A friend of mine went to Toronto Canada this past weekend for Streetcar riding. He informs me that the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) has 80 new Bombardier Streetcars in operation. The order for these new cars was placed in the year 2009, and Toronto now has 80 of them. The slow down took place because several parts to the Bombardier Streetcar were made in Mexico. Unfortunately, you have to have inspectors down at the Mexico Plant to check the Stats on these parts and obviously they did not do a good job and when the first parts arrived at Bombardier in Canada, they did not fit. This caused a great slow down in the production of these cars. Added 7/29/18: TTC is still having problems with the 80 new Bombardier Streetcars. Yes, they are running them right now, but the poor workmanship on these will finally be resolved. With careful inspection of the Bombardier cars, TTC noticed that welds are still "poorly" done. So, a deal has come up that Bombardier will take back 4 of there streetcars at a time and work on fixing the problem. This means that most likely the complete compliment of over the 1.2 billion dollars worth of these new streetcars will not be completed until some time in the early 2020's. The reason why they are going back was that Bombardier promised these new cars would last at least 25 to 30 years. TTC is afraid that the workmanship on these "new" cars would last only 10 to 15 years. Not a good return on one's investment. So back they go to Bombardier.
The Spadina Ave and the Harbour Front Car Lines are now 100% 5 unit Articulated Streetcars and the public "loves" them. This also means that the 5 Unit Bombardier Streetcars on the Spadina Ave and Harbour Front Car Lines are using there Pantographs exclusively, no more trolley poles. So if you want to see a 5 unit Bombardier Streetcar operating with a Trolley Pole rather than the usual Pantograph, Get to Toronto now.
And if you want to see the Older Canadien Single and Articulating Units Streetcars in operation, get to Toronto right now, as more Bombardier Streetcars come on line, the older streetcars are heading to the scrap heap or to museums.
Using Pantographs in Toronto will eliminate electric switches on the over head and will reduce cost by eliminating overhead wire frogs for trolley poles. The Canadien Light Rail Single Unit Streetcars and Articulating Streetcars which still use trolley poles are on there last days in Toronto, so get there now and take a picture of a piece of history. I guess this means if they want to run the 2 remaining PCC Streetcars or the Peter Witt Heritage Unit, they will need to equip those cars with Pantographs. Progress marches on!
Another problem happened when my friend went to Toronto, both the Carlton and Dundas Streetcar Lines were out of commission because of track work. Toronto Loves there Streetcars, Go Transit and Subways. You have to have excellent maintenance, to keep these transportation systems running and they do. Toronto is one big beautiful city with fabulous restaurants, the CN Needle, Churches, Museums, and a diversified Cultural Base.
Sincerely yours railbear601
