ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (07/04/84)
> Toronto, Canada: Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). Population, 2.2 million. > Heavy rail, 4 foot 10 7/8 inch gauge, 34.1 miles in two lines, 59 stations, > 5.2 miles in tunnel. TTC also operates a light rail system. Construction > is under way on a 4.3 mile Scarborough Rapid Transit light rail line. > About 204 million riders a year. The writer appears to be distinguishing between "tunnel" meaning tube (bored) tunnel, and "subway" meaning cut-and-cover construction. Most of the TTC subway that isn't in "tunnel" IS in "subway"; about 8 or 9 miles are on the surface. The "light rail" or streetcar network is almost entirely located on the streets, sharing space with cars, and is the last such system in the continent (though some cities have small fractions of street trackage). There are 8 routes (most of the time) totalling about 50 miles, plus extra trackage on other streets used for diversions. The gauge is 4 foot 10 7/8 inches, same as the subway. It was made nonstandard to ensure that it would never be used for steam trains; then the subway was made the same so that parts of subway car bogies (trucks) could be maintained in streetcar shops. The fleet is a mix of PCCs (which are being retired) and CLRVs made by UTDC. Both use trolley poles rather than pantographs. This system is much more convenient where the routes intersect with trolleybuses! Why ever did San Francisco get pantographs? Was it the only way the cars they got came? The Scarborough system will use "intermediate capacity" articulated cars (or coupled pairs, perhaps), larger than streetcars, running on standard gauge track on a disused railway right-of-way. There was politics here. Toronto area readers may be interested to know that they can preview the new cars by going to Kennedy subway station any Saturday or Sunday from July 14* to the end of August -- I think the hours are 10 am to 4 pm. The cars will make a short out-and-back trip (no getting off). The route is scheduled to open sometime next year. *I'm not quite positive of this date, but I am almost positive. The complete TTC system (which includes about 120 bus and trolleybus routes as well as the subway and streetcars) has the best accident safety record of all transit systems in large (>1million) cities on the continent. A body called something like American Transit Assn. gives an annual award for this, and the TTC has won it for something like 12 of the last 15 years. The TTC has flat fares with free transfers over the entire system including subways. Tokens provide mechanical entrance to subway stations for full-fare passengers; a monthly unlimited travel pass is available and costs 53*fare. Experiments are now in progress with magnetic-stripe-reading gates; if these are successful pass users will gain mechanical entrances, but tokens will be replaced (boo!!) by striped, single-use cardboard tickets (as in Montreal). Mark Brader, TTC fan