MyTTC Street Car Page

Welcome to the MyTTC Streetcar Home Page

More detail information on TTC Fleet and the history of Streetcars in detail can be found at Transit Toronto, wikipedia, TTC, wapedia.mobi, Steve Munro, wiki

I am in the process of creating a History Time line surround both the City of Toronto related to Transit and Transit itself starting in 1840. From that time to present day, what exist then and what we see today are totally different, but it show how much visionary people were back then compared today surrounding transit. My History section is broken down to Streetcars and Subways at this time that are still under construction. The information below is only a snap shot of what is on the history page that is very detail. Depending on time, I may add other sections to that page. I am always looking for more information to make this time line correct as possible.

TTC has a unique track gauge system of 4 ft 10 7/8 in (1,495 mm) compare to the standard rail track gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ½ in) and there many stories as how this happen.

There were and are today transit systems in North America who have other track gauge for their streetcar system that are not standard gauge or TTC gauge.

It should be noted that TTC has never built a streetcar in its history like its processors did. TTC was great at rebuilding them to the point they were better than the original manufacturer of them. This also applies to buses and Subway. TTC has built an number of maintenance equipment car since it started in 1920.

Back in the 1950's, TTC was planning on scaping the streetcar system as they were building new subway lines.

Most of the transit systems in North America were scraping their streetcars system at the same time that turn out to one of the greatest mistake to do today and has come back to haunt them. We are seeing new LRT lines been built in cities that once had streetcars and many others are planning for them.

As the abandonment of streetcars took place with the movement to buses, both the riders and the transit system saw a decrease in Ridership to the point that some systems saw a 50% reduction compare to the 30% increase of Ridership on new LRT lines that replace buses today.

Back in the 1950's-1960's, it was common to see 2 streetcar Mu (couple together) on Queen St and on the Bloor-Danforth line. It was said that the Queen St 501 line saw over 100,000 daily with the Bloor-Danforth seeing over 60,000.

At one point, TTC had the largest fleet of PCC with 765 in North America. 540 were purchased new and the remainder were bought 2nd hand from other systems who were scraping their system and selling off their cars. TTC had to regauge the 2nd hand cars to fit on TTC system. A large number of these 2nd handed cars only had a few years of wear a tear on them when they arrived in Toronto.

If it was not for a small group of transit advocates call "Street Cars For Toronto Committee" in the 1972, the existing system would not exist today. This group convinced TTC that there was a need for them.

In 1974, TTC abandoned the Roger Rd line that was to become the last streetcar line to be removed from TTC system. This left TTC with 11 route operating on 75 kilometers (47 mi) system.

With the saving of the existing system, it meant that something had to be done to replace the existing PCC fleet (President's Conference Car) and that was ordering a new fleet.

In the 1970's, TTC issue an RFP (request for proposal) for a new fleet of streetcars. This RFP went to Hawker Siddeley Canada in 1972 to design the new Streetcar. TTC place an order with OTDC (Ontario Transit Development Corporation) the would become Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC) for 200 cars known as Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) in August 1973.

The design was purchased by the Swiss company Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG), to build the first 10 cars before the remaining order been built by Hawker Siddeley's CC&F factory in Thunder Bay. That order was reduce to 6 allowing the remaining 4 to be converted to an articulated design known as the Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV).

Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) 4006 to 4009 were never built.

In 1977, the first 6 prototype cars were sent to Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC) Millhaven plant, outside of Kingston, Ontario for testing. They came with pantograph in place of poles and were replace with poles after testing as TTC was not sure the existing overhead system could handle the pantograph.

The final order of 196 cars were received in 1981.

The CLRV as well ALRV were design more for Urban use than city use to the point they weight more than the PCC and are very rough on the existing trackage to the point that the system had to be rebuilt sooner than later.

TTC try their hand at building an LRT line in the 1980's with the building of 604 Harbourfront line on the Queens Quay running from a underground loop at Union Station, down Bay St tunnel and surface onto Queens Quay before heading west to Bathurst St. The new ROW (Right of Way) open for service on June 22, 1990. In 2000, the line was converted route 509 servicing the Exhibition and the Spadina Route 510. By doing so, it became a streetcar system.

2011 will see the Queens Quay been rebuilt that will allow TTC to rebuilt the ROW to deal with construction issue related to it and help to transform it to an LRT line. Also, platforms will be relocated as well widen. More information on rebuilding the Queens Quay can be found on Waterfront Toronto site.

Between 1987 and 1988, TTC took delivery of 52 ALRV after an order was place for them in 1984. Only 10 cars were built in Thunder Bay with the other 42 being built in Kingston due to lack of work there. Car 4900, a demo car was destroyed at the Kingston Plant during testing.

Back in the 1990's, both the City of Toronto and TTC knew that the replacement cars for the current fleet had to be low floor to meet the Accessibility requirement, but the decision to place an order was always put off due to cost until 2006. In 2006, TTC issued an non bid contract to Bombardier for 204 30m Low Floor streetcar with delivery to start in 2011.

This non bid contract cause all kinds of issues to the point an official tender was issue with only 2 company's submitting bids out of the 7 who took tender package out.

Bombardier with their Flexity Outlook model were low bidder and awarded a contract of $1.2 Billion on April 24, 2009 by TTC to supply the 204 cars.

The first 3 prototype are to arrived late 2011 for testing with the first batch of 25 cars arriving in 2013. They will have both poles and pantograph to allow testing on the system since St Clair was rebuilt for pantograph in the first place. The order is to be completed by 2018.

The new fleet will be single end cars using poles until TTC upgrade the overhead system to pantograph.

In the past, TTC, received 1/3rd funding from the Province and Federal Government each to cover TTC capital cost, but this time the Federal government refused to do this. This meant that the City would have to pickup the 2/3rd cost of the new LRT and that was approved by council on June 26, 2009 for $834 million. This extra $417 million being pickup by the City meant that TTC had to deferred a number of projects to cover this extra cost.

On March 16, 2007, Mayor David Miller unveil plans for Transit City that would see the building of 7 new routes on 120 km (74.6 mi) at a cost of . You can read what I wrote on Transit City here.

On June 14, 2010, Metrolinx sign a contract with Bombardier in Thunder Bay to supply 186 Flexity Outlook for the Transit City plan at a cost of $770 million. Delivery to start in 2013 to meet the opening of the Sheppard Ave LRT line that will be standard gauge. They will be duel end cars using pantograph.

TTC face a new problem when it decided to build a ROW on St Clair back in 2003. The existing tracks had to be rebuilt and for an extra $6 million, TTC could build this ROW to improve the quality of service and offer riders a faster ride. It also replace the existing ROW that was removed back in 1930's. It was not completed until 2010 and was over budget including seeing legal action. It does offer better service both to TTC as well the riders today. More detail and history on the St Clair project including photos can be found here.

At Present time, TTC maintain 11 streetcar routes and 85km of double track.

On December 1st, 2010, newly elected Mayor Rob Ford declares Transit City is dead and he will be building subways in their place.

March 31, 2011, the Provincial Government said they would fund the building of the Eglinton LRT underground 100% from Black Creek Dr to Kennedy Station as well upgrading the current SRT to LRT. Mayor Ford stated the Sheppard LRT would be converted to an underground subway from Don Mills to Scarborough Town Centre only as well extending it from Yonge St to Downsview as a P3 project.

The background image is of ALRV 4235 that is westbound on Queen St 501 Route, at Ossington Ave, April 15, 2011