New TTC Chair Adam Giambrone has commented per the following report:
Canadian Press - Dec 28 2006 - TTC looking at new approach
that the TTC may revisit the current plan to refurbish at least half of the current CLRV fleet. (The CLRVs are the shorter streetcars.) Per the rather short article:
Last summer, the plant was the lone bidder on a $110-million contract to refurbish 96 older streetcars and then-TTC chairman Howard Moscoe predicted the contract would be awarded by the fall.
However, new TTC chairman Adam Giambrone said yesterday the commission is now looking at replacing the entire 195-streetcar fleet.
Refurbishing the fleet would carry an estimated cost of $245 million compared to more than double that to replace it, at the going rate of $3 million per car.
Well who knows what will happen. My crystal ball is telling me that the $3 million / car is not realistic. While there are small vehicles available on the market, they won't run on the TTC existing track/overhead power network.
The Skoda-Inekon in use in Portland, Oregon (see this link) have a price tag of about $3 million (CAD). However, these would need major redesign to run here:
Turning radius
The Skoda cars have a minumum turning radius of 60 ft - whereas the existing network in Toronto requires vehicles to handle a 36' radius turn.
Gauge
The Portland cars run on standard gauge (4' 8 1/2" in North America) - where TTC track is 4' 10 7/8"
Power supply
The Portland cars use 750 Vdc power - whereas the power supply in Toronto is 600 Vdc.
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I agree that the $3 million figure is not realistic, The larger question is whether this type of expenditure makes sense.
Most tram/streetcar 'reinventions' in North America are heritage lines operated for tourists. None have much in the way of ridership. I believe Portland has about 6,000 riders on a weekday. Montreal has bus routes that get that many riders in 40 minutes.
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