http://www.dailytech.com/Toronto+Places+Largest+Ever+Light+Rail+Order+with+Bombardier/article15572.htm

Bombardier is well-known worldwide as a manufacturer of aircraft, snowmobiles, and personal watercraft. The company has annual sales of almost $20 billion USD, and is well diversified into multiple transportation markets. One of these markets is light rail vehicles, commonly known as streetcars.

Many European cities have highly developed light rail/streetcar lines that both complement and supplement subway lines. New subway lines are extremely expensive and can cost over $1 billion per kilometer to build. They also require high urban densities and heavy passenger volumes to be effective.

Light rail lines are much cheaper to build and operate. They can carry higher volumes than buses, while creating virtually no pollution due to their electric propulsion. Light rail lines are usually built on their own right-of-way on street level, but can also be built underground in dense neighborhoods. These underground lines can be converted to subway lines once population densities increase.

That is the current plan for the City of Toronto. The Toronto Transit Commission has just ordered 204 streetcars from Bombardier in the largest single order for light rail vehicles in the world. The contract is valued at $851 million CAD ($735 million USD, €523 Million).

"The contract represents the largest single order ever for light rail vehicles worldwide and solidifies Bombardier's position as the world's leading provider of light rail technology," the company said in a statement.

Canada's largest city plans to replace its aging streetcar fleet with these next generation, low-floor vehicles. The new streetcars will provide improved reliability and lower operating costs for the TTC. The wide range of features for the new streetcars include: a step-less interior allowing easy access at street level, car capacity for more than 240 passengers, increased heating and air conditioning capacity, improved customer comfort, enhanced accessibility, safety and other interior features, locations for bicycles, wheelchairs and strollers, more efficient passenger boarding and exiting, improved passenger communications features, and a regenerative braking system that feeds power back into the TTC's network.

An additional 400 vehicles could also be ordered at a later date as Toronto expands its streetcar network by 120 kilometers (75 miles) of new double-track lines, said Bombardier.

In March 2007, the TTC unveiled a bold $6 billion CAD plan to build seven dedicated streetcar right-of-way routes in an interconnected network intended to incorporate the more distant reaches of the city into its mass transit system. Many of those areas are served by overcrowded buses on congested streets, leading to delays for passengers. This "Transit City" program is contingent on funding from the Province of Ontario and the Canadian Federal government, which has still not been confirmed.

The first prototype streetcars modified to Toronto's specifications will be delivered in 2011. Production vehicles will be delivered over the following seven years, from 2012 to 2018.

More than 450 of these FLEXITY low-floor streetcars are currently in service in Linz and Innsbruck (Austria), Lodz (Poland), Eskisehir (Turkey), Geneva (Switzerland), Brussels (Belgium), Marseille (France), as well as in Valencia and Alicante (Spain). FLEXITY low-floor vehicles will soon enter service in Augsburg and Krefeld (Germany), and in Palermo (Italy).

That post reads like it came straight from the mayor's desk. Can these trains carry garbage, by any chance?

They have no business spending this kind of money if they have to rob other budgets to fill it and then can't negotiate with the outside worker unions.

Great news for Bombardier. Congrats.

Now if only the city of Ottawa, the supposed capital city of Canada, would get off it's BUTT and get it's Light Rail plan going. Ottawa has built dedicated bus transitways running east west (and some N-S too) that were designed in a way that they could eventually be converted to light rail. But in Ottawa, the section of the east west main transit path that runs through the downtown, is still buses on normal downtown streets (with lights and cross streets). They claim they will reach max capacity with buses in some few years time. So there is a supposed "plan" to tunnel under the downtown part of Ottawa and convert to light rail. It's only a few kilometers to tunnel under the downtown part of Ottawa. But Ottawa's got "political issues" - mostly municipal - and it seems as though they're dragging their butts on the project. Mind you - this WILL be a very expensive project - granted. But Ottawa definitely could benefit from light rail on the east west line - Kanata to Orleans. We've got the freaking Gov't of Canada here - all the federal public service workers. Then we've got Gatineau / Hull Quebec across the Ottawa river - and everyone who goes back and forth to work over bridges. Man, the over riding comment from the people in Ottawa seems to be "get on with the project". Side note: Winter is challenging here, and to make things even worse, we had a stupid transit strike - NO TRANSIT at all - for two months, from around early December 2008 to February 2009 - it was a disaster. Shameful. This is the supposed "Capital of Canada".

http://www.bombardier.com/files/en/supporting_docs/image_and_media/products/BT-PR-20090630-TTC_Street_Car-HR.jpg

Nice design.

Ottawa needs to "Get on with it" - re: Light Rail.

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Now if only the city of Ottawa, the supposed capital city of Canada, would get off it's BUTT and get it's Light Rail plan going. Ottawa has built dedicated bus transitways running east west (and some N-S too) that were designed in a way that they could eventually be converted to light rail. But in Ottawa, the section of the east west main transit path that runs through the downtown, is still buses on normal downtown streets (with lights and cross streets). They claim they will reach max capacity with buses in some few years time. So there is a supposed "plan" to tunnel under the downtown part of Ottawa and convert to light rail. It's only a few kilometers to tunnel under the downtown part of Ottawa. But Ottawa's got "political issues" - mostly municipal - and it seems as though they're dragging their butts on the project. Mind you - this WILL be a very expensive project - granted. But Ottawa definitely could benefit from light rail on the east west line - Kanata to Orleans. We've got the freaking Gov't of Canada here - all the federal public service workers. Then we've got Gatineau / Hull Quebec across the Ottawa river - and everyone who goes back and forth to work over bridges. Man, the over riding comment from the people in Ottawa seems to be "get on with the project". Side note: Winter is challenging here, and to make things even worse, we had a stupid transit strike - NO TRANSIT at all - for two months, from around early December 2008 to February 2009 - it was a disaster. Shameful. This is the supposed "Capital of Canada". +1! I was raised on the South Shore of Montreal and at times I consider the Gatineau - Ottawa commute more of a pain than Montreal area especially when you consider Ottawa is a baby town compared to Montreal!

Two thumbs-up for Toronto, at least there is one city in Canada that knows how to get their mass travelling in and efficient way. As far as I am concerned, buses taking over train and electric transport was moving back in time NOT improvement, look at the mess most large cities are in and put the tax payers in with their stupid busses systems!

http://www.bombardier.com/files/en/s...eet_Car-HR.jpg

Nice design. Looks spiffy :cool:

Maybe Toronto can give Ottawa its hand-me-downs!

Maybe Toronto can give Ottawa its hand-me-downs! Maybe Toronto would deserve to be Canada's National Capital more than Ottawa does ;)

Sure, they could turn Maple Leaf Gardens into the new Parliament! lol

I do find the transit system in Toronto very easy to use, and quite efficient. Ottawa... let's just say they have a way to go.

Very happy to see this contract go to Bombardier.

Streetcar tracks are dangerous for motorcyclists and bicyclists.
Unlike the case of a bus route, one minor traffic accident or stalled vehicle shuts down a streetcar line
For those of you hyping "clean electric power", please don't come back here whining about governments keeping Nanticoke open, and building more coal or nuclear powewrplants in your area

Streetcar tracks are dangerous for motorcyclists and bicyclists.
Unlike the case of a bus route, one minor traffic accident or stalled vehicle shuts down a streetcar line
Believe busses have their issues too they a pest to all drivers, car motorcyclists, bicyclists and even pedestrians! Having a good electric tracks off road is the best alternative as far as I am concerned!

Having a good electric tracks off road is the best alternative as far as I am concerned!
That's not streetcars; that's LRT (Light Rail Transit). Streetcars do not get power from the surface rails; they get it from an overhead wire, and the rails merely provide a ground return path. Almost all of Toronto's streetcar routes are on streets, requiring rails on streets, and passengers boarding/exiting block a second lane of the street at bus stops. Steetcars are equivalent to extremely dumbed-down buses.