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Presenting The Fizuture of Public Trizansit

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The TTC spent today showing off their preferred model for the future of public transit in Toronto in the middle of Dundas Square: a light rail vehicle or, more accurately, half of a full light rail vehicle that Bombardier is showing off around North America—most recently in Milwaukee, where the paint scheme seen here is used for public transit. (Apparently, in Milwaukee, they like their transit to be ugly yellow.)


interior1.jpgBoth inquisitive citizens curious about the future of transit and passersby looking for a bit of free entertainment while they finished their hot dogs toured the entire inside of the car, offering the rare chance for people over the age of six to have an excuse to sit in the train driver’s seat, and rest assured everybody, this writer included, did not pass up the opportunity. (However, the lack of a bell going “clang clang” was an unforgivable oversight. Adam Giambrone should be ashamed.)
Inside, TTC officials chatted pleasantly about the lovely ergonomic seats (which were indeed horribly comfortable), and the future extended rail network—the long-awaited transit link to Pearson Airport, the waterfront light railway, the extension of the Sheppard line. It would not be inaccurate to say that the eyes of these enthusiastic public servants positively glowed as they described the glory of environmentally friendly public transit—their spirits no doubt raised by Dalton McGuinty’s recent fourteen-billion-dollar-promise of investment in Toronto’s transit systems.
In comparison to the T35AO8 subway cars that the TTC demoed last year (and which Torontoist reviewed), these cars feel rather quaint. Not bad, but they do not have the supersonic laser-riffic future-feel that the subway prototypes did. Those subway cars seemed to be designed with specific needs such as wheelchair access in mind, whereas these light rail vehicles seem horribly generic—some seats, some handrails, and no obvious improvements over the existing streetcars beyond removing the need to walk up stairs. Torontoist is sure they will be a pleasant enough ride, but if we’re spending a few billion smackers on these, get it right the first time, eh?
Outside, they had set up many horribly educational informational placards, free “Transit City” buttons (now available for resale through Torontoist at the bargain price of fifty dollars apiece) and gave everyone the opportunity to voice their own concerns about public transit, from “not enough seats” to “don’t like the colour.” If you missed this public seminar and desperately feel the need to voice your opinion about which seat cushions the TTC should use in its light rail trains, you can voice your opinion online at MyNewStreetcar.ca.
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Comments

  • Amanda Buckiewicz

    I, for one, don’t have much of a problem with the current streetcars, so I like these. They’re nice, they’re simple, and they don’t try and be flizz-ashy, er, flashy.
    I’ll give you a nickel for one of those buttons.

  • guest

    I don’t believe these are the TTC’s preferred vehicle–they just happen to be the one that Bombardier has a demo model available of. Or so I was told.

  • Chester Pape

    Milwaukee colours? Sure looks like the HSR trolley bus colours of my yute.

  • guest

    This is an actual Minneapolis light rail vehicle, in their colors.
    I do hope these are not the “preferred” choice, since Bombardier is not the only company out there when it comes to light rail. The TTC is in bed with them on the subway, and it is nice to support a Canadian firm, but let’s see some Siemens, Alstom, Breda, CAF and Kinkisharyo models for comparison.
    You want Euro-funky? Try this:
    http://tinyurl.com/23r5mf
    or
    http://tinyurl.com/2yrh6l

  • guest

    This is quite funny how bombardier is NOT interested in Canada. So they show their offer in Toronto in colours of an american city???
    The same was with their ‘jet-train’ – it had an american flag while on ‘show’ in Canada…
    Or maybe Canada just is incorporated into the USofA???

  • rek

    This this is fuck ugly. I definitely don’t want to lose the iconic value of the current streetcar to this pill-shaped piece of garbage.
    And I thought it was supposed to be accessible (like the destination says). This looks like it’s 4 feet off the ground — they couldn’t build a platform around it?

  • guest

    It’s 4 ft off the ground because it’s sitting on a tractor-trailer, silly. It didn’t exactly roll into the square off the Dundas streetcar tracks.
    For a photo of this train in action, see here:
    http://tinyurl.com/36znrt
    It’s quite low.

  • guest

    I don’t see the capacity on those cars that we have on our current models. I’m sure you could fit four pairs of seats in the amount of space those two pairs of back-to-back seats take up (including the leg room).
    If we want to carry lots of people, make sure they can all fit on there without the car’s furniture getting in the way. Remember that most people don’t get to sit on their morning commute.

  • guest

    Excellent point regarding seating — Minneapolis has much, much lower ridership than a typical TTC route. TTC streetcars need to be designed for crush capacity, not leisurely long-distance commuting on lightly-travelled routes. Delete the seats.

  • guest

    I was in the vehicle this evening at Dundas Square and I found the aisle very narrow. I had to ask a man with a baby in a stroller to please move so I could move to the front of the car.
    Another man–rather portly–filled the aisle and he had to move into an alcove (the bicycle rack area) to let me pass.
    Were that not enough, there was amplified music being performed and that made it very difficult to understand a Transit employee’s explanations.

  • guest

    Those bastards! I went to the consultation at Scarborough Centre in search of buttons and there were none there. A whole wasted bus ticket just for that. =(

  • dowlingm

    They are a bit boxy, like Calgary’s LRT. Unfortunately Alstom aren’t bidding their Citadis which I think is a gorgeous looking car which is in service in Dublin, Paris and Melbourne.
    As for who makes it – I think whoever offers to build the cars *in the 416* should get dibs. Thunder Bay is doing just fine building the sole tender subway cars.

  • dowlingm
  • rek

    [7]: I know they’re low, but putting it up on a flatbed is misleading. They could have thrown a simple platform around it to demonstrate what it would be like at ground level.
    It looks really cramped inside too.

  • joeclark

    Don’t forget that these things are gonna be air-conditioned, unlike all but one of the existing streetcars (car 4041). Presumably more than 2/3 of them will have heat in the winter, a problem the tough old engineer guys at the TTC refuse to solve, as apparently it is much too fey and girly to expect not to freeze to death half the frigging year.

  • Gloria

    That car looks incredibly narrow. I’ve always preferred Toronto’s subway cars over, say, Montreal’s, for that reason; I like the wider aisles.

  • David Topping

    Ew…

  • guest

    Remember, this will not be what the final design looks like, it is just being shown off because Bombardier happened to have it handy. There may be more mockups from other companies at the Exhibition.
    Also, they will never be built in the 416. There are no plants capable of doing so, and nobody is going to build one just for one contract. Even if it’s Bombardier does not mean it will be built in Canada. The streetcar that was shown off was built in Mexico.

  • sherryg

    It does seem really narrow. The LR in San Jose is more like a train than a subway, with seats along the side as well as some front/back ones. It also has spots to stand your bike up – does this model have that?

  • rek

    I’ve never understood the no heat problem: It’s winter; I’m dressed appropriately, why aren’t you?

  • andrew

    Wait, there’s no heat in streetcars in the winter? Are you sure? I don’t ever recall freezing in one, and I take either the 505 or the 501 twice a day. Of course, sharing 25 minutes or so of King Street with nigh on a hundred people squeezed into one streetcar probably removes much of the frostbite risk.

  • joeclark

    T-Rex, I don’t dress for outside when I’m inside. And I’m not going to start doing that when I’m paying up to $2.75 a ride.
    Andrew, I have a full list of vehicle numbers without heat, nearly all of which I have reported, sometimes more than once, over the last four years of unheated streetcars. The problem plagues ALRVs (the articulated ones) much more than CLRVs. Only in a town with such entrenched mediocrity would we run unheated transit vehicles in the dead of winter.

  • andrew

    Joe,
    Can I just ask, when you wait for the streetcar, are you dressed appropriately for winter? Like, jacket, hat, stuff like that? If so, and you get on the streetcar, why do you take it off so you can be dressed for “inside”?
    I hate the cold. Loathe it. Despise it. If I knew where it lived, I’d call the cops on it and have it arrested. But I cannot recall ever being uncomfortably cold on a streetcar. Usually, my experience is exactly the opposite – the driver jacks up the heat and as soon as I get on the darn thing I’m shedding my hat, my gloves, my jacket, my scarf, and desperately trying to defog my glasses.

  • rek

    Joe – Ditto on Andrew’s question. Unless streetcars are in fact refrigeration units in disguise, dressing appropriately for the weather outside means you’ll be equipped for the minimal temperature onboard.

  • joeclark

    If you’re so committed to defending unheated streetcars, I suspect you’ll have a bright future at the TTC. Do you feel the same way about un-air-conditioned streetcars in 33° weather on the eastbound afternoon rush-hour run, particularly when seated in the terrarium at the very back?
    It’s great if you’ve never been on an unheated streetcar. The odds are, after all, in your favour, even more so with CLRVs. Since you asked, here’s what happens:

    • I get on at midnight or 0100 hours after waiting in the cold.
    • If it’s an ALRV, which it usually is, there’s a 1/3 chance that either or both halves will be unheated. (I check both and I touch the radiators to make sure.)
    • No matter what I’m wearing, I am stuck sitting on cold metal for 20 minutes to half an hour. And I’ve paid for the privilege.
    • If the driver seems remotely reasonable – some of the overnight drivers are not – then I mention there’s no heat and ask them to write it up when they bring the car in. Drivers have an independent heat source, which sometimes doesn’t work either. They cannot turn the heat on or off in a streetcar; it has to be activated or deactivated at the garage.
    • I note the date, time, and car number in my phone (and run number if I can spot it). I collect them and report them later.

    It’s a symptom of Toronto’s active acceptance of mediocrity, not to mention its climate denial, that anyone here is even defending this.
    A streetcar with a factory-installed heating system that doesn’t work is broken and shouldn’t be on the road.

  • rek

    Joe – Calm down. Defending unheated streetcars? Rah rah rah, heat makes you weak! That sort of thing? Nobody here’s saying anything remotely like it, so tone down the rhetoric. And neither Andrew or myself said anything about summertime a/c.
    I’ve probably been on dozens, even hundreds of unheated street cars. I never made note of it though because if it’s cold enough outside to be a problem I leave my home dressed for it.