{"id":45132,"date":"2013-07-24T14:47:52","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T18:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=45132"},"modified":"2013-07-24T14:54:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T18:54:34","slug":"lorinc-taking-new-streetcar-out-for-a-spin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/07\/24\/lorinc-taking-new-streetcar-out-for-a-spin\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Taking new streetcar out for a spin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Riding the TTC\u2019s new LRV on its maiden daylight voyage down Bathurst Street yesterday was a bit like taking a very showy sports car out for a spin. Heads turn, passersby point and stare, a few take pictures. Mid-morning commuters on the Bathurst streetcar platform seemed surprised, intrigued, and, yes, eager to board.<\/p>\n

Torontonians, alas, will have to wait for another year before the $6 million specially-made Bombardier vehicles roll out into active service on the existing streetcar network. But a smartly-timed mini-junket for journalists on Tuesday offered the city\u2019s digitally-stained wretches a chance to see these hotly debated vehicles up close and in motion.<\/p>\n

A few factoids: the entire order of 204 vehicles cost $1.2 billion, and will gradually replace the existing fleet of almost 250 streetcars. Each has seating for 70 riders, and total standing capacity for 181 more \u2014 compared to 46 and 86 in the current models. These 30-metre-long vehicles can travel up to 80 km\/hr, have specially equipped accessibility entrances with automatic ramps and external open buttons; interior racks for bikes and luggage, fold-down seats, face-to-face seating pairs, CCTVs and full air-conditioning. They will be equipped to take Presto swipe cards, but they\u2019ll also have two on-board vending machines capable of taking tokens, tickets, cash and plastics. Riders can get on any entrance.<\/p>\n

According to TTC officials, the first ones will go into service sometime next year \u2014 just in time for the election! \u2014 on the Spadina line, and they have been designed so they can navigate the tight turn radius in the Queen\u2019s Quay tunnel to Union Station.<\/p>\n

Between now and then, the TTC will continue building the Leslie Street LRV storage facility ($500 million), changing the overhead wiring to accommodate these higher-power vehicles, and adjusting curb cuts and platforms across the network. The total infrastructure cost is about $800 million.<\/p>\n

The phase-in will continue through to mid-2018 (another election), with Dundas, Bathurst and Harbourfront coming online in 2014; Queen and Lakeshore in 2015; King in 2016, St. Clair in 2017 and the remaining routes (Downtowner, Kingston Road and Carlton) in 2018.<\/p>\n

According to the TTC, streetcars carry 280,000 passengers a day, and logged 13 million kilometres with more than 87 million riders in 2011 (none of whose votes are important, by the way).<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s been debate about whether fewer, larger vehicles running less frequently represents a service deterioration, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross points out that the network, including the new vehicles, will reach capacity within a decade, at which point the TTC and City Council will have to order more of them.<\/p>\n

One can only hope that by that point (which will arrive years before the first subway rolls into Scarborough Town Centre), council\u2019s political right will have shed its knee-jerk views on LRTs and LRVs and state-of-the-art surface transit.<\/p>\n

(Hoping, but not optimistic.)<\/p>\n

photo by Sean Marshall<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Riding the TTC\u2019s new LRV on its maiden daylight voyage down Bathurst Street yesterday was a bit like taking a very showy sports car out for a spin. Heads turn, passersby point and stare, a few take pictures. Mid-morning commuters on the Bathurst streetcar platform seemed surprised, intrigued, and, yes, eager to board. Torontonians, alas,Continue reading “LORINC: Taking new streetcar out for a spin”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":45134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transit"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: Taking new streetcar out for a spin - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/07\/24\/lorinc-taking-new-streetcar-out-for-a-spin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Taking new streetcar out for a spin - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Riding the TTC\u2019s new LRV on its maiden daylight voyage down Bathurst Street yesterday was a bit like taking a very showy sports car out for a spin. 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