[Monarch Butterfly]

That's the whole point of my comment. There should always be "first" for streetcars. This isn't complicated. Any streetcar making a turn, travelling in any direction, should always be "first" ahead of any other signal phases for any traffic movements in any direction. This is not what happens now.

The other problem is the obsolete single-point track switches that the TTC is FORCED to be used because of their funding shortfall. In Europe, they get enough funding to pay for double-point track switches and electronic controls to switch them or hold them properly. Currently, streetcar operators have to stop at each and every switch before rolling through the intersection SLOWLY.

When the Toronto Transportation Commission was created in 1921, they took over the former tracks of the Toronto Civic Railway and the Toronto Railway Company. To handle the then new larger Peter Witt streetcars and trailers, they had to rebuilt the tracks for them (IE. wider devil strips, the space between two sets of parallel streetcar tracks and heavy tracks). The Flexity streetcars are larger than the old Peter Witt, PCC, and CLRV streetcars, so the tracks and especially switches should be rebuilt properly to handle them.

(Note the Toronto Civic Railway and Toronto Railway Company having the word "railway" in them. Before 1990, streetcars were considered street "railways". Being "railways", they had priority over the automobile, just like regular railways. Today, they are considered singular "vehicles", ignoring the number of passengers that they carry.)

 

[smallspy]

I remember those rumours.

Interestingly, this paper appears to indicate that power draw beyond acceptable limits for trolley poles, even adjusted ones, was expected for Flexity and this drove the decision to go with pantograph… but because the paper is wiring focused it does not speak to how the TTC mitigated the issue such that Flexities did indeed run with trolley pole power, and for a long time.

https://transittoronto.ca/archives/reports/ttc-conversion-to-pantograph-experience-apta-2016.pdf

They ended up using the same larger shoes of the ALRVs but in a larger holder in order to try and minimize the heat gain of drawing more current.

And while it works okay, the shoes do not last as long as they did on the CLRVs or ALRVs.

Dan

 

[JSF-1]

New video up, this one on the Toronto Suburban Railway which operated a small local streetcar network in the Town of West Toronto as well as interurbans to Weston, Woodbridge, and Guelph.

 

[Sauga89]

The 501 streetcar will be replaced by buses from August 6 to August 13 due to Ontario line construction. They are working on the Lakeshore East rail bridge over Queen St East.

 

[nfitz]

The 501 streetcar will be replaced by buses from August 6 to August 13 due to Ontario line construction. They are working on the Lakeshore East rail bridge over Queen St East.

My guess is that Metrolinx isn't being clear here, and the 501 won't be replaced, but instead will be detouring Broadview/Gerrard/Coxwell with shuttle buses only covering a portion of Queen East from about River to Kingston.