Toronto streetcar system rolling stock

By 1957, the TTC (later renamed the Toronto Transit Commission in 1954, which uses the same acronym) had more PCCs than any other city in North America.

After the opening of the Bloor–Danforth subway (today Line 2 Bloor–Danforth) in 1966, the TTC considered terminating all streetcar service in Toronto.

Thus, to replace the CLRVs and ALRVs, Bombardier adapted its low-floor Flexity Outlook model for the TTC to navigate the Toronto streetcar system's tight curves and single-point switches, characteristics set in 1921 to accommodate Peter Witt streetcars, as well as for the unique broad gauge.

[5] Six-motor trains lasted until 1933 when the A-class cars were retired due to a decline of ridership during the Great Depression.

All were scrapped in 1936, with the exception of car 2120, which the TTC converted into a snow scraper and used on the North Yonge Railways until 1948.

The only three survivors of the entire TCR fleet are from this class, and all three are preserved at the Halton County Radial Railway Museum in Milton, Ontario.

[10] The Peter Witt streetcars were the first new vehicles ordered by the Toronto Transportation Commission; however, they required a major change in the trackwork before they could run.

The Class N trailers had two narrow centre doors flanking the conductor's position, and were slow to load and unload.

[24] The next major retirement came in 1954 with the opening of the original subway, which is primarily along Yonge Street (today a part of Line 1 Yonge–University).

[25] The final major retirement, this time of the remaining small Peter Witt cars, came in 1965 following the opening of the University subway in 1963 (also a part of Line 1 Yonge–University).

The TTC's first purchase was in 1938, and by the end of the 1950s, they operated a larger fleet of PCCs than any other agency in the world with 744 cars in service.

(The TTC had only a maximum of 744 PCCs in service because PCC 4063 was scrapped after it derailed and crashed into a carhouse wall in 1947.

The all-electric PCCs from the Bloor route were moved elsewhere displacing the older air-electric cars, many of which were sold to a transit operator in Egypt.

[31] The following PCC streetcars made up the TTC fleet:[32][33] Purchased 1957 4600, 4611 and 4618 are at Halton County Radial Railway 4612 is at Edmonton Radial Railway Society[34] In the 1970s, the Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC), an Ontario Crown corporation developed the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) which would replace the PCC in Toronto.

The UTDC hoped to sell CLRVs, or variations of it, to other streetcar and light rail systems in North America.

The remaining 190 CLRVs (4010–4199, class L2) were built by Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited in Thunder Bay.

[36] In August 1982, the UTDC delivered an ALRV prototype, number 4900, which the TTC operated in revenue service for several months.

[38] After sitting in storage at the St. Clair Carhouse since early 1983, prototype 4900 was returned to the UTDC's Kingston facility in 1987 where, a year later, it was damaged in a test track collision.

In 2006, TTC staff explored ways to make the old fleet wheelchair-accessible, including constructing installing wheelchair lifts and attaching wheelchair-accessible trailers, but concluded that these options were impractical, and recommended replacing the old fleet with new low-floor streetcars.

On January 3, 2014, this resulted in a breakdown of 50 out of the 195 streetcars required for rush hour service; water vapour had frozen in the pneumatic air lines, preventing brakes and doors from functioning.

[44] Starting in 2015, the TTC rebuilt 30 CLRVs and 20 ALRVs to extend their service life because of delays in delivery of the new Flexity Outlook streetcars.

[45] The TTC had expected to use some CLRVs and ALRVs to supplement the Flexity Outlook streetcars until 2024 to address increased ridership.

[49] By 2007, as the CLRV/ALRV fleet was nearing the end of its service life and becoming less reliable, the TTC began looking for a manufacturer to build new streetcars.

In 2009, the TTC announced that it had chosen a customized version of the standard Flexity Outlook as the model to replace the old fleet.

[50] The TTC had required Bombardier to modify its Flexity Outlook design to handle the legacy system's trackwork, the standards for which mainly date back to the Peter Witt era of the 1920s.

Specifically, Toronto's new streetcar had to navigate single-point switches, a minimum curve radius of 11 metres (36 ft), and a maximum 8 percent grade.

Light rail vehicles typically require double-point switches, a 25-metre (82 ft) radius and a maximum 5 percent grade.

[51] Unlike the CLRV/ALRV, the new vehicles feature a low-floor design, a loading ramp for wheelchair access, air-conditioning (only one CLRV, car 4041, had air-conditioning units), a doubling of the passenger capacity, an interior bicycle rack that can hold two standard bicycles, a separated enclosed driver/operator cab walled off from the passenger area,[52] on-board automatic fare vending machines, and electronic destination signs at the front, side and rear of the vehicle (as opposed to roll signs).

Some work cars—such as dump cars, track plows and snow sweepers—were purchased from outside rail equipment manufacturers.

[61] Rail-based, snow-clearing cars were retired in the 1970s when City of Toronto Public Works department trucks took over that function.