But they've made 509 accessible (along with 510 and 514). I don't really think they can walk that back.

The choice is from St. Clair .... or swap the ALRVs from 501.

 

[Steve X]

504 riders have wait this long. They might as well wait a little longer. It takes TTC 4-6 months to come up with a revise a schedule to implementation. By that time, there should be new cars avaliable for the 504. If BBD does deliver 4465 by the end of the year, it wouldn't be too long before new cars are on the 504. Remember, the 7 or so cars from the 509 isn't enough for King. The 514 has already be introduced for over a year to improve the situation.

 

[Fred.S]

Does the 504 have a scheduled short-turn at Roncy and/or Queen/Broadview (or anywhere between Cherry and Broadview Station)? Some service in-between the full 504 and 514 could relieve crowding without affecting the terminals. Also, I feel like they could get streetcars through the terminals faster, like having drivers ready to change up and switch, so that streetcars don't dwell, but drivers still get a break.

I guess we still need more streetcars for all of that though...

 

[robmausser]

What about swapping King 504's CLRV's for Harbourfront 509's Flexity's. I don't think I've ever seen a 509 car anywhere close to full. For what reason were they converted to Flexity before other busier routes?

This solution would essentially fast track the 504 to Flexity, increasing capacity while maintaining the same number of cars. The 509 would then get converted back to Flexity as new ones arrive.

The 509, 510 and 512 were converted to Flexities first to allow for any teething issues to be fixed while the streetcars are in dedicated lanes out of traffic.

Spadina is also a very busy route.

 

[MetroMan]

There is not enough capacity at Broadview or Dundas West to increase service.

Adding more cars to King will make a bad situation worse. There is usually a line of cars down Broadview awaiting entry to Broadview station making any additional service virtually impossible.

A nice idea but not really practical.

Well, the TTC seems to think there is. They’ve added 7 streetcars to the 504 to cope with demand.

The 3 Flexity’s that are on their way to Toronto right now are going to the 504.

 

[Allandale25]

^ Good to hear.

 

[TOareaFan]

Union still confident on order being filled by 2019

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/bombardier-ttc-new-workers-1.4414673

 

[M II A II R II K]

If not, they could use the RT trains on King to make up the difference after the RT closes.

 

[Kitsune]

The 509 got flexities as the CLRV's were unable to cope with the morning demand. Before Flexities - the cars would be filled by Spadina and skipping everything after that.

 

[TransitBart]

There is not enough capacity at Broadview or Dundas West to increase service.

Adding more cars to King will make a bad situation worse. There is usually a line of cars down Broadview awaiting entry to Broadview station making any additional service virtually impossible.

A nice idea but not really practical.

That is why they should increase the 514 service because it increases the number of cars in service, but does not increase the pressure on the terminals.

Beyond that, in the east end, our (new) 515 service can loop via Broadview, Dundas and Parliament and in the west end at say, Shaw, or Ossington.

 

[Richard White]

That is why they should increase the 514 service because it increases the number of cars in service, but does not increase the pressure on the terminals.

Beyond that, in the east end, our (new) 515 service can loop via Broadview, Dundas and Parliament and in th west end at say, Shaw, or Ossington.

They tried a similar routing on Queen a few years ago when they truncated the route at Humber Loop, Church and had an overlapping service from Shaw to Parliament. The route was a disaster with cars sitting on Parliament for their layover. Not something the TTC wants to repeat.

 

[TransitBart]

It is going to be a very long time - at this rate - before the 502, the 503, the 511 or the ex 508, or Humber Loop to Long Branch have car service again. On one hand that is good. But we need an 100 additional trams at least.