TTC rolls out sexy new subway trains
With all the acrimony over Transit City, it’s easy to forget that the city, province and feds have all managed to play nice on at least one project: the purchase of new subway trains for the TTC. The new trains, due to start hitting the rails early next year, were unveiled this morning at Downsview station with all sorts of dignitaries, including David Miller, Adam Giambrone and Kathleen Wynne (who, reports indicate, managed to avoid getting into a shouting match over Presto cards). By all accounts, the trains sound pretty slick.
According to the Toronto Sun:
It’s the public debut for the trains bought in 2006 in a $710 million, sole-source deal with Bombardier.
More than 230 cars have been ordered, enough to make 39 trains, the TTC says.
The entire train is fully open, so passengers will be able to move through its whole length rather than being confined to one car.
The introduction of fully open trains is enough on its own to make us welcome them—even if the sole-source contract makes Rob Ford steam up a little. Once these trains get into service, we’ll no longer be confined to one car when the train stops between stations and some guy starts shouting obscenity-laced tirades about the aliens in his brain. Also, the ability to move between cars should allow each train to hold between eight to 10 per cent more people, so we might have a bit more breathing room—or, more likely, we’ll be treated to 10 per cent more BO before desperately surfacing for fresh air.
• New subway cars make public debut [Toronto Sun] • TTC unveils new Red Rocket [Toronto Sun] • New TTC subway cars to be revealed Thursday [Toronto Star]
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