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TTC: Flexity Streetcars Testing & Delivery (Bombardier)

drum118 said:
They were doing track work on Queen E on Sat as we headed downtown from Russell and not sure were it was. Track work look like it was being done on the eastbound track, but could be wrong.

There are many location where concrete for the rails needs replacing and most of the problems for the concrete failure is from traffic and trucks, not streetcars. These locations are where on street parking take place.

Under the current CEO, TTC is going backward at faster pace than the slow moving forward pace under Andy.
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Really it's only trucks and salt. Cars, as much as I love to hate on them, aren't nearly heavy enough to really damage the roads.
A dead truckload is especially bad, and there's no easy solution because there are very few alternatives.

drum118 said:
Under the current CEO, TTC is going backward at faster pace than the slow moving forward pace under Andy.
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We all really miss him. At least New York City is getting some improvements, and I'd argue they need them more than we do.
 
MetroMan said:
So I guess they’re going to miss the 2019 100% delivery target? Not by as much as it looked at the beginning of the year however.
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4596 has enter service on 504B after arriving December 18, 2019

4599 should be off loaded now or in the process.

I said last year that there was no way the order would be completed this year and was prepared to eat my words. Don't have to eat my words

4401 will be the last car to be ship in late January or even later based on the other cars that had to be rebuilt from prototype to production car. This still leaves 4600-4603 to be ship and will not see them in all in service until sometime in February.

Then there is the 2 flood damage cars that need repairs that are in Thunder Bay now.

What is more concerning is the fixing of the welds as they are taking longer than the 19 week turn around first announced a year ago to the point it 30 plus weeks so far. 4406 still isn't tracking after being ship to QC on May 01, 2019 and off loaded December 16, 2019. Where are the other 6??
 
^I assume this means that cars 201 and 202 are also on the way.......

I’m less worried about the pace of the rewelds. The problem will take some years to show itself, and the more miles that the affected cars rack up before rebuilding the better. TTC can only afford to have a few absent at any one time.

- Paul
 
Looking for clarification on something. When the Province took over the Relief Line and instructed Toronto to direct its budget to state of good repair and other transit projects, wouldn't a small portion of that money be available to purchase the additional 60 streetcars the TTC and planners are saying we need?
 
MetroMan said:
Looking for clarification on something. When the Province took over the Relief Line and instructed Toronto to direct its budget to state of good repair and other transit projects, wouldn't a small portion of that money be available to purchase the additional 60 streetcars the TTC and planners are saying we need?
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Minimum 60. Maybe 100. Would have to depend if the non-transit-using Councillors will open their moth eaten purse-strings.
 
MetroMan said:
Looking for clarification on something. When the Province took over the Relief Line and instructed Toronto to direct its budget to state of good repair and other transit projects, wouldn't a small portion of that money be available to purchase the additional 60 streetcars the TTC and planners are saying we need?
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Sure - but it doesn't appear as though the cash became available fast enough to place another order with Bombardier. Even if it was available it appears there was little motivation on Council (except for Perks) to re-order with Bombardier.
 
MetroMan said:
Looking for clarification on something. When the Province took over the Relief Line and instructed Toronto to direct its budget to state of good repair and other transit projects, wouldn't a small portion of that money be available to purchase the additional 60 streetcars the TTC and planners are saying we need?
Click to expand...
The ball is in the city's court. There are no limitations that the city does not impose on itself.
 
Given Bombardier track recorder and performance on both the streetcar and TR, who would want to place another order with them if "TRUE OPEN TENDER PROCESS" can take place in place of sole source??? TTC and the City must make it public knowledge they don't care who gets the order so long as the bidders comply and meet TTC requirements at the time of RFP. Queen Park needs to keep hands off for the tender process and pay its share of cost regardless who gets the order.

Based on current cost to order more streetcars from BBD, you are looking at about $6 million plus per car or almost double the cost of the current order.

With the 3rd splitting of a car at a switch, was it caused by the switch or the car wheels??? We know the current switches need to be replace to meet the new cars requirements and going to take a few decades to replace them.

It was stated from day one that the Flexity wouldn't squeal as cars were turning like the old fleet, yet on the first media day testing, 4400 was squealing coming out of Hillcrest yard. Can be heard on the video I shot that night. A few weeks ago, a 504 was squealing like a pig turning onto Broadview off Queen. Not the first time I have heard this squealing and can be heard at most curves, loops and switching. Some have next to no squeal to very loud squeal.

If you want to see who has the best car for the next order, pay the cost to have a car or 2 built by 3 suppliers who rank the highest for delivery and meet TTC requirements. Who every wins the bid based on these prototype cars must include the repayment of the cost for the prototype cars they built. Must also be able to add another section or 2 down the road to meet ridership needs.
 
I think the TTC's reasoning for a single model of streetcar was to make parts interchangeable and enable them to have parts in stock that will fit any streetcar. But I agree that we shouldn't be held to a supplier who screwed up in every way. It would've made sense if the models were split more or less evenly. Having 200+ cars from Bombardier and just 60 from Siemens is going to be unnecessarily complex for such a small number of cars.
 
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MetroMan said:
Looking for clarification on something. When the Province took over the Relief Line and instructed Toronto to direct its budget to state of good repair and other transit projects, wouldn't a small portion of that money be available to purchase the additional 60 streetcars the TTC and planners are saying we need?
Click to expand...
I have trouble believing that TTC doesn't need every dollar of the SOGR cash to catch up on deferred critical maintenance in both surface and subway networks, stations, etc. More streetcars is an expansion and should be funded the same way expansion in the bus fleet was.
 
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