News Flash
Metrolinx buys 182 more Bombardier streetcars
Toronto's Metrolinx has exercised a $770 million option to purchase 182 light-rail vehicles from Bombardier Inc., which will grace Toronto streets in the next three to 10 years.
The option is part of a June 2009 contract for 204 revolutionary low-floor cars, new for Toronto. Metrolinx can still opt to buy up to 118 more vehicles.
Similar versions of the streetcars, which have a capacity of more than 280 people, are already used in Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Turkey, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
Raymond Bachant, North American president of Bombardier Transportation, said the order "solidifies our presence in Ontario and highlights Bombardier's proven state of the art light rail technology."
I guess only one question remains: if a leaf falls in front of a new Bombardier streetcar and there's no one there to pick it up, will it have a "state of the art, light rail" breakdown?
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Toronto's problem in a nutshell:
...which will grace Toronto streets in the next three to 10 years.
3 to 10 years!!!! 10 years is 300% later than 3 years.
And yet this timeline is acceptable for the TTC and Cityhall.
What a crock.
Yea The timeliness def. irks me a bit, Its punishing to see how slowly transit decisions get rolled out. But I guess one clarification I have to ask for is that these are the TRANSIT CITY vehicles? Maybe this would explain the nutzo timeliness.. but if not then yiikes. 3-10 (7 is my guess) years is along time to wait, I really thought that the CLRV's were very close to falling apart and in low numbers to adequately service all the existing routes?
Most of these are probably the vehicles coming in 2013, while some others are slated to be paired in Transit City, which explains the 10 year timeline.
Also, what is with blogTO and it's negative attitude on pretty much everything you guys report? Yeah we get it, the TTC sucks, but this is somewhat decent news.
The 3-10 years is not a window of when they will first start to be seen but rather the duration of how long it will take to deploy that may new vehicles. These are not like cars which are mass produced and are readily available on the lot. Each one of these vehicles must be custom built according to customer spec and that takes time.
You will likely see the first ones roll out in 3 years and the remainder of them deployed over the following 7 years. If they opt to buy the additional 118 units, the rollout will likely take an additional 5 years. They first three years will be broken down into requirements refinement, engineering, build, testing, and acceptance. The testing will likely take about a year to ensure that the vehicle is tested against all weather conditions.
While this seems excessively long, these vehicles will remain in operation fot the next 30+ years at which point, they will be replaced by teleportation devices. ;)
Good points, I did not take into account the staggered roll outs. It would be unrealistic to think 182 cars show up by magic one morning for sure. My guess is the Queen line will get the new cars first since it is the busiest and those old ALRV's can be transferd full time to other routes like King or Spadina.
I must admit though, I really do like the beat up old current cars we have. they add grimy nostalgia, I hope 20 years down the road they keep a couple and refurbish them, that 70's tackiness will be refreshing in 2035. We trashed all the old PCC cars so I'm hoping the TTC doesn't go the route of trashing all of these.
My god, by a couple of years these things will already be outdated by some new and improved LRT.
O.K., the TTC actually has a few PCCs lying around. They show up every once in a while for special occasions, and can also be rented for private charters.
I'm sure some of the CLRVs and ALRVs (outgoing models) will be saved as well.
Added a link for more content: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Toronto_Transit_Commission_PCC_4500_in_regular_operation.jpg
In Europe these are called trams. It's about time we had streetcars that don't look like they're from the Cold War, and actually hold enough people to justify their use instead of buses.