D
Duck
Guest
If Toronto is convinced that "Bombardier won't make new trains for the rt, so we have to replace it" (which I don't buy - anyone will build anything, for the right price... Toronto's new streetcars are essentially a totally customized mishmash of existing vehicle components, with lots of new ones, like the car ends)... another option would be to take the same Flexity Freedom trains that will run on the Eglinton Crosstown/Waterloo's ion, remove the pantograph, and build each train with a bolt-on current collector so it can use the existing 3rd and 4th rail power pickup. If you want to keep the trains as identical as possible, rebuild the racks just in each station by removing them and building them up ~half a metre with a lead in/lead out at the entrance/exit to each station. Just rails with a steel frame under them, so the lower floors of the LRV's line up with the existing platform. You can even leave the reaction rail down the centre. So simple.
This would cost a fraction of all of the other options being pursued!
I'd also recommend they paint them in the exact same colour scheme as the existing rt vehicles, though.
This would cost a fraction of all of the other options being pursued!
I'd also recommend they paint them in the exact same colour scheme as the existing rt vehicles, though.